On Sun, 13 Jun 2004 18:43:34 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

I was going to Chatham today, from Z3 West London, and thought the
cheapest fare might be to get a Travelcard and use that as far as
Bromley South (where all the Victoria-Chatham trains stop, so no
problems with 2-ticket rules) plus a Bromley South to Chatham CDR.

The latter was 7.20 when I looked online.

I explained this all to the chap at the ticket office, after he'd tried
to sell me a significantly more expensive dedicated day return.

"Oh, you want to do it like that, do you?" He asked, and looked
something up in a big book. The train was due so I paid up and ran.

...

I did something similar today. I had a weekend travelcard, and wanted
a BZ6 (or Bromley South) to Chatham return. A chap at East Croydon
told me this would be expensive, and I would be better off going to
Victoria and buying a ticket from Victoria to Chatham. I said that was
fair enough, but could I buy the ticket at Croydon to save queuing
again at Victoria. He told me he couldn't sell the ticket to Chatham,
as it was on "a different line"(!). I asked how much the BZ6 ticket
would be, he reluctantly looked at up, and said GBP5-summat (with Y-P
railcard). I got one of those, as I suspected any saving would hardly
compensate for (probably) missing the connection from Victoria while
buying another ticket there.

I didn't really understand what he was trying to sell me, and why he
claimed he couldn't sell a ticket valid from another station.

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK