Thanks for your reply Peter...

Peter Lawrence wrote:
On 5 Jul 2006 08:23:45 -0700, "Mizter T" wrote:

(snip)

And if a passenger is coming from Luton on a ticket with the
destination 'London Terminals' can they go any further south on the
Thameslink route than Kings Cross Thameslink?

No. (See special notice at Farringdon about this.)

Doh! Not a great place for such a notice as once a passenger's got to
Farringdon it's a bit too late - they're already one stop further south
than they should be!


(4) 'London Thameslink' was mentioned in previous posts as a
destination - does this mean anything, or was it just a virtual
destination used for some reason solely during the Thameslink blockade?

London Thameslink is still used and means any TL station as far as
London Bridge/ Elephant. (And also I believe Waterloo/Charing Cross
via LB.) Some ticket machines only offer this and not the individual
stations which can be puzzling.

As I've since discovered (courtesy of consulting the NFM) 'London
Thameslink' tickets are only issued from stations on the north of the
route, and as you say are valid as far as London Bridge/E&C.

I'm surprised that a 'London Thameslink' ticket would also be valid to
Waterloo East or Charing Cross (via LB), I suppose I can see a certain
logic in it but nothing like that is mentioned in the NFM. It'd be
great of anyone could confirm/deny that for certain.


PS I once needed and got a ticket from Kings Cross TL to Farringdon.
It was cheaper than the Underground and railcard discount was applied.
Can't remember what it said though!

Interesting, I would've expected that the ticket for that journey would
be a U1 underground fare but it seems there are Thameslink only fares
as well.

The Trainline (unhelpfully) quotes both £1.50 and £2.40 for a KX
Thameslink - Farringdon single, but after querying The Trainline a bit
more it seems that the single fare for any Thameslink journey for the
central section from KX Thameslink through to Elephant & Castle/ London
Bridge is £1.50 single (£1 w/railcard) and £3.00 return (£1.50
w/railcard).

So, a Thameslink single is cheaper than the £3 tube cash single and
the same price as the Oyster single fare (£1.50), and even cheaper
with a railcard.

I bet you can't buy the Thameslink-only fare from the LU ticket office
at Farringdon though!


Ticket offices sometimes sell you a zonal ticket when there is a
cheaper non-Underground version available; worth checking for this.

Quite. The received wisdom appears to be that any Thameslink journey
that passes Farringdon requires a zonal ticket to U1, but this received
wisdom also appears to be wrong.

Whilst, as the NFM says, "some special rules apply" to Thameslink fares
for journeys in the central section, it's not simply a case that LU
fares apply there instead of National Rail fares - i.e. it's not that
special a special case!

I can quite understand how this received wisdom took hold though - it's
a simple and concise rule of thumb in a world of complex fare
structures! Nontheless it is mistaken.