On Jul 17, 4:48*pm, Mizter T wrote:
On Jul 17, 2:25*pm, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 12:49:00 on
Fri, 17 Jul 2009, Paul Scott remarked:

Isn't there a London Terminals *to Gatwick fare?

Only as a travelcard, I think; all the other fares are operator-specific.
Cheapest is the "FCC only".

We did this very recently - and the above is wrong. There's a "Not
Gatwick Express" fare - available on Southern and FCC - in effect it's
"Any Permitted *except* GatEx", so a 'specific operator not allowed'
rather than 'operator-specific' ticket.



Don't forget he is doing London Terminals to Gatwick Return, they don't do
inclusive travelcards that way round anyway...

But one could work the system a little and buy it via TOD (aka
Fasticket) collection. Probably not, admittedly, in time for a journey
this evening! But West Ruislip is a TOD collection point - see:http://www..nationalrail.co.uk/stati...inations/tods/



OK... So on the basis that there is supposed to be at least one
interavailable ticket, what is it, starting at the London end?

"Not GatEx" London Terminals to Gatwick, as explained above.

I've just realised the likely explanation for this - I reckon this odd
fare arrangement exists as a result of grandfather rights. As a trial
run for privatisation and competition, GatEx and NSE (or was it
Network South Central by then) were set up to compete against one
another. Prior to this, all Gatwick pax were directed towards GatEx -
I don't think there would have been a price advantage in catching a
slower (non-GatEx) train.

Nothing to do with privatisation, it was the rearrangement before that
when Inter-City was born and took over the non-stop Gatwick service
which had been introduced using the class 73s and rebuilt Mk 2
coaching sets with Hap driving coaches. Gatwick Express fares at a
premium came in in the mid 1980s.