I wanted to post here last week about the fact that I had been told I
could not buy a Zones 1-D one-day travelcard from my local National Rail
station, operated by Southeastern Railway, to ask if this refusal was
correct.

It resulted in me paying (in two separate chunks) more for my travel
from Crayford to Chesham than I would have done to do the same journey
in the opposite direction, for instance.

However, being a good Usenet citizen I did a Google Groups search and
found countless previous discussions of this topic. They all confirmed
that this was indeed the case, and offered various workarounds for the
situation. So I didn't bother posting.

I did, though, think that this was a ridiculous state of affairs, so I
contacted TfL to ask them why they didn't let National Rail sell these
tickets. They replied that it was nothing to do with them and I would
need to contact Southeastern.

I've just received a reply from Southeastern stating:

"I can confirm that we should have been able to sell you the
aforementioned travelcard, and I can assure you that I will bring this
matter to the attention of [...] the Station Manager at Crayford, i[n]
order that he can arrange the appropriate training to prevent a similar
incident occurring in the future."

So my question now is: what is going on here? Why do the history of
newsgroup discussions on this topic, the automatic ticket-selling
machines at Crayford and the staff member at Crayford (who did seem to
be trying to find the ticket in some sort of book of what he could sell)
all agree that this purchase isn't possible, but Southeastern customer
services insist it should be? Has this changed recently or something?

Any enlightenment welcomed!

Paul

So my question now is: what is going on here? Why do the history of
newsgroup discussions on this topic, the automatic ticket-selling
machines at Crayford and the staff member at Crayford (who did seem to
be trying to find the ticket in some sort of book of what he could sell)
all agree that this purchase isn't possible, but Southeastern customer
services insist it should be? Has this changed recently or something?

Any enlightenment welcomed!

Paul

It's not available from the automatic machines, but the ticket seller
is able to issue it as a One Day Travelcard, as long as they set the
origin station to Amersham.

"Matthew Dickinson" wrote in message
...


So my question now is: what is going on here? Why do the history of
newsgroup discussions on this topic, the automatic ticket-selling
machines at Crayford and the staff member at Crayford (who did seem to
be trying to find the ticket in some sort of book of what he could sell)
all agree that this purchase isn't possible, but Southeastern customer
services insist it should be? Has this changed recently or something?

Any enlightenment welcomed!

Paul

It's not available from the automatic machines, but the ticket seller
is able to issue it as a One Day Travelcard, as long as they set the
origin station to Amersham.

However, am I right in saying this only works because Crayford is within the
zonal area, ie you wouldn't be able to do the same from a station outside
the zones...

Paul S

On 5 Dec, 13:45, "Paul Scott" wrote:
"Matthew Dickinson" wrote in message

...







So my question now is: what is going on here? Why do the history of
newsgroup discussions on this topic, the automatic ticket-selling
machines at Crayford and the staff member at Crayford (who did seem to
be trying to find the ticket in some sort of book of what he could sell)
all agree that this purchase isn't possible, but Southeastern customer
services insist it should be? Has this changed recently or something?

Any enlightenment welcomed!

Paul

It's not available from the automatic machines, but the ticket seller
is able to issue it as a One Day Travelcard, as long as they set the
origin station to Amersham.

However, am I right in saying this only works because Crayford is within the
zonal area, ie you wouldn't be able to do the same from a station outside
the zones...


Outside of the zonal area a separate CDR would have to be purchased to
the boundary.

In article
,
(Matthew Dickinson) wrote:

On 5 Dec, 13:45, "Paul Scott" wrote:
"Matthew Dickinson" wrote in message

It's not available from the automatic machines, but the ticket
seller is able to issue it as a One Day Travelcard, as long as they

set the origin station to Amersham.

However, am I right in saying this only works because Crayford is
within the zonal area, ie you wouldn't be able to do the same from
a station outside the zones...

Outside of the zonal area a separate CDR would have to be purchased
to the boundary.

I think his point is that you _can_ buy a Day Travelcard from outside the
zones. That only has Zones 1-6 validity, though.

How would I get a ticket from Cambridge to Chesham, for example? The
National Rail Enquiries web site seems to think Chesham is Kirkham and
Wesham, with predictably ludicrous results. It refuses to offer any
Underground Zones other than 1 and 2, despite there being perfectly good
fares to them.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On 5 Dec, 14:35, (Colin Rosenstiel) wrote:
In article
,

(Matthew Dickinson) wrote:
On 5 Dec, 13:45, "Paul Scott" wrote:
"Matthew Dickinson" wrote in message
It's not available from the automatic machines, but the ticket
seller is able to issue it as a One Day Travelcard, as long as they
set the origin station to Amersham.

However, am I right in saying this only works because Crayford is
within the zonal area, ie you wouldn't be able to do the same from
a station outside the zones...

Outside of the zonal area a separate CDR would have to be purchased
to the boundary.

I think his point is that you _can_ buy a Day Travelcard from outside the
zones. That only has Zones 1-6 validity, though.

How would I get a ticket from Cambridge to Chesham, for example? The
National Rail Enquiries web site seems to think Chesham is Kirkham and
Wesham, with predictably ludicrous results. It refuses to offer any
Underground Zones other than 1 and 2, despite there being perfectly good
fares to them.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

You would buy a CDR from Cambridge to Boundary Zone 6, and a Day
Travelcard issued with Amersham as origin. Not available via any
website though.

"Matthew Dickinson" wrote in message
...
On 5 Dec, 14:35, (Colin Rosenstiel) wrote:
In article
,

(Matthew Dickinson) wrote:
On 5 Dec, 13:45, "Paul Scott" wrote:
"Matthew Dickinson" wrote in message
It's not available from the automatic machines, but the ticket
seller is able to issue it as a One Day Travelcard, as long as they
set the origin station to Amersham.

However, am I right in saying this only works because Crayford is
within the zonal area, ie you wouldn't be able to do the same from
a station outside the zones...

Outside of the zonal area a separate CDR would have to be purchased
to the boundary.

I think his point is that you _can_ buy a Day Travelcard from outside the
zones. That only has Zones 1-6 validity, though.

How would I get a ticket from Cambridge to Chesham, for example? The
National Rail Enquiries web site seems to think Chesham is Kirkham and
Wesham, with predictably ludicrous results. It refuses to offer any
Underground Zones other than 1 and 2, despite there being perfectly good
fares to them.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

You would buy a CDR from Cambridge to Boundary Zone 6, and a Day
Travelcard issued with Amersham as origin. Not available via any
website though.

Except, as discussed regularly, there are no tickets TO Boundary Zone 6,
only from BZ6. It may anyway be a better deal to buy a day travelcard from
Cambridge, and a separate BZ6 to Chesham CDR...

Paul

On Wed, 5 Dec 2007 05:27:51 -0800 (PST), Matthew Dickinson wrote:

It's not available from the automatic machines, but the ticket seller
is able to issue it as a One Day Travelcard, as long as they set the
origin station to Amersham.

Aha! Thanks. That makes some sort of sense, although it's a bit weird
that they can't just sell it as a standard sort of option. It's also
quite annoying that it's not available at the machines, but at least
I'll know what to suggest to the salesperson next time (if I ever have
to embark on the slow 2.5-to-3-hour journey again - it certainly made me
appreciate the speed of my trip on High Speed 1 the week before!).

Thanks again
Paul

On 5 Dec, 13:27, Matthew Dickinson
wrote:
It's not available from the automatic machines, but the ticket seller
is able to issue it as a One Day Travelcard, as long as they set the
origin station to Amersham.

Is a Zone D travelcard actually an 'all-zones' travelcard - i.e.
freedom to roam within zones A to D as well as in zones 1-6? Or a
return to BZ6 with freedom to road just within Z1-6?

Because I can see problems with this suggestion if it's the latter....

Chris wrote:
On 5 Dec, 13:27, Matthew Dickinson
wrote:
It's not available from the automatic machines, but the ticket seller
is able to issue it as a One Day Travelcard, as long as they set the
origin station to Amersham.

Is a Zone D travelcard actually an 'all-zones' travelcard - i.e.
freedom to roam within zones A to D as well as in zones 1-6? Or a
return to BZ6 with freedom to road just within Z1-6?

It's a kludge to the zonal system which, I'm led to believe, originated
because the relevant County Council(s) wouldn't contribute to the
Travelcard "pot" (whereas Essex County Council *do*, hence the Central
Line out to Epping being moved to Zone 6).

Unlike other "out-boundary" Travelcards, the Amersham/Chesham/Watford
(Met) ones *ARE* still valid when you get out (or back) to the far
reaches of the Met, and valid to wander round the North West frontier as
much as you like. That *ALSO* applies to such Travelcards when issued
from NR Ticket Offices, a matter published in "Newsrail Express" several
years ago.

HTH,

Barry