Buying Boundary Zone tickets on-line

[TUC]

On other threads there have been some ticketing options suggested for journeys into London that include purchasing a ticket to Boundary Zone 6. The difficulty I'm having is finding what to search for on on-line ticket retailing sites to buy a Boundary Zone 6 ticket. can anyone please advise what to search for. As I live in Belfast simply going down to a station to buy it isn't an option.

 

[LexyBoy]

On other threads there have been some ticketing options suggested for journeys into London that include purchasing a ticket to Boundary Zone 6. The difficulty I'm having is finding what to search for on on-line ticket retailing sites to buy a Boundary Zone 6 ticket. can anyone please advise what to search for. As I live in Belfast simply going down to a station to buy it isn't an option.

You can't. Telesales should be able to though.

Do NIR ticket offices not sell tickets for the rest of the UK? Otherwise, you can always buy them when you begin your trip- there's no advantage to buying in advance.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

I don't think you can buy them online, but, as the price is the same on the day, could you not wait 'til you arrive on these shores?

 

[Paul Kelly]

Do NIR ticket offices not sell tickets for the rest of the UK?

Only at the travel centre at Great Victoria St station in Belfast. But they use the Evolvi system which has a kind of web-based journey planner interface to it - so it probably can't sell boundary zone tickets anyway, and in any case they charge a per-ticket booking fee so it isn't good value.

 

[OwlMan]

As you are officially required to show your travelcard when buying Boundary Zone tickets they are usually only available from stations

Peter

 

[swt_passenger]

You can't. Telesales should be able to though.

So how would telesales check you had a suitable ticket to excess by means of a boundary zone extension?

 

[LexyBoy]

So how would telesales check you had a suitable ticket to excess by means of a boundary zone extension?

Indeed, I forgot that. If buying the Travelcard at the same time there shouldn't be a problem though.

 

[TUC]

As you are officially required to show your travelcard when buying Boundary Zone tickets they are usually only available from stations

Peter

But you could equally have an Oystercard that you plan to use from the boundary (as long as you break your journey an re-enter the boundary station using it). If you're buying a ticket to Boundary Zone 6 from outside the London area all you could do is show them your card but with presumably no means of determining it is valid so it becomes a bit meaningless.

 

[Urban Gateline]

But you could equally have an Oystercard that you plan to use from the boundary (as long as you break your journey an re-enter the boundary station using it). If you're buying a ticket to Boundary Zone 6 from outside the London area all you could do is show them your card but with presumably no means of determining it is valid so it becomes a bit meaningless.

Yes but many ticket office staff have Oyster readers at hand to check Oyster cards, at least that is the case at SWT in the London area, where they have that portable Oyster reader (forgot what it's called!) Therefore they can verify what is on your Oyster card.

 

[LexyBoy]

But you could equally have an Oystercard that you plan to use from the boundary (as long as you break your journey an re-enter the boundary station using it). If you're buying a ticket to Boundary Zone 6 from outside the London area all you could do is show them your card but with presumably no means of determining it is valid so it becomes a bit meaningless.

Boundary Zone tickets are only valid in conjunction with a Travelcard. To use Oyster PAYG you'd need a ticket to the station you intend to disembark and touch in at.

With a Travelcard there's on need to touch in in this instance.

Of course, if you said you had a Travelcard on your Oyster and the station couldn't check it, they'd have to take your word for it.

 

[TUC]

Boundary Zone tickets are only valid in conjunction with a Travelcard. To use Oyster PAYG you'd need a ticket to the station you intend to disembark and touch in at.

So what's the point of boundary zone tickets? Clearly with most area based season tickets (such as many PTE products) they are valid to the final station within the boundary and, if travelling from outside the area, you have to buy a ticket to there. Whilst having a ticket that's valid literally to the boundary might be a nice addition to have it seems a slightly needless technical refinement.

 

[W-on-Sea]

The BZ tickets are particularly useful where there are multiple routes between two places, one in the zones + one not, as they can be used on any valid route + not just the one to a named z6 station.

 

[LexyBoy]

A boundary zone ticket is in effect an excess- the combination has the same validity as a single ticket for the whole journey. Thus there is no need for the train to stop at the last station in the Zones, and if there is a choice of routes, all are valid rather than only the one passing through the chosen station.

For example, Travelcard plus BZ6-Reading would allow travel from Waterloo, or Paddington fast services. A Hayes & Harlington-Reading ticket instead of a BZ ticket would limit me to trains from Paddington, and if the Travelcard is only a Day Travelcard, services which stop at H&H.

Additionally, it means that the customer or ticket seller don't need to check a map to find the relevant station, and BZ tickets are generally cheaper (not always- a point-to-point ticket can be cheaper, and is still valid subject to the above caveats).