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Boundary ticket on Gatwick Express

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colinz

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If you ask to buy a return to Gatwick from the dedicated Gatwick Express ticket office at Victoria, and show them a Travelcard, they will give you a BZ6 - Gatwick return without being prompted.
Thanks for that. However, I’m afraid the following newer thread just made your suggestion a little bit riskier... though in that case it happened in the ticket office managed by SN rather than (possibly) GX.

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/ticket-office-at-victoria-refuses-to-sell-me-a-ticket.182897/
 
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Peter Mugridge

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Thanks for that. However, I’m afraid the following newer thread just made your suggestion a little bit riskier... though in that case it happened in the ticket office managed by SN rather than (possibly) GX.

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/ticket-office-at-victoria-refuses-to-sell-me-a-ticket.182897/

Yes, that's a completely different ticket office a couple of hundred feet away. When I was collecting 387/2s for haulage I must have used about a dozen Travelcard + BZ6 returns to Gatwick on the Gatwick Express, all purchased from the Gatwick Express ticket office and all accepted on board in both directions without anyone batting an eyelid.
 

colinz

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Yes, that's a completely different ticket office a couple of hundred feet away. When I was collecting 387/2s for haulage I must have used about a dozen Travelcard + BZ6 returns to Gatwick on the Gatwick Express, all purchased from the Gatwick Express ticket office and all accepted on board in both directions without anyone batting an eyelid.
In that case I am really surprised how much the staff training varies, since Gatwick Airport and Victoria must be the only ticket offices managed by GX.
Based a youtube video I recently watched, those two ticket offices should even have the same manager...
 

Hadders

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I’ve been in London today and needed to go to Gatwick so I popped to Victoria to see what happened.

I had a Stevenage - London Zones 1-6 one day Travelcard. I didn’t specifically ask her for a Boundary Zone ticket but showed her my Travelcard and asked what ticket I needed to get to the airport.

She tapped a few things on her terminal and said the price would be £4.30. I asked what ticket that was for and she said East Croydon to Gatwick Airport. I said that I thought there was an extension ticket that you could buy to go with a Travelcard. The ticket seller said she didn’t know. I then said I think it’s something like ‘Boundary Zone 6’. After keying a few more things on her terminal she said that no such ticket exists.

I insisted that the ticket did exist and suggested she tried ‘0072’ as the origin and hey presto it worked.

Amazingly my one day Travelcard worked the infamous Gatwick Express gateline. No chance of a ticket check on board - the train’s only 4 cars long, full and standing. They’ve even declassified 1st...
 

alistairlees

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Isn’t an off-peak day return (CDR) from boundary zone 6 to Gatwick Airport with a railcard £4.45 though? I.e. £0.15 more than from East Croydon?
 

Hadders

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Isn’t an off-peak day return (CDR) from boundary zone 6 to Gatwick Airport with a railcard £4.45 though? I.e. £0.15 more than from East Croydon?

A BZ ticket is more expensive. I specifically wanted the BZ ticket. Most concerning that the clerk claimed to know nothing of their existence...
 

JB_B

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Isn’t an off-peak day return (CDR) from boundary zone 6 to Gatwick Airport with a railcard £4.45 though? I.e. £0.15 more than from East Croydon?

That's true but, assuming we're talking about post #34, I think Hadders did the right thing insisting on the (slightly more expensive) BZ6 ticket. The (unfortunate) wording of NCROT 14.2 means an East Croydon-Gatwick ticket would potentially have questionable validity (since East Croydon isn't the "last station at which" the Z1-6 travel card was valid heading south.
 

Kite159

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That's true but, assuming we're talking about post #34, I think Hadders did the right thing insisting on the (slightly more expensive) BZ6 ticket. The (unfortunate) wording of NCROT 14.2 means an East Croydon-Gatwick ticket would potentially have questionable validity (since East Croydon isn't the "last station at which" the Z1-6 travel card was valid heading south.

Would a ticket from Purley - Gatwick be slightly better in terms of validity (seeing as Coulston South is on the Redhill loop and hence not passed by the red trains)?
 

Samuel88

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That's true but, assuming we're talking about post #34, I think Hadders did the right thing insisting on the (slightly more expensive) BZ6 ticket. The (unfortunate) wording of NCROT 14.2 means an East Croydon-Gatwick ticket would potentially have questionable validity (since East Croydon isn't the "last station at which" the Z1-6 travel card was valid heading south.

Every time I travel to Gatwick, even when asked for a boundary zone ticket I've been given an East Croydon to Gatwick ticket as 'it's cheaper'
 

Hadders

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I specifically wanted the BZ ticket for unambiguous validity. We’ve also had reports on the forum during the last feed days of Victoria ticket office refusing to issue BZ tickets, so was interested in what would happen.

The fact that the clerk who served me didn’t know what a BZ ticket is is frankly a disgrace. We’re not talking about a shack in the middle of nowhere but a major London terminal.

Happy to report that on the way back my ticket was checked onboard without issue. My Travelcard also opened the barrier upon arrival back at Victoria.
 
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Slightly off route, but I just travelled on a Dorking to Boundary Zone 2 ticket and tried to BOJ at Wimbledon: was told that the station was Zone 3 so was invalid. Difficult to know where to start...!
 

ForTheLoveOf

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Slightly off route, but I just travelled on a Dorking to Boundary Zone 2 ticket and tried to BOJ at Wimbledon: was told that the station was Zone 3 so was invalid. Difficult to know where to start...!
Were you permitted to exit in the end?
 

island

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That one I can sort of understand; Wimbledon ticket barriers are operated by London Underground who may not have cause to train staff on validity of all National Rail tickets.
 

Peter Mugridge

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That one I can sort of understand; Wimbledon ticket barriers are operated by London Underground who may not have cause to train staff on validity of all National Rail tickets.

Interesting - I could have sworn that the Wimbledon barrier staff are all in SWR uniform?
 
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Yes, I was allowed out in the end. On the way back in, I just flashed my ticket at the main entrance gate and the barrier staff didn't look at it at all... Anyway, off-topic, so let's get back to the challenge of using GX services (can anyone now remember why they still exist as a 'premium' connection given that Easyjet and BA are largely leisure travel only these days?)
 
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