I have a Cambridge to London Terminals season ticket. When the options were LST or KGX it was easy but the new Brighton service calling at STP and LBG has complicated matters. In some circumstances Cambridge to London Bridge is my best option but the ticket office tells me my season ticket is only valid as far as St Pancras. I don’t want to get a specific LBG season ticket as the flexibility of having KGX/Northern Line or LST/Overground is very helpful. I have an Oyster Card but obviously there is no way to touch it in passing through STP on my way to LBG or back and I want to avoid the long ticket queues to buy an STP to LBG ticket before I travel. A Cambridge - Z1-6 is almost 50% more expensive so not worth the extra cost. Is there any creative way round this or should I be resigned to just using KGX & LST ?
-
Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Cambridge to London Bridge?
- Thread starter TonyR
- Start date
- Status
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
Your ticket is valid to Moorgate as well, would via Farringdon by Thameslink a valid route?
If yes, then touch in / out at Farringdon platform is very easy.
CompactDstrxion
Member
- Joined
- 8 Jun 2009
- Messages
- 596
How often would you be going to London Bridge? Would a separate St Pancras-London Bridge (Route Not Underground) season be worthwhile?
CompactDstrxion
Member
- Joined
- 8 Jun 2009
- Messages
- 596
TonyR's season to London Terminals is NOT valid to Farringdon.
Alighting at STP, going up the escalators then doing a U-turn through the barriers to touch in with Oyster may be your best bet if you don't want to buy a ticket in advance. I think you're only likely to end up one train behind, and trains are pretty frequent through the Thameslink core.
Last edited:
Not often enough to make it worthwhile unfortunately.
If I get off it destroys the simplicity of being able to go direct to LBG and if I get off I might as well take the faster KGX train and drop down to the Northern Line.
JBuchananGB
Member
That might work towards London Bridge but a bit risky in the other direction!
If this is the season ticket mentioned above, its payback compared to PAYG seems to be as few as two trips per week, probably even better for longer period.
According to Greater Anglia, there is no weekly season ticket, just a monthly at £70.30 so £17.50 a week equivalent not £8.20 - the equivalent of 8 singles on a Senior Railcard.
JBuchananGB
Member
According to Thameslink, if you have one of their smartcards you can have a weekly for £8.20 as shown here. Whereas Oyster PAYG is £2.40 each way, so on two trips per week you would shell out £9.60. Not sure if that helps at all.
Paul Kelly
Verified Rep - BR Fares
Nice find! It's also on BR Fares here: http://www.brfares.com/#faredetail?orig=STP&dest=LBG&grpo=1072&rte=208&tkt=0AQ
I wonder if someone has missed a '1' off the start of the price?
I know it is not valid to get to Farringdon as a destination. but I notice that there's interavailability of Great Northern tickets between Kings Cross and Moorgate. Not sure if it also applies on via Thameslink route + LU for getting to Moorgate? If so, he can "break journey"at Farringdon
Haywain
Veteran Member
- Joined
- 3 Feb 2013
- Messages
- 15,180
It doesn't. A London Terminals ticket is not valid on southbound Thameslink services beyond St Pancras. Interavailability is with London Underground services only.
Agreed, although it really is ridiculous that you can't interchange to LU at Farringdon given that it's a much easier interchange than at Kings Cross St Pancras.
There really should be platform validators at St Pancras for passengers switching from paper tickets to PAYG.
Also the inter availability on the Underground explicitly says it is not available at intermediate stations, so my interpretation is you wouldn’t be able to use it only as far as Farringdon.
CompactDstrxion
Member
- Joined
- 8 Jun 2009
- Messages
- 596
I suspect a London Terminals - London Bridge season is not intended for travel north of City Thameslink. Whether that could be enforced based on any information available to the public is another matter.
I have just found that a London Terminals - City Thameslink ticket is the same price though, I imagine it would be a lot harder to challenge that this is valid for travel from both the northern and southern terminals and therefore suitable for St Pancras - London Bridge.
Edit: This still does not enable the journey to be done seamlessly because when using a smart season you have to touch in and out. Smartcards cannot be used at Cambridge.
Last edited:
JBuchananGB
Member
I suppose the jump-off touch-in, jump-on would only be needed at STP towards London Bridge, because the touch-in can be done at London Bridge on the way back, without a touch-out.
Touch out is required on the return or a maximum fare would be charged.
That's not very likely unless it is an LU station. TfL has no incentive in setting validator in NR only station.
JBuchananGB
Member
That is of course the case for an Oyster Card, but is it also true for a Thameslink smart card? The card would be loaded with the relevant season ticket. Even with an Oyster card loaded with a season ticket (travelcard) touch in and out isn't needed unless it is intended to travel beyond the validity of the season ticket, and rely on PAYG. If the OP in this case, who holds a season ticket from London Terminals to Cambridge is on board a train from London Bridge to Cambridge, having touched in at London Bridge, surely he can travel seamlessly through St. Pancras. Any RPI between London Bridge and St. Pancras will be satisfied with the Smartcard, and any beyond St. Pancras will be happy with the paper season ticket.
RJ
Established Member
If you want validity into Kings Cross, the route into Liverpool Street and to cross Central London then the correct product for you is the Cambridge to London Zones 1-6 Travelcard.
If you don't need what a Travelcard offers on a daily basis you can get a season to London Thameslink then pay as you go with Oyster or contactless to get around Central London and buy tickets if you want to go somewhere on the Greater Anglia route to Liverpool Street.
Alternatively you could continue buying a London Terminals ticket which covers both routes into London and pay as you go within London.
Last edited:
The difference between Cambridge - London Terminals, Cambridge - London Thameslink and Cambridge - London Zone 1-6 is not as large as the OP thinks.
For 7-day season ticket
London terminal - £ 127.70
London Thameslink - £135.70
London Zone 1-6 - £162.50
The difference is just 27% rather than 50% suggested by OP.
I think London Thameslink ticket may suit the need of OP, apart from he can't access to Liverpool Street (but valid to travel on GA to Tottenham Hale)
For 7-day season ticket
London terminal - £ 127.70
London Thameslink - £135.70
London Zone 1-6 - £162.50
The difference is just 27% rather than 50% suggested by OP.
I think London Thameslink ticket may suit the need of OP, apart from he can't access to Liverpool Street (but valid to travel on GA to Tottenham Hale)
Last edited:
How is the London Thameslink ticket valid via Tottenham Hale? It's routed "not underground", so you can't then do the tube to Finsbury Park to pick up Great Northern/Thameslink from there. Is there some obscure way of connecting Tottenham Hale to the Thameslink route via the Overground?
Is this a permitted route? There are no direct trains via this route, It doesn't appear to be a mapped route so is it within 3 miles of the shortest route?
Then what? To Highbury & Islington, back north towards Finsbury Park, and then south to St Pancras/London Bridge? My gut instinct is that the section from Highbury & Islington to Finsbury Park wouldn't be valid on this ticket, but I admit I haven't attempted to check it beyond trying (and failing) to get a journey planner to show this route.
RJ
Established Member
I will put it through RJIS when I'm next doing tickets, but I can't see how this can be permitted on any of the tickets listed
GTR Smartcards can't be used at Cambridge. Greater Anglia smart cards can be used at Cambridge.
TurbostarFan
On Moderation
Why not just get a paper season ticket then?
- Status