Boundary Zone 6 to Oxford - Off peak day return

[Nigel]

My wife and I, who both hold senior railcards, are travelling from London to Oxford for a lunch on Thursday. Our time of travel will be within the period of validity of an off peak day return, but we don't want to commit to a specific train (particularity for the return leg). We would also like the flexibility of going from or returning to either Paddington or Marylebone, dependent on conditions on the day.

As I hold a London Councils Freedom Pass and my wife has an Oyster 60+ Card, presumably we can just purchase a Boundary Zone 6 to Oxford ticket, even though none of our likely trains will stop within Zone 6 (other than at the London terminus)? Looking at the booking sites that offer tickets from Boundary Zone 6, none will sell us the tickets, as e-tickets are not available and ticket collection is not given as an option because 'Boundary Zone 6 does not have a ticket machine'. Am I correct that the ticket machines at either Paddington or Marylebone will also not sell such tickets? If so, presumably they can be bought from the ticket office? What is the likelihood of the ticket office selling these without difficulty? Also, are the ticket checkers on the trains likely to be familiar with the validity of this sort of ticket?

 

[Haywain]

What is the likelihood of the ticket office selling these without difficulty?

Extremely high, ticket offices at major London stations sell large numbers of such tickets every day.

Also, are the ticket checkers on the trains likely to be familiar with the validity of this sort of ticket?

Yes.

 

[redreni]

Ticket vending machines at Paddington will sell it. Can't vouch for Marylebone but they should do. Ticket offices will also sell it.

Which site was it that didn't allow ticket on departure collection because there's no facilities at Boundary Zone 6?

If you go on the Avanti West Coast website and search Boundary Zone 6 to Oxford it should sell you this ticket and allow you to select a station for collection. There's no particular advantage to doing this, however, because as mentioned you can just buy the ticket from the TVM.

It is fine to use a train that doesn't stop at the boundary station.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Off Peak Day Return from Boundary Zone 6 to/from Oxford, with Senior railcard discount applied = £17.20 per person, route "Any Permitted", valid for travel after 0929. So, does that effectively make the first (valid) direct services from London out to Oxford as the 0940 from Marylebone (arrive Oxford 1100) or alternatively the 0952 from Paddington (arrive Oxford 1042)?

 

[Haywain]

Off Peak Day Return from Boundary Zone 6 to/from Oxford, with Senior railcard discount applied = £17.20 per person, route "Any Permitted", valid for travel after 0929. So, does that effectively make the first (valid) direct services from London out to Oxford as the 0940 from Marylebone (arrive Oxford 1100) or alternatively the 0952 from Paddington (arrive Oxford 1042)?

As that matches the Freedom Pass restrictions that will be the case.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Ticket vending machines at Paddington will sell it. Can't vouch for Marylebone but they should do. Ticket offices will also sell it.

Only two of the TVMs at Marylebone are currently running the updated software that offers Boundary Zone tickets. Specifically the two on the left on the Bicester Village hut side.

If buying from a Ticket Office, make sure they sell a Boundary Zone ticket and not a named station (West Ruislip from Marylebone, West Drayton from Paddington) if you want the flexibility of returning to either Paddington or Marylebone.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

As that matches the Freedom Pass restrictions that will be the case.

Could you clarify what these are? Obviously, the OP and their partner will, at some stage, first have to make their way to either Paddington or Marylebone, in order to then continue onwards to Oxford. Noted that the OP said they, themselves, have a London Council Freedom Pass whereas their wife has an Oyster 60+ Card,

 

[microrich]

My wife and I, who both hold senior railcards, are travelling from London to Oxford for a lunch on Thursday. Our time of travel will be within the period of validity of an off peak day return, but we don't want to commit to a specific train (particularity for the return leg). We would also like the flexibility of going from or returning to either Paddington or Marylebone, dependent on conditions on the day.

As I hold a London Councils Freedom Pass and my wife has an Oyster 60+ Card, presumably we can just purchase a Boundary Zone 6 to Oxford ticket, even though none of our likely trains will stop within Zone 6 (other than at the London terminus)? Looking at the booking sites that offer tickets from Boundary Zone 6, none will sell us the tickets, as e-tickets are not available and ticket collection is not given as an option because 'Boundary Zone 6 does not have a ticket machine'. Am I correct that the ticket machines at either Paddington or Marylebone will also not sell such tickets? If so, presumably they can be bought from the ticket office? What is the likelihood of the ticket office selling these without difficulty? Also, are the ticket checkers on the trains likely to be familiar with the validity of this sort of ticket?

You can definitely buy this online for TOD (collection at any station with a machine, e.g. Paddington) from either c2c, Avanti or the railforums own ticketing website. Most other retailers don't sell Boundary Zone tickets.

 

[Watershed]

Could you clarify what these are? Obviously, the OP and their partner will, at some stage, first have to make their way to either Paddington or Marylebone, in order to then continue onwards to Oxford. Noted that the OP said they, themselves, have a London Council Freedom Pass whereas their wife has an Oyster 60+ Card,

The Freedom Pass and 60+ Oyster card are both valid on TfL services from 09:00. On non-TfL National Rail services they are generally only valid from 09:30, although they're valid from 09:00 on National Rail services over 'interavailable' routes, shown in light blue on this map.

 

[Nigel]

Thanks for all the advice. We will buy at the station, as that way we won't have to commit to buying from a specific station.
When I tried Avanti it asked to nominate a station to collect from, but I couldn't find a way of doing so. (Maybe it would if I had actually paid?). This site's booking engine would only let me put in LU Zone 6 (not Boundary Zone 6) and then it says 'no tickets available for your selection'.

 

[microrich]

Thanks for all the advice. We will buy at the station, as that way we won't have to commit to buying from a specific station.
When I tried Avanti it asked to nominate a station to collect from, but I couldn't find a way of doing so. (Maybe it would if I had actually paid?). This site's booking engine would only let me put in LU Zone 6 (not Boundary Zone 6) and then it says 'no tickets available for your selection'.

For the railforum's ticketing site (unlike c2c/Avanti), it won't accept Boundary Zone 6 as an origin (I wish it would, but it doesn't!). The way to get it to offer this ticket is to set your start point as LON (All stations), and then in the Options, under "Existing Travelcard held" tick the option for your Freedom or TFL 60+ card. It will then generate a ticket option for Boundary Zone 6 to Oxford off-peak day return for £17.20.

Fairly certain that although the retailer will ask you to nominate a station for collection, you will be able to collect the tickets from any TVM (my recollection is that the only reason they ask this is to check that you're not going to attempt to collect the ticket at a station without a TVM).

Bear in mind that if you choose to buy at the station, it's very hit and miss which London terminal TVM's offer Boundary Zone tickets. For example, my local station is St Pancras, and the EMR machines in the main concourse won't sell them (or at least, not when I last checked). So you may end up queuing at the ticket office.

 

[Nigel]

The way to get it to offer this ticket is to set your start point as LON (All stations), and then in the Options, under "Existing Travelcard held" tick the option for your Freedom or TFL 60+ card. It will then generate a ticket option for Boundary Zone 6 to Oxford off-peak day return for £17.20.

Thanks - very useful to know that - the Freedom and TfL 60+ cards are hidden away at the bottom of the page after you click the settings button. However, unless I'm missing something on the TrainSplit powered site, you can only buy tickets for multiple people if they hold identical cards. As my wife and I both have Senior Railcards, that isn't a problem, but we do have different London-wide rail passes (Freedom and 60+). Similarly, if we travel as a family, my son has 16-25 railcard (but no London-wide pass), so he can't be added to the transaction.

 

[signed]

Thanks - very useful to know that - the Freedom and TfL 60+ cards are hidden away at the bottom of the page after you click the settings button. However, unless I'm missing something on the TrainSplit powered site, you can only buy tickets for multiple people if they hold identical cards. As my wife and I both have Senior Railcards, that isn't a problem, but we do have different London-wide rail passes (Freedom and 60+). Similarly, if we travel as a family, my son has 16-25 railcard (but no London-wide pass), so he can't be added to the transaction.

This is intentional to avoid confusion, specially on the railcard side (all passengers must hold the choosen railcard), you are to separately add the tickets to the basket to pay in one transaction.

 

[mickey]

Fairly certain that although the retailer will ask you to nominate a station for collection, you will be able to collect the tickets from any TVM (my recollection is that the only reason they ask this is to check that you're not going to attempt to collect the ticket at a station without a TVM).

Correct. In fact at least one retailer has a prominent message underneath saying exactly this, that the ticket can be collected at any facility that allows it if you change your mind later.

 

[Nigel]

We travelled successfully today to and from Oxford with a Boundary 6 ticket and our Freedom/ Oyster 60+ passes. The only downside was that both outgoing from and returning to Paddington, neither the tickets nor the passes would operate the gates and there was a bit of a queue to be let through with a manual inspection.

 

[redreni]

The only downside was that both outgoing from and returning to Paddington, neither the tickets nor the passes would operate the gates and there was a bit of a queue to be let through with a manual inspection.

A boundary zone ticket won't operate the barriers or be intended to. I wonder why the Freedom Pass and 60+ Oyster card didn't? Perhaps it's deliberate so staff can check the person isn't obviously well under 65/60?

In the FGW days, the barriers at the low-numbered platforms at Paddington wouldn't accept zonal tickets, including inboundary Travelcards, on the basis that the trains serving those platforms don't stop within the zones. Today, that's true of nearly all arrivals and departures at the high-level station. I often used to encounter difficulty when asking to be let through with an inboundary Travelcard plus an extension ticket - an alarming proportion of staff would erroneously claim the train has to stop at the split point. Thankfully, however, perhaps due in part to the boundary fares class action, GWR seems to have accepted that people holding inboundary Travelcards do need to pass through those barriers, and whether for pragmatic reasons or because they didn't fancy attempting to change staff behaviour through training (I suspect some of the staff at Paddington are impervious to training), some years ago they just set all the barriers to accept inboundary Travelcards.

Maybe you should write in asking if the barriers are set to reject pensioners' travel passes? And if they are, point out that this causes delays, which is to the detriment of people who are entitled to such passes, and thereby constitutes indirect age discrimination given they are not rejecting other tickets with exactly the same zonal validity that will tend to be held by younger passengers (e.g. inboundary Travelcards)? In fact, it's not even especially clear that the age discrimination is not direct, if that is indeed the policy. It would have to be indirect if they wanted to try and justify it as a proportionate revenue protection measure.