Boundary Zone tickets

[NorthantsMan]

Hi All

I can't seem to find boundary zone prices on the National rail site.

How do I get access to these?

Can anyone tell me the price of an Anytime Single between:

Boundary Zone 2 and Milton Keynes

Boundary Zone 5 and Milton Keynes

please?

Thanks

 

[RJ]

£21.20 and £16.60 respectively. You cannot buy them online as they are conditional tickets requiring a Travelcard to be held first.

 

[LexyBoy]

You cannot buy them online as they are conditional tickets requiring a Travelcard to be held first.

True, but NRE could still give the prices.

 

[island]

And I'm sure it's not outside the capabilities of the railway to come up with a system allowing them to be bought online. The fact that a Travelcard is required to be held is irrelevant because you can already buy remote tickets online, so there is no incremental risk.

 

[calc7]

And I'm sure it's not outside the capabilities of the railway to come up with a system allowing them to be bought online. The fact that a Travelcard is required to be held is irrelevant because you can already buy remote tickets online, so there is no incremental risk.

I imagine the perception of incremental risk comes from the Oyster system - with long distance TOCs personally claiming to me they "do not accept Oyster" - indeed this was the Station Supervisor at St Pancras!

So it is easier for them to restrict sale to manned ticket booths (thus limiting the amount of investment needed into Oyster-reading kit) so that people don't buy BZ6 to wherever and wave an Oyster saying it holds a Z1-6 travelcard.

 

[RJ]

And I'm sure it's not outside the capabilities of the railway to come up with a system allowing them to be bought online. The fact that a Travelcard is required to be held is irrelevant because you can already buy remote tickets online, so there is no incremental risk.

There doesn't need to be one. A condition of the Boundary Zone ticket is that proof of entitlement to that particular discount needs to be provided at the time of purchase, as with any other excess fare.

 

[island]

I imagine the perception of incremental risk comes from the Oyster system - with long distance TOCs personally claiming to me they "do not accept Oyster" - indeed this was the Station Supervisor at St Pancras!

So it is easier for them to restrict sale to manned ticket booths (thus limiting the amount of investment needed into Oyster-reading kit) so that people don't buy BZ6 to wherever and wave an Oyster saying it holds a Z1-6 travelcard.

But you can use the same Oyster card with a ticket from Barnehurst/Knockholt/Feltham/insert your favourite zone 6 station, which you bought online.

EMT being unwilling to behave itself is not a reason to cause customer inconvenience.

 

[34D]

True, but NRE could still give the prices.

They do, over the telephone

 

[LexyBoy]

There doesn't need to be one. A condition of the Boundary Zone ticket is that proof of entitlement to that particular discount needs to be provided at the time of purchase, as with any other excess fare.

Point taken that boundary zone tickets are a form of excess fare rather than a "standalone" ticket, but Railcard discounted tickets are subject to the same requirement for proof of entitlement to the discount, and they can be bought online.

(Personally I'm not too fussed that boundary zone tickets are only available at stations, since there's no major advantage to buying in advance, but I appreciate that it might be more convenient for some people to buy online.)

They do, over the telephone

Fair point. Considering that it wouldn't be hard to do, it would be good to have online though. Especially given how many people aren't aware of the existence of boundary zone fares.

 

[RJ]

Point taken that boundary zone tickets are a form of excess fare rather than a "standalone" ticket, but Railcard discounted tickets are subject to the same requirement for proof of entitlement to the discount, and they can be bought online.

Railcard discounted tickets are not excess fares so the same principles do not apply.

 

[LexyBoy]

Railcard discounted tickets are not excess fares so the same principles do not apply.

Obviously I don't know the exact rules, and realise that excess fares are different, but the principles must be similar- otherwise why can't I buy a ticket for my friend with a 16-25 Railcard?