Chalfont and Latimer to Aylesbury

[hobbm013]

Hi all,

A family member is looking to travel from Chalfont and Latimer to Aylesbury using the Chiltern Railways service, although we’re not sure how ticketing works for this:

- Oysters are not valid beyond Amersham
- She can buy a ticket online but can’t collect it from Chalfont and Latimer as there’s not a collection machine
- Mobile/E-tickets aren’t available according to Chiltern website

So how does one get a ticket from Chalfont to Aylesbury? Barriers to get through at Chalfont and probably at Aylesbury too.

Do TfL ticket machines allow tickets to be bought to National Rail stations?

Anyone able to advise for me?

Many thanks

 

[yorkie]

They can buy it from ticket machine or ticket office.

Fares: http://www.brfares.com/#!fares?orig=CFO&dest=AYS

 

[CyrusWuff]

The London Underground ticket machines should definitely be able to sell the relevant ticket, though may not offer a full range of discounts (if applicable). If there's no "opportunity to buy" at Chalfont, they'll be able to do so on arrival at Aylesbury (or on the train should they encounter Revenue Protection).

 

[mattdickinson]

Hi all,

A family member is looking to travel from Chalfont and Latimer to Aylesbury using the Chiltern Railways service, although we’re not sure how ticketing works for this:

- Oysters are not valid beyond Amersham
- She can buy a ticket online but can’t collect it from Chalfont and Latimer as there’s not a collection machine
- Mobile/E-tickets aren’t available according to Chiltern website

So how does one get a ticket from Chalfont to Aylesbury? Barriers to get through at Chalfont and probably at Aylesbury too.

Do TfL ticket machines allow tickets to be bought to National Rail stations?

Anyone able to advise for me?

Many thanks

If you have a Chiltern smartcard and an Android phone you can buy the ticket through the Chiltern app and load it using your phone.

 

[si404]

The ticket machines at the LU stations served by Chiltern sell tickets to stations with a direct service. And vice versa.

Good luck trying to buy tickets between them and other destinations. Both at the LU stations and at NR stations! At least Aylesbury is straightforward.

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

If you have a Chiltern smartcard and an Android phone you can buy the ticket through the Chiltern app and load it using your phone.

You mean that the Chiltern Smartcard can be loaded using the Android Phone and nothing else, eg a ticket machine?

 

[mattdickinson]

You mean that the Chiltern Smartcard can be loaded using the Android Phone and nothing else, eg a ticket machine?

Yes, as long as the phone has NFC, which most now do.

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

Wow, that's a bit advanced for UK rail! I'll try it sometime.

 

[Ralph Ayres]

The ticket machines at the LU stations served by Chiltern sell tickets to stations with a direct service. And vice versa.

Good luck trying to buy tickets between them and other destinations. Both at the LU stations and at NR stations! At least Aylesbury is straightforward.

Eh? Ticket machines at LU stations sell tickets to pretty well everywhere in the South-East.

 

[si404]

Eh? Ticket machines at LU stations sell tickets to pretty well everywhere in the South-East.

OK, clearly improved from when I was traveling Amersham-Southampton regularly, and couldn't buy a ticket for the whole journey at either end.

I gather buying tickets to Amersham, etc from most NR stations is still impossible.

 

[Saperstein]

OK, clearly improved from when I was traveling Amersham-Southampton regularly, and couldn't buy a ticket for the whole journey at either end.

I gather buying tickets to Amersham, etc from most NR stations is still impossible.

Tried a few random stations via the Greater Anglia app to see what was available with mixed results:

(All tickets I looked for were DSB singles)

From outside London:

Norwich to Amersham: Yes
Rice Lane to Amersham: Yes
Chester to Amersham: Yes
Southampton Central to Amersham: Yes
Aylesbury to Amersham: Yes

From within London:

Finsbury Park to Amersham: Yes
London Liverpool Street to Amersham: No
London Victoria to Amersham: No
London Blackfriars to Amersham: No
London Cannon Street to Amersham: No

I don’t understand why there seems to be no fare from some of the stations I tried.

Saperstein.

 

[swt_passenger]

Tried a few random stations via the Greater Anglia app to see what was available with mixed results:
[…]
London Liverpool Street to Amersham: No
London Victoria to Amersham: No
London Blackfriars to Amersham: No
London Cannon Street to Amersham: No

I don’t understand why there seems to be no fare from some of the stations I tried.

The above are London Terminals in the south or east of London and you shouldn’t be able to start from them. You should be starting on an LU leg. AIUI this is the correct implementation of the fairly regularly discussed “London Terminal problem”.

 

[Paul Kelly]

The above are London Terminals in the south or east of London and you shouldn’t be able to start from them. You should be starting on an LU leg. AIUI this is the correct implementation of the fairly regularly discussed “London Terminal problem”.

I don't agree. That problem only applies to ticket machines that don't have a built-in journey planner. This is a different issue because the app will have a journey planner and will thus know that the journey involves London Underground, and should be able to offer the correct fare.

The main problem is that there is no appropriate through fare in the fares database, but as far as I can see an appropriate fare could be calculated by summing the prices of a single from Harrow-on-the-Hill to Amersham, (£4.90), plus the Zones 1-5 London Underground add-on fare (also valid on Chiltern due to interavailability rules), which is currently (presumably until the fares freeze expires at the end of this year) £4.70, making a total price of £9.60. Some journey planners will calculate that automatically, but it looks like the one Greater Anglia's app uses does not. Admittedly it's an obscure and complicated edge case.

 

[swt_passenger]

I don't agree. That problem only applies to ticket machines that don't have a built-in journey planner. This is a different issue because the app will have a journey planner and will thus know that the journey involves London Underground, and should be able to offer the correct fare.

The main problem is that there is no appropriate through fare in the fares database, but as far as I can see an appropriate fare could be calculated by summing the prices of a single from Harrow-on-the-Hill to Amersham, (£4.90), plus the Zones 1-5 London Underground add-on fare (also valid on Chiltern due to interavailability rules), which is currently (presumably until the fares freeze expires at the end of this year) £4.70, making a total price of £9.60. Some journey planners will calculate that automatically, but it looks like the one Greater Anglia's app uses does not. Admittedly it's an obscure and complicated edge case.

I don't think it's complicated. If you are outside the barrier line at a station such as Cannon St, you just need to enter Cannon St underground and use an LU TVM. Cash fare £8.50. Why should a TOC app need to be used to buy what is basically an LU fare?

 

[PeterC]

I don't think it's complicated. If you are outside the barrier line at a station such as Cannon St, you just need to enter Cannon St underground and use an LU TVM. Cash fare £8.50. Why should a TOC app need to be used to buy what is basically an LU fare?

Heretic!

 

[Haywain]

I don't agree. That problem only applies to ticket machines that don't have a built-in journey planner. This is a different issue because the app will have a journey planner and will thus know that the journey involves London Underground, and should be able to offer the correct fare.

I think the issue is that there is no valid journey including a National Rail leg (for such journeys Amersham will be treated as an underground station), and therefore no valid fares will be found.

 

[Saperstein]

I think the issue is that there is no valid journey including a National Rail leg (for such journeys Amersham will be treated as an underground station), and therefore no valid fares will be found.

In that case shouldn’t there be a fare from say LST to Underground Zone 9?

Saperstein.

 

[Haywain]

In that case shouldn’t there be a fare from say LST to Underground Zone 9?

Saperstein.

No. LST is a national rail station (London Terminals for most fares). However, there is a TfL fare for Zone U1 to Zone U9 but not from London Terminals.