Correct fare Stansted Airport -> Finsbury Park

[jamesontheroad]

Afternoon. A few months ago I flew into Stansted Airport one night and bought ask the floating ticket agents at the bottom of the ramp for a single to Finsbury Park (with a 16-25 Railcard). I'd looked this up earlier in the day and expected it to be a £14.00 Anytime fare, but was charged slightly more. I seem to remember noting later that the ticket was to Zones 2345 or something like that.

Was I missold the ticket? Should I insist on a ticket to a named station instead of a zone ticket to get the best fare?

(a quick reply would especially be appreciated, as I'm off again in an hour or two and might face the same situation !)

Thanks!

 

[Daniel]

Well not quite sure what ticket you did get issed, but NFM05 shows Stansted Airport to Finsbury Park with a 16-15 railcard being £14.00 on an Anytime Single.

They were most likely trying to be helpfull in adding a travelcard as many people from the airport continue to travel around the underground the same day.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Thanks. Helpful, maybe, but I did ask for a specific suburban station rather than just 'London'. I wonder if that assumption of needing a travelcard isn't a tasty little upsell for FCC at Stansted.

 

[mathmo]

Maybe it was to "ZONE U1256 LONDN" or something like that? My copy of NFM03 says that would cost £15.20, or a ticket to "ZONE U1234* LONDN" £14.50 (with a 16-25 railcard). This includes a trip to a London Terminal and one trip on the underground. I'm not sure what the routing guide says for Finsbury Park (it probably allows the obvious route via Liverpool Street) but this isn't a totally unreasonable ticket (maybe the ticket guy forgot Finsbury Park was a mainline station?), though they should have charged you £14.00 as you said.

 

[Capybara]

Isn't the most obvious (and cheapest, and quickest) route to Tottenham Hale then the Victoria Line?

 

[jon0844]

Yes, Tottenham Hale > Finsbury Park is significantly quicker than the slow crawl (relatively speaking) from Tottenham Hale to Liverpool Street and then the use of two tube lines, or tube and overland train. Even if the Victoria Line was down, you'd simply take one of many buses that go to Finsbury Park.

It's nice if someone can recommend a cheaper deal (i.e. a bit extra for unlimited travel with a Travelcard) but you can't just issue that without someone asking unless it was cheaper (i.e. someone asks for a journey where a TC is less than the standard return).

 

[jopsuk]

Just looked this up on the East Coast website. It gave me two options for destination named Finsbury Park. If I select the one called "Finsbury Park (tube)" it costs £14.50, "Finsbury park" costs £14.00.

Now, I have before had reason to travel from Cambridge on a day return, wanting to go down to Finbsury Park and back up from Tottenham Hale. I was issued a return (not travelcard) to zones 2-4- neatly covering all the Victoria Line from Highbury north eastwards.

Putting in any of the stations along that stretch of the Victoria line with (tube) produces the £14.50 fare.

So, assuming that "slightly" was 50p, then I think that the ticket may been a single to zones 2-4?
Edit: um, maybe not just 2-4. Seems the fare to ANY Victoria line station using (tube) comes out at £14.50.

 

[barrykas]

Playing around with the Fares Finder in The Manual, I would suggest that the most appropriate ticket would be Stansted Airport to Zones 2-3 (NLC 0797), priced at £18.10 Single before discount (£11.95 with Railcard).

Cheers,

Barry