Ealing Broadway to St Albans

[pdeaves]

I will travel to St Albans tomorrow (8 July), crossing London en route. Are tickets to City valid via Abbey station, please? My local station could not get the system to issue a fare to Abbey, only City. Journey planners consistently give routes to Abbey as City-then-walk. I would thus assume inter-availability but assumptions are always dangerous!

Thanks for your help.

 

[miklcct]

Where is your origin station?

 

[SargeNpton]

I don't think that tickets are inter-changeable between the two stations.

If you want to specifically go to Abbey then you will need to use the advanced options in the journey planners to use Watford Junction as a via point.

 

[jfollows]

I also don't think so. They're different stations in different groups with different routeing points.
Also:
Easement 700434 (http://iblocks-rg-publication.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/easement_text.pdf):

Customers travelling from Watford North, Garston, Bricket Wood, How Wood, Park Street and St Albans Abbey to or via London St Pancras in possession of tickets routed "Any Permitted" or "via London" may not travel via St Albans. This easement applies in both directions.

 

[pdeaves]

Thanks. That's a nuisance but better to know before attempting the journey!

 

[yorkie]

What is your intended journey, and what sort of itinerary do you have in mind?

 

[pdeaves]

I intended Ealing Broadway-Euston-St Albans Abbey (arr 1300-ish); do some stuff in St Albans, then St Albans City-Farringdon-west.

 

[SargeNpton]

I can find a fare in journey planners via Paddington-Bakerloo to Stonebridge Park-DC Line to Watford and then to St Albans; but not if Euston is specified as a via point.

That's strange as the background data does show a fares flow. Something, somewhere must be stopping it from being displayed.

 

[yorkie]

In theory, a ticket from Ealing Broadway to Park Street should be valid via St Albans City (SAC); there is no reason for it not to be, as the fare is higher.

However a negative easement prevents it:

Customers travelling from Watford North, Garston, Bricket Wood, How Wood, Park Street and St Albans Abbey to or via London St Pancras in possession of tickets routed "Any Permitted" or "via London" may not travel via St Albans. This easement applies in both directions.

Perhaps someone may want to send an FOI request to the DfT asking if they were sought permission, and if so what their reasoning for agreeing to it was.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Tickets are priced from Ealing Broadway cluster (Acton Main Line, Ealing Broadway, West Ealing, Hanwell, Drayton Green, Castle Bar Park, South Greenford, and Greenford) to St Albans Abbey cluster (Bricket Wood, How Wood, Park Street, and St Albans Abbey), so there's no obvious reason for no fare to appear.

It does, however, appear that there are no fares between Chiltern stations between Denham and Beaconsfield (inclusive) and St Albans Abbey for some reason.

 

[kieron]

Two people have cited easement 700434 in this thread, but both seem to have misunderstood what it says.

The easement affects journeys from or to Watford North, Garston, Bricket Wood, How Wood, Park Street and St Albans Abbey which go via St Albans City and London St Pancras.

It does not affect journeys between Ealing Broadway and St Albans City as neither station appears in the "from or to" list. In addition, it does not affect an Ealing Broadway-Euston-St Albans Abbey-St Albans City journey as it does not go through St Pancras.

One slightly complication with this journey is that it ends with a walking section, rather than on a train. If you search for this on nre.co.uk (as an example), it only offers tickets to the last station you reached by train. It offers Ealing Broadway-Radlett tickets using pdeaves' suggested route, which may be some comfort.

In summary, an Ealing Broadway-St Albans City ticket permits travel via London Euston and St Albans Abbey, but some retailers may not be able to sell a ticket with that itinerary.