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Hatfield ticket office woes

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causton

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So I turned up to the station with my request, not too hard. A Hatfield - Boundary Zone 6 and an inboundary Travelcard. Decided to test FCC and get the guy who I knew is awkward. First he didn't know what inboundary meant and then I saw he issued a ticket to the first station in Zone 6 instead!

Went up to the barrier staff who had an avantix and asked what i should do... He said 'technically you have a ticket for the whole journey' and let me in... He was so friendly I didn't get his name and the awkward man doesn't wear a name badge, just a white shirt.

My train is all stations now anyway *sigh* so it's irrelevant but... It was a specific ticket request!
 
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RJ

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So I turned up to the station with my request, not too hard. A Hatfield - Boundary Zone 6 and an inboundary Travelcard. Decided to test FCC and get the guy who I knew is awkward. First he didn't know what inboundary meant and then I saw he issued a ticket to the first station in Zone 6 instead!

Went up to the barrier staff who had an avantix and asked what i should do... He said 'technically you have a ticket for the whole journey' and let me in... He was so friendly I didn't get his name and the awkward man doesn't wear a name badge, just a white shirt.

My train is all stations now anyway *sigh* so it's irrelevant but... It was a specific ticket request!

Just ask for a ticket to BZ6, emphasising it specifically. Sometimes, you may have to say that you don't want a ticket to a named station. If they print a ticket to a named station, then get them to cancel and re-issue it.

Due to a similar experience, I suggest asking for it in NLC code. When I was doing split tickets, I'd ask for an Anytime Return from Luton Airport Parkway to 0041. Gets the job done without any problems every time :)
 

Urban Gateline

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I'd have thought that it's much easier to issue a Hatfield to BZ6 ticket than to look on the route map and find the first station in Z6 to issue a ticket to! So I'm not sure why someone there can't even grasp such a basic thing.

Inboundary and Outboundary are standard terms too so why the guy didn't know what an Inboundary Travelcard is I'll never know! :roll:

I suppose if you wanted to be difficult you could have asked for the Hatfield ticket to be refunded and then purchased a BZ6 ticket from the person at the barriers, that'd show him!
 

causton

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Cheers :) yeah i did emphasise it because he asked me to repeat it, and I knew that this guy was awkward (once spent 25 minutes at the window with him trying to sell me a ticket which included bus travel but wasn't plusbus; because the yp fare had been discounted twice, closed ages ago now ;) so I thought the barrier staff would help. Plus it's all purely academic, ticket checks on FCC? ;)
 

Fred26

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As far as I'm aware you can't buy a ticket from Hatfield to Boundary Zone 6 - it has to be to the nearest zone 6 station. When I worked at Southend it was an impossibility and so we sold ours to Harold Wood. Coming out of London tickets from the boundary were available.

I've never heard the terms 'in-boundary' or 'out-boundary', either from staff or passengers. I'm not surprised he had no idea what you meant.
 

philjo

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Plus it's all purely academic, ticket checks on FCC? ;)

My season ticket was checked on the train this morning between WGC & Hatfield. Also checked on at least 5 other occasions in the last fortnight. Generally south of WGC.
 

Urban Gateline

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As far as I'm aware you can't buy a ticket from Hatfield to Boundary Zone 6

Yes you can, it's on Avantix Traveller, Hatfield (6070) to Boundary Zone 6 (0072) £3.30 CDR (Y-P discounted)


I've never heard the terms 'in-boundary' or 'out-boundary', either from staff or passengers. I'm not surprised he had no idea what you meant.

Hmm maybe if you worked out somewhere far from London then you may not know, however Hatfield is not far out of London and will have alot of London bound passengers so I'm sure it's not an unusual request!
 

Fred26

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Southend isn't far out of London.

As far as the ticket goes, perhaps things have changed.
 

RJ

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Hmm maybe if you worked out somewhere far from London then you may not know, however Hatfield is not far out of London and will have alot of London bound passengers so I'm sure it's not an unusual request!

There are a few stations in Essex that have no fares to Boundary Zones. Basildon and other c2c stations for example.

 

ntg

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How much does doing this save (or is there a utility I can use to find out myself)? I regularly travel from Hatfield or Potters Bar to London with a travelcard.
 

island

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As far as I'm aware you can't buy a ticket from Hatfield to Boundary Zone 6 - it has to be to the nearest zone 6 station. When I worked at Southend it was an impossibility and so we sold ours to Harold Wood. Coming out of London tickets from the boundary were available.

I've never heard the terms 'in-boundary' or 'out-boundary', either from staff or passengers. I'm not surprised he had no idea what you meant.

Until NFM10 this may have been correct. The Manual has been updated to specify that you may buy both to and from Boundary Zones, although it is lamentably unclear on the topic. I have had two months of correspondence with London Midland concerning tickets which one of its booking offices steadfastly refused to issue, but its guards were happy to sort out.
 

LexyBoy

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Plus it's all purely academic, ticket checks on FCC? ;)

Judging by FCC's reputation, if there were an RPI check it could well have resulted in being reported for prosecution as you didn't have a valid ticket for the journey being made. No matter what "the bloke on the platform" (who is always wrong and/or imaginary) said. ;)

edit: unless you were on a train which actually stopped at Hadley Wood of course...
 
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causton

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ntg:1109371 said:
How much does doing this save (or is there a utility I can use to find out myself)? I regularly travel from Hatfield or Potters Bar to London with a travelcard.
With railcard from Hatfield off peak is 11.20 for a travelcard or 3.30+5.60 for boundary zone return and travelcard :P
 

LexyBoy

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You can check all fares on brfares.com.

There's a saving from Reading too; outboundary travelcard is £21.70, boundary zone + inboundary is £10.50*+£8.50. I'm usually too lazy to use it though.

*Route Slough; it's not a worthwhile split for travel via Ascot so it is more restrictive than the outboundary Travelcard.
 

bb21

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How much does doing this save (or is there a utility I can use to find out myself)? I regularly travel from Hatfield or Potters Bar to London with a travelcard.

That isn't usually the point, although sometimes it does also help. The main advantage is that you can get a non-stop train, rather than the train having to stop at the station where one switches to the travelcard if purchased to a named station inside the zones, when used in combination with an inboundary day travelcard.
 

RJ

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That isn't usually the point, although sometimes it does also help. The main advantage is that you can get a non-stop train, rather than the train having to stop at the station where one switches to the travelcard if purchased to a named station inside the zones, when used in combination with an inboundary day travelcard.

It's also a way to evade evening peak restrictions in many cases.
 

causton

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Guess what? East Croydon station gave me a zero fare excess! Firstly they said the ticket cannot be changed after 1 hour after issuing but I said "how about an excess?"... Done immediately, promptly and with no hassle. And people say Southern are as bad as FCC! :)
 
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