How to purchase crossrail tickets digitally?

[HPoirot]

Hello all,

I'm hoping someone can help me with this

How can I buy a crossrail ticket digitally?

I want to travel from Reading into London on the Elizabeth line

Are there any apps that allow you to specify a Elizabeth line ticket?

One thing I've noticed, I can't seem to find any where what the standard ticket prices on the Elizabeth actually, you would think it would be listed on their website in black and white, if it exists I can't find it

Thanks

 

[plugwash]

There isn't really such a thing as an "Elizibeth line ticket" per-se.

You have two options.

The first is to use contatless pay as you go. You touch in at your origin and touch out at your destination, there is no ticket per-se. You can look up the fares for this option on TfLs single fare finder. https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/tube-and-rail-fares/single-fare-finder. Contactless pay as you go is valid on both Crossrail and GWR services from reading to London but it is not valid on the SWR route from Reading to London.

The second is to use a rail ticket. As far as I can tell all Reading to London rail tickets are valid on <s>Crosscountry</s>Crossrail, GWR and SWR services. A ticket to "London Terminals" will only take you as far as Paddington. If you want to travel beyond paddington things get a bit more complicated. TfLs intent was to treat the new Elizibeth line "core" from Paddington to Abbey Wood via Liverpool Street like an underground line from a ticketing perspective. So to travel from reading to one of the Core stations using a rail ticket you would need a ticket to the relavent underground zone.

 

[Watershed]

The second is to use a rail ticket. As far as I can tell all Reading to London rail tickets are valid on Crosscountry GWR and SWR services. A ticket to "London Terminals" will only take you as far as Paddington. If you want to travel beyond paddington things get a bit more complicated. TfLs intent was to treat the new Elizibeth line "core" from Paddington to Abbey Wood via Liverpool Street like an underground line from a ticketing perspective. So to travel from reading to one of the Core stations using a rail ticket you would need a ticket to the relavent underground zone.

Alternatively you can also buy a ticket to one of the stations on the route to which there are 'existing' fares, e.g. Abbey Wood or Stratford.

 

[island]

TfL strongly prefers passengers to use contactless payment cards (or Oyster in the relevant area) for travel, and fares are based on zones used.

If you are not in a position to use this payment method, the best ticketing options for the Elizabeth line will depend on your specific journey.

 

[Haywain]

Alternatively you can also buy a ticket to one of the stations on the route to which there are 'existing' fares, e.g. Abbey Wood or Stratford.

Although these will (or should) not show EL journeys in journey planners, so it’s better to buy for one station past each of those. For Abbey Wood from Reading using EL the journey should be to Zone U1234 - no need to tell me how silly that is.

 

[SickyNicky]

Although these will (or should) not show EL journeys in journey planners, so it’s better to buy for one station past each of those. For Abbey Wood from Reading using EL the journey should be to Zone U1234 - no need to tell me how silly that is.

As Maltese Cross tickets are permitted on EL journeys, I think that a ticket from ABBEY WOOD to READING route +ANY PERMITTED would also be OK.

But going back to the OP, e-tickets and m-tickets can't be issued with either zonal origins/destinations or with Maltese Crosses, so they would only ever be issued on paper tickets.

Leaving you with contactless only for this journey. Which is unavailable for railcard users (and may be discriminatory against disabled users).

 

[Haywain]

As Maltese Cross tickets are permitted on EL journeys, I think that a ticket from ABBEY WOOD to READING route +ANY PERMITTED would also be OK.

That’s not what the briefings said.

 

[island]

That’s not what the briefings said.

Indeed. However, a ticket from Belvedere, which is the same price, presumably would be valid.

 

[miklcct]

How about a Reading to Farringdon, routed Not Underground ticket, all the way on the Elizabeth line?

 

[Haywain]

Indeed. However, a ticket from Belvedere, which is the same price, presumably would be valid.

Indeed.

 

[Watershed]

That’s not what the briefings said.

I'm not sure on which basis it would be claimed that a ticket to Abbey Wood, and particular with a Maltese Cross, couldn't be used on Crossrail.

 

[Sleepy]

Although these will (or should) not show EL journeys in journey planners, so it’s better to buy for one station past each of those. For Abbey Wood from Reading using EL the journey should be to Zone U1234 - no need to tell me how silly that is.

Some journeys will show EL in planners - Reading to Chelmsford for example (changing at Pad then Stratford) on GWR mixing desk.

 

[Haywain]

Some journeys will show EL in planners - Reading to Chelmsford for example (changing at Pad then Stratford) on GWR mixing desk.

Yes, journeys beyond Stratford or Abbey Wood should always show up using EL services.

 

[Sleepy]

That’s not what the briefings said.

GWR mixing desk will happily sell Reading to Abbey Wood with itinery for EL line. (Journey date 28th Nov)

 

[Benjwri]

But going back to the OP, e-tickets and m-tickets can't be issued with either zonal origins/destinations or with Maltese Crosses, so they would only ever be issued on paper tickets

Although could be issued on a smartcard if you wanted to avoid a paper ticket.

 

[andrew749]

Although could be issued on a smartcard if you wanted to avoid a paper ticket.

Maltese cross tickets can't currently be issued on a smartcard (although I'd be delighted to be wrong about this).

 

[island]

Maltese cross tickets can't currently be issued on a smartcard (although I'd be delighted to be wrong about this).

You’re not wrong.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Maltese cross tickets can't currently be issued on a smartcard (although I'd be delighted to be wrong about this).

Travelcards can though

 

[Ralph Ayres]

How about a Reading to Farringdon, routed Not Underground ticket, all the way on the Elizabeth line?

There's no such ticket so far as I can tell. It's just a normal Reading-Zone U1 ticket, with the normal problem of working out how you actually have to select the destination ("London Underground Zone 1", "Underground Zone 1" etc) on whatever ticket machine you are using if it doesn't have Farringdon programmed in.

 

[bcarmicle]

Although these will (or should) not show EL journeys in journey planners, so it’s better to buy for one station past each of those. For Abbey Wood from Reading using EL the journey should be to Zone U1234 - no need to tell me how silly that is.

Why wouldn't journey planners generate Elizabeth Line for Reading to Stratford? I've just checked LNER's journey planner and can see GWR/XR/XR journeys (changing at Paddington and Liverpool).

 

[Watershed]

There's no such ticket so far as I can tell. It's just a normal Reading-Zone U1 ticket, with the normal problem of working out how you actually have to select the destination ("London Underground Zone 1", "Underground Zone 1" etc) on whatever ticket machine you are using if it doesn't have Farringdon programmed in.

Yes there is - Farringdon has fares defined to it in the normal way from most locations. It's the other "core" stations that are more problematic.

 

[Ralph Ayres]

Yes there is - Farringdon has fares defined to it in the normal way from most locations. It's the other "core" stations that are more problematic.My fault

My fault; didn't scroll past all the many Travelcard fares. I'm sure it's meant only for approaching Farringdon from the south using Thameslink but that will be far from clear to the average punter. The route description should have been changed as many others were to mention City Thameslink.

 

[HPoirot]

Thanks for all the replies,

So when I've been on the Elizabeth line before traveling from London to Reading, at a certain point the driver announces that oyster cards can't be used beyond a certain point

So when you say

"use contactless pay as you go. You touch in at your origin and touch out at your destination"

are we talking about oyster or something else?

What I find strange, in London you find the new crossrail ticket purchase machine accessible at stations without passing through any ticket gates

At reading station, said new ticket machines are behind the ticket gates, so you need a ticket just to get to the new crossrail ticket type machine, which makes no sense to me

I've asked to purchase a cross rail ticket from the ticket booth at Reading, and I was informed that they aren't for sale, only GWR tickets, and the older ticket machines that are accessible before the ticket gates only mention gwr tickets, you can't find elizabeth line crossrail tickets on them

one afternoon a while back I had a gwr ticket to london, I noticed there was a crossrail train departing to London, I boarded the train, expecting it would go to straight to West Drayton and then become a regular crossrail service, it didn't do that it stopped at every single station,
which at the time made me think how has everybody else on this train managed to get a ticket to ride it, when it seemed impossible to buy a ticket

regarding pricing, on this page it states

https://www.independent.co.uk/trave...zabeth-line-ticket-prices-fares-b2086921.html

To ride the entire line from Reading to Shenfield (which will require two changes at Paddington and Liverpool Street respectively until late 2022) will cost you £29.60 at peak times (Monday to Friday from 6.30-9.30am) and £17 at all other times, including public holidays, when using contactless card payment.

email response I got from TFL, with regards to a ticket inquiry said it would be,
compare the prices and the distances above and below

£52 for a any time return for a paper ticket from reading to London

for contactless (and again I'm not sure if they mean oyster (which isn't supposed to work at Reading) or something else)

£28 Peak (between 06:30 - 09:30 Monday - Friday)
£13 Off-peak (all other times including bank holidays)

so can i ask what contactless methods is everyone using?

 

[JonathanH]

TfL Oyster PAYG (with an Oyster card) doesn't go beyond West Drayton.

TfL Contactless PAYG (with a suitable bank card) extends all the way to Reading with fares shown in the single fare finder - https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/tube-and-rail-fares/single-fare-finder?intcmp=54716

The fares of £29.60 and £17 for Reading to Shenfield can be seen by putting those stations into the Single Fare Finder.

I've asked to purchase a cross rail ticket from the ticket booth at Reading, and I was informed that they aren't for sale, only GWR tickets, and the older ticket machines that are accessible before the ticket gates only mention gwr tickets, you can't find elizabeth line crossrail tickets on them

There is no such differential between GWR and Crossrail fares. The same ares from Reading to Paddington are valid on both operators, whether on the normal 'National Rail' scales or using Contactless as described above.

There are no 'GWR only' or 'Crossrail only' fares.

Realistically most people in the South East buy outboundary travelcards when they are going to London and travelling beyond the relevant London Terminal. That includes people from Reading. An outboundary travelcard is valid on both GWR and Crossrail (and indeed SWR) trains.

 

[HPoirot]

When I try Reading to Paddington. I get:

No fares found, please try again

 

[JonathanH]

When I try Reading to Paddington. I get:

No fares found, please try again

Try Reading Rail Station to London Paddington Rail Station.

(I imagine the single fare finder may find Reading Rail Station to Paddington fares after 6 November.)

There is no such issue with Reading Rail Station to Bond Street or indeed any other core Station.

 

[XAM2175]

"use contactless pay as you go. You touch in at your origin and touch out at your destination"

are we talking about oyster or something else?

for contactless (and again I'm not sure if they mean oyster (which isn't supposed to work at Reading) or something else)

so can i ask what contactless methods is everyone using?

"Contactless" in this sense means a contactless payment card, such as a credit or debit card you get from a bank or other financial institution. It will need to display this icon:

It is tapped on the readers like you do with an Oyster card, but it is additionally valid at some stations where Oyster isn't.

I would, as a separate matter, note that the line is just called the Elizabeth line. The Crossrail name is effectively dead now.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Do you want to buy tickets digitally or buy a smart ticket ? Two very different things

 

[island]

When I try Reading to Paddington. I get:

No fares found, please try again

That website's rubbish, use ltfares.com

 

[HPoirot]

Thanks all

I'm not entirely sure what a smart ticket is?

I was unaware that you could use a contactless debit card at the train station ticket gates

On the one hand I like the idea of contactless, but on a journey you haven't made before I find it a bit off putting if you don't know how much it's going to cost

What happens if you forget to tapp out, I don't trust myself to always remember

Basically I was trying to find a cheaper way in to London, and I recalled seeing some where a while back what I thought Elizabeth line tickets cost, (which was relatively affordable) in comparison to the gwr ticket I was paying

Is there a reason why contactless is much cheaper than a paper ticket?

See I like train stations with staff, I find them usually extremely helpful when you aren't familiar with a new area and you aren't quite sure where you are going,
I have this sinking feeling if I use contactless payments that I'll be voting with my wallet for there to be less staff at stations, which is what I don't want to see, it's just that the train tickets (plus the disel and car park ticket to get there) It soon gets quite expensive when you need to make multiple commutes

I tend to buy paper tickets with London travel zones, as the latter usually saves money

I have the trainline app on my phone, I used it a lot when travelling round Europe on the trains, and I've used it on occasion in the UK

The other week, in he early hours I was looking on the train line app, at the price of train tickets, from the cities around London, I recall you could get 5am commutes into London for £20 ish from cities like Reading, Cambridge, Colchester, Brighton
But any further out at the same time of day the tickets got substantially more expensive by a factor of two or three
The annoying thing was, when I looked a couple of hours latter the tickets had all jumped in price, almost like a travel agents package holiday would if too many people were viewing the webpage

One thing I like about travelling on the trains in Europe, in the stations machines they usually have a sales ticket section, I guess for when the trains are carrying less passengers than expected, i found it quite good for a cheap ticket if you were looking for a random destination

The thing about crossrail/Elizabeth line, from what I recall it is/was a separate entity from tfl and now isn't anymore?

It's kind of seperate and yet at the same time it isn't

When searching on various train ticket and web search engines, it doesn't show up when I look for it, and it all seemed a bit odd that a fair few million had been spent on a public transport infrastructure, yet so hard to actually purchase a ticket to use it on a phone