Off-peak tickets in NSE area, continued.

[Bob M]

Just before Christmas I asked here about this, and learnt a great deal from the answers.

I have just travelled from Christchurch to Scotland via London and the sleeper. Armed with the knowledge I acquired last time, I bought an off peak return from CHR to London, and a cheap on-line sleeper ticket. On the return journey, early in the morning at Waterloo, my ticket would not open the barrier. The staff member there said I could not use my off-peak ticket until 0930. When I pointed out that I had travelled from outside the NSE area, he politely said that made no difference, and offered to call his manager.
When the manager arrived, he let us through, much to the surprise of the first member of staff, who apologised profusely to us!

So it seems one can have a valid ticket refused by these new barriers.

 

[dan_atki]

When I pointed out that I had travelled from outside the NSE area, he politely said that made no difference, and offered to call his manager.
When the manager arrived, he let us through, much to the surprise of the first member of staff, who apologised profusely to us!

So it seems one can have a valid ticket refused by these new barriers.

I agree that the software used for ticket barriers is not perfect and as such cannot account for every circumstance it will come across. There is only so much information that can be held by the magnetic strip and either the ticket has not been encoded to say 'open barrier at Waterloo at any time' or the barrier has not been programmed to say 'ticket from outside NSE area - let through at any time'.

I also feel that the barrier staff at Waterloo need more training - often when presented with an EMT staff pass (valid on SWT) they often look at it blankly or say it's not valid.

 

[yorkie]

A RTN portion of a Christchurch to Scotland ticket is valid at any time between London and Christchurch.

But a RTN portion of a Christchurch to London ticket is not valid until 0930 from Waterloo (0922 from Paddington).

 

[Matt Taylor]

Correct, Off-Peak returns for journeys wholly within the former NSE area are not valid for travel before 0930 M-F, there are one or two exceptions such as certain tickets to Gatwick but really I would feel quite undermined if a manager overruled me and the barriers given that most managers know very little about tickets.