• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Reading - Paddington Gold Card ticket validity query

Status
Not open for further replies.

Catkin

Member
Joined
9 Jun 2012
Messages
12
Hi all,

I have been reading this forum for a few months and am aware that there are plenty of knowledgeable people on here - I now have a ticketing query and have more faith in finding someone who knows the answer here than at a ticket office!

I have a reading stations to London terminals gold card season ticket. I don't think the underground is included. On thursday night I was a little worse for wear and absent mindedly used my ticket to travel between baker street tube and paddington - my ticket worked in both barriers no problem at all.

I then checked yesterday morning and it worked again.

Is there some reason why my ticket worked? Does it allow me access to paddington AND all other London terminals and then the underground between those stations? Or is it a fault?

I have no wish to get in trouble but, equally, if my ticket is valid on the tube I have no wish to throw my money away for years! Don't have particular faith I would get an informed answer at a ticket office really, I'd assume they would be busy and just take the path of least resistance.....
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,433
Location
Yorkshire
Welcome to the forum :)

It's not valid.

Some tickets to London Terminals are valid via Baker Street (as this is a designated 'inter-available' route), and the barriers may not be able to differentiate between your ticket and a valid ticket. As for Paddington, if you use the platforms within the train shed at Paddington then there are no separate barriers for the Underground.

If caught, you could be asked some questions, if found to be a genuine mistake you'd be charged the Penalty Fare (plus the fare due), but if they believed you knew it was not valid they could prosecute. Therefore, I advise against using your ticket for this journey in future.

I would recommend you purchase an Oyster card and load your Gold Card discount on to it (if you haven't already).
 

LondonJohn

Member
Joined
17 Jul 2011
Messages
285
Location
London
A person I know had a season ticket for travel from a station outside London to London Fenchurch Street. She had recently swapped this over to not include the travelcard element after an office move closer to Fenchurch Street.

Out of habit the first time she used her new ticket she used the tube to go part way to her new office and found her rail only gold card opened the barriers at Tower Hill and the destination station in Zone 1. She continued to do this until she watched the Revenue Protection episode of the BBCs "The Tube" when she promptly obtained an Oyster Card and got her discount loaded..
 
Last edited by a moderator:

route:oxford

Established Member
Joined
1 Nov 2008
Messages
4,949
A person I know had a season ticket for travel from a station outside London to London Fenchurch Street. She had recently swapped this over to not include the travelcard element after an office move closer to Fenchurch Street.

Out of habit the first time she used her new ticket she used the tube to go part way to her new office and found her rail only gold card opened the barriers at Tower Hill and the destination station in Zone 1. She continued to do this until she watched the Revenue Protection episode of the BBCs "The Tube" when she promptly obtained an Oyster Card and got her discount loaded..

Is it such an unreasonable assumption that if a ticket is presented to an electro-mechanical guardian of the underground and it permits ingress/egress then by accounts the ticket must be valid?
 
Last edited by a moderator:

island

Veteran Member
Joined
30 Dec 2010
Messages
15,982
Location
0036
Yes. If it were a human, perhaps your argument might be accepted.
 

Flamingo

Established Member
Joined
26 Apr 2010
Messages
6,810
Is it such an unreasonable assumption that if a ticket is presented to an electro-mechanical guardian of the underground and it permits ingress/egress then by accounts the ticket must be valid?

It'll also accept child tickets, but they won't be valid...
 

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,433
Location
Yorkshire
I have split off some posts to a new thread: Reading-London, the shortest route +3 mile rule and replacement buses.

Is it such an unreasonable assumption that if a ticket is presented to an electro-mechanical guardian of the underground and it permits ingress/egress then by accounts the ticket must be valid?
In short, yes it is an unreasonable assumption.

But if the debate goes on any further, I'll split that off into a new thread too (and post a more detailed reason why it is unreasonable, if it comes to that).

I think we need to be very careful in a thread like this. The OP has asked a straightforward question, the answer has been given. That should be the end of it (unless anyone has something useful and accurate to add). Sorry if that sounds harsh. But people do ask questions on this forum because they value the answers, and we do need to ensure that a simple query does not become something incredibly complex.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top