Rochester to Horsham

[MedwayValiant]

Today I made a return journey from Rochester to Horsham, travelling via Victoria (CDR £33.80). But on the return journey, the train from Horsham to Victoria was terminated at East Croydon. I imagine it was turning round short since it was running fairly late.

With few trains running to time because of the bad weather on the coast, and no fast service to Victoria imminent, I left the station at East Croydon, took a 119 bus to Bromley and thence train back to Rochester - and I'm fairly sure that I got home half an hour earlier than I would have.

I have now discovered that a CDR from Rochester to Horsham routed Not London is considerably cheaper, at £21.00. I imagine that is really intended for people intending to travel via Strood, Tonbridge, and Redhill - but would it be valid for travel via Bromley South and East Croydon, making one's own way between the two by bus? Or is that an "Out of Station Interchange" too far?

Taking into account 2 x £1.50 Oystercard bus fares this is still almost £10 cheaper than travelling via Victoria, and quite a lot of the time it's probably quicker too.

 

[Starmill]

It might be permitted to go via Birkbeck with a 'Not via London' ticket, or indeed via Tulse Hill, or via Wandsworth Road or various other permutations of routes in the area that still do not go via London. I'll try to look up some of these shortly if someone else doesn't get there first.

As far as I can see, all would be completely reasonable routes.

 

[MedwayValiant]

Let us suppose that one or more of those options is indeed a permitted route. Any such route would pass through both Bromley South and East Croydon, but would not pass through a London terminal, so does it necessarily follow that my route would therefore be permitted?

Few would actually choose to go via Birkbeck or any of the others because of the number of changes involved, but the Bromley and Croydon option might sometimes be quicker than the "obvious" route via Victoria even when everything is running to time. It replaces two train journeys of about 20 minutes each and a march from (potentially) Platform 1 to Platform 19 at Victoria with a bus journey whose indicative timing is 37 minutes. (At 6.30 on a Saturday evening, it actually took a couple less.)

I know that the ticket working the barriers is not evidence that one's chosen routing is valid, but fwiw my ticket did work the barriers at East Croydon. I don't know about Bromley because the barriers were open.

 

[Starmill]

Let us suppose that one or more of those options is indeed a permitted route. Any such route would pass through both Bromley South and East Croydon, but would not pass through a London terminal, so does it necessarily follow that my route would therefore be permitted?

If one of those routes is a mapped route or the shortest route then yes, absolutely.

My guess based on the limited information that I have available is that via Birkbeck may well be the shortest route.

 

[MedwayValiant]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. There is a mapped route for this journey which passes through both Bromley South and East Croydon. The point of transfer from Map FC to Map SD is Crystal Palace, and so my route is valid.

The shortest route is thus irrelevant, but I worked it out anyway and it seems to be via Penge East and Penge West. Since those stations are a designated OSI, I'm assuming that the distance between them should be taken as 0. If so, it's 1 mile shorter than the route via Crystal Palace.

 

[MikeWh]

I'm not sure how Birkbeck helps as that doesn't have trains to East Croydon, but ...

Via either Crystal Palace, or Penge East/West would certainly be fine.


(and I see you've worked both out now yourself)

 

[Starmill]

m not sure how Birkbeck helps as that doesn't have trains to East Croydon, but ...

Sorry I thought it was clear you had to go via Crystal Palace one way or the other. Indeed, via Birkbeck is the shortest route.

There are a number of other possibilities, including walking from New Cross Gate to New Cross, walking from Penge West to Penge East and changing at Peckham Rye.

As you have correctly identified there is a route shorter than the shortest route, walking between the Penge stations.