Southern - London Victoria to Billingshurst - no advance fares on Saturdays

[Bossworld]

I feel like I'm missing something obvious but I've spoken to Southern via Twitter and they said the fares are likely sold out.

London Victoria to Billingshurst - advance tickets are available on weekdays from £5. I've tried every Saturday between now and the 12 December and the cheapest ticket is £26.50 - there are no advance fares. Ideally i need around 8am on the 12 December.

Is this a Saturday restriction, or due to some kind of enhanced Covid timetabling restriction? For what it's worth, the LNER website says no tickets are available as the timetables aren't confirmed, but I thought that message was just for LNER services.

The National Rail site suggests Southern tickets are available up to the end of December.

Any help gratefully received as I feel I'm going mad.

 

[Wallsendmag]

The info on the LNER site only applies to our services.

 

[Bossworld]

Cheers, I wasn’t sure if they could plug into the wider network systems to show ticket availability.

That aside, they came back via Twitter and the retail team said there were no advance tickets ‘yet’ rather than them being sold out. Doesn’t quite explain every single Saturday between now and 2021 though.

 

[Haywain]

Cheers, I wasn’t sure if they could plug into the wider network systems to show ticket availability.

That aside, they came back via Twitter and the retail team said there were no advance tickets ‘yet’ rather than them being sold out. Doesn’t quite explain every single Saturday between now and 2021 though.

I think you're going to have to wait. For a start the current lockdown runs until December 2nd, and we don't know what is going to happen after that date. It may be the case that Advance tickets are not currently being offered as it doesn't fit with the narrative of avoiding unnecessary travel, or there may be some other reason to do with certainties over timetables and such like. These could mean that any Advance tickets made available may not be seen until very close to your date of travel.

 

[jfisher21]

Sometimes it is cheaper to use contactless to East Croydon and buy a ticket from there to Billingshurst. Need to touch out at East Croydon though.

 

[Jan Mayen]

This message appears when trying to book via Southern's Website:

16:05 VIC 17:12 BIG - Sat 12 Dec​

London Victoria (VIC)
Billingshurst (BIG)​

Leaves at:	16:05
Arrives at:	17:12
Duration:	1hr 7m
Changes:	0

It is not yet known if this journey will be affected by engineering work.

So presumably waiting until they do know before releasing Advance fares.

 

[Bossworld]

Thank you everyone. Yes don’t mind waiting as it’s not exactly going to get more expensive than it currently is.

Thank you for the tip re East Croydon, I did see a possible triple ticket split using Croydon and Gatwick.

I guess there must be some rationale that the weekday tickets could constitute a commute hence advance fares are available.

Slightly concerning to see possible engineering works as there were some planned the weekend before, I believe

 

[paul1609]

If no advances are available for your journey, and you are only going one way. Book a Billingshurst to London Victoria Super Off Peak Return £16.70 collect it TOD and throw the outward portion away. If you want a day return consider a Southern Daysave £20.50, you need to buy it 3 days in advance.

 

[Bossworld]

If no advances are available for your journey, and you are only going one way. Book a Billingshurst to London Victoria Super Off Peak Return £16.70 collect it TOD and throw the outward portion away. If you want a day return consider a Southern Daysave £20.50, you need to buy it 3 days in advance.

Spot on mate, thank you very much for the heads up. Would never have even crossed my mind

 

[Hadders]

Depending on how often you travel by rail a Network Railcard could be useful. There is no minimum fare at weekends but you can get a 34% discount on walk up tickets in the Network Railcard area. Costs £30 for a year.

To be honest for travel within the south east I don't use Advance tickets, a railcard discounted walk on ticket is often almost as cheap and far more flexible.

 

[Bossworld]

Depending on how often you travel by rail a Network Railcard could be useful. There is no minimum fare at weekends but you can get a 34% discount on walk up tickets in the Network Railcard area. Costs £30 for a year.

To be honest for travel within the south east I don't use Advance tickets, a railcard discounted walk on ticket is often almost as cheap and far more flexible.

Thank you, I'll bear that one in mind too. I missed out on the Millennial railcard trial and then was too old when it got introduced properly, so haven't had a railcard since my student days proper.

The journey is to pick up a car that will probably mean I use trains even less, I'll be needing to work in central London twice a month after life returns to normal.

Wanted a bit more flexibility than having to spot NCL < > Kings Cross fares weeks in advance. Based in the North East so means driving down to a hotel somewhere like Elstree, and taking the Northern Line in from Edgware for a few days, but means I can visit family in the Midlands on the way back up. Will probably still use the ECML at times.

All ifs and buts really but big thanks again to people on this forum

 

[Hadders]

If staying in Elstree then no need to drive to Edgware to use the Northern Line. Take Thameslink from Elstree & Borehamwood.

You might also want to consider staying in places a little further out but which have fast trains (e.g. Stevenage fast trains taking 25 minutes) or Potters Bar (form where you can use Oyster or Contactless)

 

[Bossworld]

Lovely, thank you for all the advice

 

[paul1609]

Depends whereabouts in London your destination is but coming from the Northeast Id recommend considering staying on the A1M/A1 in Yorkshire down to the A14 then M11. Leave at Junction7 and take the old A11 for Premier Inn Chingford. Its about 400 yards from Chingford Station (Zone 5) which takes you to Liverpool Street in the heart of the city. A bonus is this premier inn is on the edge of Epping Forest if you like open space.

 

[Bossworld]

Depends whereabouts in London your destination is but coming from the Northeast Id recommend considering staying on the A1M/A1 in Yorkshire down to the A14 then M11. Leave at Junction7 and take the old A11 for Premier Inn Chingford. Its about 400 yards from Chingford Station (Zone 5) which takes you to Liverpool Street in the heart of the city. A bonus is this premier inn is on the edge of Epping Forest if you like open space.

Sorry I realised after I posted 'central London' I was going to make myself sound like a small-town person, I am reasonably well travelled for what it's worth Will take a look at those thank you.

For the regular trip I need to be in the City, so Liverpool St would be ideal.

After many years of Chesterfield < > Newcastle and what felt like a 10 year spell where there was always at least one 50mph zone around Masham/Thirsk, I've almost religiously avoided the A1 where I can and just stayed on the M1, it's an extra couple of miles but being three lanes seems to mean traffic moves faster.

These days as I'm coming from the coast it's A19 > A1 for a while > M1, but I'm aware they've finally ditched all the A1 roundabouts and junctions around Markham Moor and further down.

EDIT: May have found some more info on the original enquiry, though it doesn't quite match up to the dates online (e.g. no advance fares showing for 21 Nov even though that's not excluded):

Advance tickets not available yet for 28/29 Nov, 12/13 Dec and so on https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/44703.aspx
Timetables available for 12 Dec from 26 Nov https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/254145.aspx

I'll be doing the 'ditching the outbound' method if nothing else comes up.

 

[Bossworld]

Sorry to come back to this but looks like advance fares aren’t happening.

I did the return journey ticket order using the LNER app as I had a discount on my Amex card. It’s forced me into a digital ticket.

Will there be any issues in that the outbound portion won’t have been used/electronically validated or are the two independent of each other?

 

[Haywain]

Sorry to come back to this but looks like advance fares aren’t happening.

I did the return journey ticket order using the LNER app as I had a discount on my Amex card. It’s forced me into a digital ticket.

Will there be any issues in that the outbound portion won’t have been used/electronically validated or are the two independent of each other?

There shouldn't be a problem as, unlike airline tickets, there isn't an obligation to use the outward portion of the ticket.

 

[Bossworld]

There shouldn't be a problem as, unlike airline tickets, there isn't an obligation to use the outward portion of the ticket.

Thank you, just wasn’t sure if the previous guidance was for convenience of picking up at a different station, or a means of avoiding a potential problem. Hopefully all good to go unless there’s a timetabling or maintenance surprise!

 

[paul1609]

Its some years since I got off at Billingshurst but I suspect it doesnt have ticket barriers. This is probably why youve been offered an e ticket. Initially only major Southern stations had readers although I understand they are being installed along the Westcoastway atm. Either way it wont be a problem.

 

[Bossworld]

Well after all that, with 48 hours to go they finally released some advance tickets. Sorted for £8.50 and have requested a refund on the other. Thanks for all the help

 

[paul1609]

Are you picking up your car from that car supermarket place at Coneyhurst? If so thats quite a hike from the station. Id recommend giving the Taxi firm a ring before you get there probably wont be a long queue of taxis at the station.

 

[Bossworld]

Are you picking up your car from that car supermarket place at Coneyhurst? If so thats quite a hike from the station. Id recommend giving the Taxi firm a ring before you get there probably wont be a long queue of taxis at the station.

Thanks - No there’s a dealer (Auto Sussex) just across the way, but it looks like it’s a case of walking 3/4s of the way around, as there are fields in the way.

Less than a couple of miles so hopefully not raining.

Well, to close out the thread, Southern did the honourable thing and ran so slowly through to Gatwick that the train behind caught up, they decided not to split mine, and I had to change at Horsham to get that one instead. Least there was 50% returned via Delay Repay.

I then walked the 3/4s of the way around the village along some pretty dicey NSL roads, I did ask the garage who confirmed there is a route from the station through to the industrial estate but would have been muddy as owt!

Car all successfully picked up, and with planned fare rises, probably going to use it more than thought.

Thanks again