Ticket machine doesn't let me choose London St Pancras as origin station

[miklcct]

I was at Clapham Junction and wanted to buy a ticket from London St Pancras to Brighton routed Not Underground, intending to start short there.

However, the ticket machine didn't have the location as the origin, nor have Farringdon as well. When I chose London Blackfriars or London Bridge as the origin, it also didn't offer me a ticket with origin London Thameslink as well.

Why can't the ticket machine at Clapham Junction sell me a ticket from London St Pancras?

 

[island]

Not all tickets are available from ticket machines. You could have used the ticket office, or bought online and collected from the ticket machine.

 

[railman3031]

Not all ticket machines have this feature, did you try going up to the ticket office to ask to purchase one there?

 

[RJ]

Why can't the ticket machine at Clapham Junction sell me a ticket from London St Pancras?

It might be the case the fare you were after hasn't been programmed in.

In all the time I've travelled, buying from a different station from a TVM has never been a guaranteed feature and even the ticket machines which allow this don't necessarily offer a full range of remote origins to buy from.

There is an argument for the offering from TVMs to be as simple as possible, if only to cut down on queuing times.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

I was at Clapham Junction and wanted to buy a ticket from London St Pancras to Brighton routed Not Underground, intending to start short there.

However, the ticket machine didn't have the location as the origin, nor have Farringdon as well. When I chose London Blackfriars or London Bridge as the origin, it also didn't offer me a ticket with origin London Thameslink as well.

Why can't the ticket machine at Clapham Junction sell me a ticket from London St Pancras?

Could you not use the ticket office?

As pointed out above not all destinations/origins are loaded into the machines, it’s usually only the most popular fares from that location which are.

 

[paul1609]

I was at Clapham Junction and wanted to buy a ticket from London St Pancras to Brighton routed Not Underground, intending to start short there.

However, the ticket machine didn't have the location as the origin, nor have Farringdon as well. When I chose London Blackfriars or London Bridge as the origin, it also didn't offer me a ticket with origin London Thameslink as well.

Why can't the ticket machine at Clapham Junction sell me a ticket from London St Pancras?

I believe that south of the river "London Thameslink" is only a fare offered to/from stations operated by GTR. Certainly Southeastern stations only offer tickets to the specific station, Zone U1 or a travelcard. Marshlink stations which are operated by Southern will only offer tickets routed "via Haywards Heath" to "London Thameslink"

 

[miklcct]

Not all ticket machines have this feature, did you try going up to the ticket office to ask to purchase one there?

I ended buying online for a ticket starting from "London Thameslink", by choosing London Bridge as the origin which had identical validity, and collecting it from the ticket machine. It wasn't possible to buy a ticket starting from "London St Pancras" because due to industrial action there were no trains passing through the core. (It was also because of the same reason I routed myself via Clapham Junction and had to switch between PAYG and a traditional ticket there)

I hoped to buy a ticket from "London St Pancras" just because it doesn't have the word "Thameslink" on it so there is less chance of getting hassle when the ticket doesn't work the Clapham Junction barrier and I have to be let through.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

I ended buying online for a ticket starting from "London Thameslink", by choosing London Bridge as the origin which had identical validity, and collecting it from the ticket machine. It wasn't possible to buy a ticket starting from "London St Pancras" because due to industrial action there were no trains passing through the core. (It was also because of the same reason I routed myself via Clapham Junction and had to switch between PAYG and a traditional ticket there)

I hoped to buy a ticket from "London St Pancras" just because it doesn't have the word "Thameslink" on it so there is less chance of getting hassle when the ticket doesn't work the Clapham Junction barrier and I have to be let through.

Why didn’t you just buy it from the ticket office?

 

[miklcct]

Why didn’t you just buy it from the ticket office?

There isn't a ticket office at the Overground entrance.