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Welling to York (EC & Connections)

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emjass

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Hello all!

I have a ticket from Welling (A station on Southeastern network) to York. This ticket is an advanced ticket and had reserved a seat for the 0900 train from King's Cross to York. The ticket has a restriction for the route of "EC & Connections." According to NRE, I am suppose to travel to London Bridge and change to LU to King's Cross. However, knowing that it takes forever to travel on the LU, I wonder if my ticket is allowed to exchange to Thameslink of FCC in London Bridge to St. Pancras instead of the LU trip suggested by NRE as this will be a quicker route? I have researched on the permitted routes and can only figure out that I can essentially travel via anywhere in London (London Group), but as my train to York aren't from St. Pancras, I am not sure if I can travel via FCC. Can someone suggest if this is allowed and will be able to get out of the gate of FCC in St. Pancras?
 
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MikeWh

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Welcome to the forum,

Thameslink is definitely allowed as a substitute for the Underground when crossing London, so you'll be fine. I've done the journey that way myself. For future reference though, you might find you can get cheaper advance tickets for just the EC bit and pay for the connection using Oyster or a travelcard. This is because East Coast don't release any of their cheapest advances for & Connections flows.
 

emjass

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Thank you for your response! Funny enough though, I found the difference between from London to York and Welling to York to be a 1 pound difference. I have tried searching from King's Cross to York on the 0900 to be 31 pounds and find out my current ticket from Welling to York on the same train from King's Cross to York (dep. 0900) to be costing at around 32 pounds, so I've got this ticket instead.

As I am a regular traveler between Manchester and Welling, I know that it is definitely cheaper to get advanced ticket to London and travel by Oyster card. Hence, I am actually quite shocked to see the difference is 1 pound for the EC service and thought this is some special feature between SE and EC.
 

MikeWh

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Maybe there were no really cheap advances left when you searched. £1 sounds about right where the same level of advance is involved, but if you get the cheapest two tiers it is generally much more.
 

sonic2009

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If when booking your ticket you could force the journey planner to go via City Thameslink, it will then offer you the advance tickets EC + Connections routed via the Thameslink rather than the Underground.

You will then have no trouble exiting the ticket barriers at London St Pancras, because you are following the itinerary given for your ticket.

When are you travelling?.
 

yorkie

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Maybe there were no really cheap advances left when you searched. £1 sounds about right where the same level of advance is involved, but if you get the cheapest two tiers it is generally much more.
This is right.

The cheapest two tiers of Advance tickets on East Coast are not available beyond King's Cross. So if these price levels are available it's best to use a combination of tickets (but be sure to comply with, and be aware of the requirements of, the Advance Fares FAQs).

Once the cheapest tiers have gone, it's generally cheaper to book to the final destination rather than just to King's Cross and then use another ticket from there, as the add-on amount can be very low, as in this case.
 
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