cassie15490

Hi there,

I'm wanting to go from London to Cambridge via a stop off in Letchworth Garden City. Is there anyway that I can book an inclusive ticket for the London to Cambridge route that will allow me to get on and off at Letchworth on the way to Cambridge?

sofarsogood

simply buy an Anytime ticket to Cambridge

http://www.thameslinkrailway.com/tic...fares/anytime/

cassie15490

Thank you!

flanneruk

How are you getting back?

The peculiarities of fare-setting do indeed currently mean that Anytime (=completely unrestricted) SINGLE fares from Kings Cross to Cambridge are cheaper than offpeak (=limited to journeys outside peak hours).

But if you're returning to London, that oddity disappears. Offpeak returns typically are only a few pence dearer than offpeak singles, whereas most Anytime returns are twice the anytime single price.

So an offpeak return to Cambridge (wich allows you to get any offpeak train to Letchworth, any offpeak Letchworth-Cambridge train, then any eligible train back to KX) is £34.50 (before any discount card you may have), whereas the Anytime return is £45.20. Not all trains from KX to Cambridge stop at Letchworth, BTW

Go to nationalrail.co.uk to see which trains, on the day you're travelling, are classed as offpeak.

Both offpeak and anytime fares can bought right before travel from any ticket office or machine. There's no point in reserving seats.

thursdaysd

I can't help with the specific question, but I grew up in Letchworth, and am intrigued by the idea that it might be a tourist destination! Are you stopping off for a business reason, or because it was the "First Garden City"?

RM67

I would say you probably ought to have the Anytime tickets to do this as:-

1) I am not aware that standard tickets allow for a break in the journey
2) Standard singles are usually gobbled by the barrier when you leave the station (ie not returned to you) and I don't know that the reader is sophisticated enough to detect that you are not yet at the end of your journey.
3) This would clearly not work with seat reservations (not that you'd need one off peak) as online booking doesn't allow you to break the journey down and do reservations for particular segments of trips that would usually be covered by one direct train.

flanneruk

<i>
1) I am not aware that standard tickets allow for a break in the journey</i>

Anytime tickets ARE standard. If you mean you think <b>offpeak</b> tickets don't allow for a break, you're wrong. As long as an offpeak ticket is valid for each onward journey, passengers may make as many breaks as they want

<i>2) Standard singles are usually gobbled by the barrier when you leave the station (ie not returned to you) and I don't know that the reader is sophisticated enough to detect that you are not yet at the end of your journey.</i>

EXACTLY the same problem as Anytime tickets. Though in fact I routinely put my offpeak ticket through the reader and get it back at the intermediate stop I use most weeks, I'm not sure whether we have an unusually clever barrier and there IS advice on the web not to risk this. Passengers breaking journeys are safest to go through a manned barrier, whatever class of ticket they have. There's always one at every station

<i>3) This would clearly not work with seat reservations (not that you'd need one off peak) as online booking doesn't allow you to break the journey down and do reservations for particular segments of trips that would usually be covered by one direct train.</i>

Even if you could reserve on trains to Letchworth, why would you want to?

If RM67 is so unfamiliar with how our railway system works as to struggle with what tickets are called, he or she really ought to limit advice to topics he or she knows something about.

flanneruk

PS:

I'm surprised thursdaysd is surprised at garden city tourism. I spent a slug of my life working in Welwyn GC, where we had a fair amount of environmental sightseers - although it's far less photogenic than Letchworth, and we were acutely conscious of some quality of life problems the concept was creating.

A number of colleagues were distressed they'd deliberately moved to WGC "for the sake of the kiddies" - who a decade or so later were misbehaving because Ebenezer Howard really hadn't anticipated what would amuse late 20th century teenagers.

Cathinjoetown

My husband was born in Letchworth and lived there for around 25 years, including taking the train to Cambridge daily for classes at what is now Anglia and Ruskin University. I found the parkway system and the planned housing estates interesting.

cassie15490

Thanks for all the advice I'll definitely have a look at that website and decide which tickets to get.

In regards to why we're going to Letchworth - my grandma was born there and her family ran the first tea rooms back in the day before coming to New Zealand so my mum and I really want to go and check it out

Cathinjoetown

cassie,

I'm sure my husband, his sister or brother or his mother (sadly gone) might have known your grandmother. Do you want to provide any details?

Thanks.

thursdaysd

How interesting to find other people from Letchworth! My mother's father ran the first Co-op, and my father and his father both worked for the Garden City Press. But I left a looong time ago.

cassie15490

This is interesting! Cathinjoetown - my Grandma was born around 1909, family name was Jackson but she left for New Zealand with her family around 1920 ish.

RM67

'Even if you could reserve on trains to Letchworth, why would you want to?'

Jesus wept you are tedious. If you'd bothered to read my post properly instead of falling over yourself to disagree you'd have noticed that I said a reservation is not necessary on such a short journey (and yes, I know not something you can even do on most commuter routes).

No, I am not remotely qualified to comment on this only having gone to school by train for my entire childhood, used rail transport for every job I've worked in at some point, living in the area specifically mentioned in this post and using public transport in and around London, Cambridge and the home counties currently on pretty much a weekly basis.

Clearly your sporadic trips from the other side of the country into civilisation for your anger management classes or to give poor old missus F a break trump all that. I am truly sorry for having the audacity to dare comment on a post you had already scent-marked as your own.

RM67

Oh and Anytime tickets are not the same as pre-booked off-peak fares - anytime are fully flexible and cost more. I doubt this will stop anyone you've cowed into submission profoundly thanking you for your misinformation though.