katbou

Dear Fodorites,
I’m thinking of taking the Southern train from Gatwick to London. It’s the best deal I could find (9 pounds single). From which terminal does it depart? Where can I get our tickets? I’m arriving at 5.00 am. Will there be a ticket office open at this hour?
I know that you probably have all the answers!

Fidel

http://www.southernrailway.com

gertie3751

Southern trains goes form the station in the south terminal. You get the tickets in the station. By the time you get through immigration it should be around 6am and the ticket office should be open by then. In case you want to run around London on that first day, ask them to add on an all-day tube/bus pass. It only costs £1 extra.

Robespierre

By the way, Southern also serves London Bridge, Waterloo East, Charing Cross, and Kensington Olympia stations from Gatwick.

P_M

You can also buy your ticket at the machine. I found that to be a lot faster.

owain

"By the way, Southern also serves London Bridge, Waterloo East, Charing Cross, and Kensington Olympia stations from Gatwick."

And Blackfriars, City Thameslink, Kings Cross Thameslink, Farringdon, all served direct, although not necessarily by Southern.

Apart from the Gatwick Express, you don't need to worry about which company operates individual trains - a ticket to London covers any of these options.

katbou

Gertie 3752, what do you mean to add "an all-day tube/bus pass. It only costs £1 extra".
Is it the same with a daily ticket ? Could I go to New Brnet with that?

owain

Ah, now if you're travelling straight through to New Barnet, then the question to ask is 'how do I travel by train from Gatwick to New Barnet'! The ticketing system for the trains from Gatwick is part of the national system. Just ask at the ticket office for a single to New Barnet, which costs £14.10 and is valid for the whole journey, including the Gatwick Express (then the Victoria Line tube to Finsbury Park, then a New Barnet train). And if you haven't got a lot of luggage, and it's not raining, it'd be simpler to get a train from Gatwick to Kings Cross Thameslink, walk to Kings Cross mainline station, and get the New Barnet train there.

PalQ

<Apart from the Gatwick Express, you don't need to worry about which company operates individual trains - a ticket to London covers any of these options>

Then why do different companies charge different prices - i think Thameslink trains to those destinations may cost more but if the above is true, and i have no reason to doubt it, wouldn't everyone buy a ticket for 9 quid on Southern then use it on Thameslink if that connection was more convenient - or do they all charge the same price which seems unlikely after looking at www.nationalrail.co.uk???

owain

OK, so I was mistaken, the Southern ticket is indeed one whole pound cheaper than a Cheap Day Single on Thameslink. And an extra ten pence for the Standard Day Single (i.e. not outside peak times).

Basically, if you need to go to the area around Victoria, go with the Southern service, but anywhere closer to a Thameslink-served train and go with that instead.

PalQ

I don't care about saving a pound - it was the fact that tickets can be used interchangeably that i was wishing you to reconfirm because it flies in the face of so many things i've read otherwise that ducats are not interchangeable as they are not on most of UK's privatized rail lines - you know sometimes folks say things here that they think and then they may say because they absolutely know- do you think or absolutely know they are interchangeable? And please don't take this as a negative - just that i often advise folks on Gatwick links and i'd like to know the definitive answer - tell folks yes buy the cheapest ticket at the Gatwick ticket window and then use any train save the more pricey Gatwick Express. I wasn't quibbling about a quid here and there a'tall. Sincerely.

owain

What I know is that if you specifically ask for a ticket to Farringdon, for example, they won't (shouldn't) sell you one that's only valid on Southern services to Gatwick. And the prices are as I indicated.

And I don't quite follow what you mean by most tickets not being interchangeable on privatised 'rail lines'. The difference in this price, and the fact that neither ticket can be used for the other destination, will be because they are treated as two separate routings. Standard single tickets on specific routes are not operator-dependent.

PalQ

Sorry but i thought that the 28 or so private rail franchises did not honor each other's tickets as a matter of course. For example if i bought a ticket to York on GNW i thought i could use it on Virgin Trains to York - you say i could and that's more convenient. Maybe it's only the restricted non-full fare tickets that can't thus be used. You are saying the full fare walk up tickets can be used on any rail franchise serving same two points - i've read a lot about the lack of interchangeability of tickets between rail franchises so that's why i misunderstood that indeed, as you say, they can be used on any franchise. Thanks.

owain

Yes, there's a difference between a TOC's own discounted tickets, and the standard national system which they are all obliged to recognised. A 'standard single' is the latter. However, the Gatwick situation is complicated by the fact that the different routes are indeed differently priced, within this national system, and so your destination station in London does affect the price.

flanneruk

Let me try to turn this into a general rule.

Many standard (not just full) fare tickets are interchangeable. If a ticket's called "Day return", for example, it's valid on all operators for the route on applicable trains. A ticket on Virgin called something like "Branson's Pullover Party", OTOH, will be valid only on Virgin - should they get round to runing the train concerned, which is far from certain (or even likely).

But you need to be clear what the route is for interchangeability. Victoria-Gatwick on the Gatwick Express is a unique route.

The more common routing will say on the ticket "Gatwick to London Terminals". Southern's route to Victoria is such a route. And such a ticket will let you take First Capital Connect to London Bridge, or get off Southern at Clapham Junction and take any overground train (including South West) to Waterloo.


But, if you start at Gatwick. Farringdon isn't a "London Terminal". Nor is Kings Cross Thameslink (though, to add to the confusion, KX Thameslink is a London Terminal if you're coming from Luton Airport). "London Terminal" tickets stop at the ring of terminals you hit as you're coming into London: going any further on Virgin or First Capital Connect, or changing onto the tube or North London lines, means you have to pay more.

I have an eery feeling that if anyone thinks they undersatand this, I've not explained it properly.

ben_haines_london

If you will kindly tell us the name, the street or the nearest tube station for your hotel in London we shall tell you how to get there with luggage.

Welcome to London

Ben Haines
[email protected]