Rye-St Pancras advance ticket, can I get on at Ashford

[jzw95]

I have bought an advance ticket from Rye (Sussex) to London St Pancras. However, for various reasons I'm now thinking of hiring a car in Ashford and would obviously need to return it there as well. Will I be able to use my ticket to get through the barriers at Ashford and join the train I'm booked on (since the journey I'm booked on changes trains at Ashford anyway)?

 

[gazthomas]

While it "may" work the barriers at Ashford you are contracted/required to get on at Rye.

If the barriers don't work you could buy the cheapest local ticket to allow you to pass through the barriers as nobody would know you "started short" but I wouldn't condone this

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I have bought an advance ticket from Rye (Sussex) to London St Pancras. However, for various reasons I'm now thinking of hiring a car in Ashford and would obviously need to return it there as well. Will I be able to use my ticket to get through the barriers at Ashford and join the train I'm booked on (since the journey I'm booked on changes trains at Ashford anyway)?

Break of journey, such as starting late, is never allowed on an Advance ticket. However, if you can get through the Ashford barriers - for example with a cheap local single such as Ashford to Ham Street, £3.40 Off-Peak Day Single/£3.70 Anytime (I very much doubt your Advance will work the barriers and I certainly wouldn't try) - then it is unlikely your break of journey will be discovered, unless you have the extreme misfortune of the same conductor checking all tickets on both booked trains (and noticing you weren't there on the previous train).

Whilst I would never encourage breaking one's journey where you know it is not permitted to do so, in most situations the worst penalty for doing if you were discovered would be to have to pay the difference between your Advance and the cheapest walk-up fare that would have let you break your journey.

Alternatively, you could regularise the situation now by excessing your Advance to the cheapest relevant walkup ticket (as I believe virtually none of the restriction codes in that area ban break of journey). It may, of course, simply be cheaper to get a new ticket from Ashford to London, depending on how much you paid for your Advance and when you are travelling.

 

[gray1404]

You could always ask for the barrier staff to let you through if you show them your ticket and the reservation for the train departing Ashford. They may use their discretion and allow this. The official situation has been stated above however.

 

[MikeWh]

unless you have the extreme misfortune of the same conductor checking all tickets on both booked trains (and noticing you weren't there on the previous train).

Not going to happen - one is Southern, the other Southeastern.

 

[30907]

You could always ask for the barrier staff to let you through if you show them your ticket and the reservation for the train departing Ashford. They may use their discretion and allow this. The official situation has been stated above however.

Surely the official situation is that staff should use discretion unless the fare from Ashford is normally higher than from Rye.

 

[causton]

Surely the official situation is that staff should use discretion unless the fare from Ashford is normally higher than from Rye.

Yes, I think the general consensus after a number of incidents is that unless someone is trying to evade a higher fare, to use discretion.

You could always say "can you let me back in? I just popped out for a cigarette" but that would be very naughty

 

[paul1609]

Living locally I use tickets to/from Rye at Ashford international all the time and they are rarely rejected by the barriers-if they are staff have never had an issue waving me through.
The car hire desks are in the Eurostar side of the station which has unmanned barriers with a video link.
Another option may be Practical Car hire in Rye they have met me off a train at Rye station with a car on a couple of occasions and I've never had a problem renting through them.
http://www.practical.co.uk/locations/england/southeast/rye/

 

[jzw95]

Hi all, thanks so much for all the advice, it's very helpful. To confirm, I'm not trying to evade a higher fare, it would be ~£1 less if I'd bought my ticket from Ashford-London instead of Rye-London. @paul1609 thanks for the local experience, I will probably chance it and hope the ticket lets me through. My memory is also that on the weekends the barriers are sometimes left open. I am also considering hiring the car from Practical in Rye (this was the original plan, hence buying the Rye-London ticket), but it's potentially £60 more than from Ashford in this case. Before settling on a solution, I wanted to know what the options were regarding my rail ticket. Thanks again to everyone for the wealth of information an help!