London Thameslink vs London Blackfriars from Cambridge

[rww100]

Normally when buying tickets at Cambridge for travel to London Terminals I ask for tickets to King's Cross if I want Any Permitted tickets, and I ask for tickets to Liverpool Street only if I want Greater Anglia tickets only.

However, yesterday I needed to get to Blackfriars so decided the easiest (and cheapest) option would be to travel through the Thameslink core on a through ticket instead of changing onto the Tube.

At Cambridge I went to the ticket machines, but they did not seem to have London Thameslink as a destination. I therefore went to the ticket counter instead.

At the ticket counter I asked for a return to Blackfriars and was given tickets issued to "London Blackfriars" instead of "London Thameslink". To be fair, I got exactly what I asked for and the London Blackfriars tickets were fine for the journey I intended to make. However, I was slightly surprised these tickets were not issued to London Thameslink instead.

The London Blackfriars tickets seem to be the same price as London Thameslink tickets, but London Thameslink tickets would presumably have additional validity as far as London Bridge/Elephant and Castle.

Why then do the London Blackfriars tickets still exist and are being issued? Why have these not been superseded by London Thameslink tickets?

As an aside, the ticket barrier at St Pancras swallowed my ticket on the return journey back to Cambridge, and I had to have it retrieved by one of the gateline staff. Surely changing from Thameslink at St Pancras onto Great Northern at King's Cross is quite common these days? This can sometimes be the quickest option heading northbound from the core as the Brighton - Cambridge semi-fast gets overtaken by the King's Cross - Cambridge/Ely/King's Lynn fast (assuming both services are running and on time).

 

[Clip]

I beieve from the North of the river the 'Thameslink' ticket is only valid as far as Farringdon so you were sold the correct product

 

[Hadders]

I beieve from the North of the river the 'Thameslink' ticket is only valid as far as Farringdon so you were sold the correct product

This is incorrect. A ticket issued from the north to ‘London Thameslink’ is valid to Kings Cross, St Pancras, Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars, London Bridge and Elephant & Castle.

Historically there were tickets from Great Northern stations to Farringdon, Blackfriars etc routed ‘Not Underground’. When trains started running direct via the Core ‘London Thameslink’ tickets were made available but it seems that the old tickets are still in the system.

 

[Clip]

This is incorrect. A ticket issued from the north to ‘London Thameslink’ is valid to Kings Cross, St Pancras, Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars, London Bridge and Elephant & Castle.

Historically there were tickets from Great Northern stations to Farringdon, Blackfriars etc routed ‘Not Underground’. When trains started running direct via the Core ‘London Thameslink’ tickets were made available but it seems that the old tickets are still in the system.

Ahh smashing thanks for the correction - its seems silly to still haev the tickets in the system then but thats the railway for you

 

[30907]

Historically there were tickets from Great Northern stations to Farringdon, Blackfriars etc routed ‘Not Underground’. When trains started running direct via the Core ‘London Thameslink’ tickets were made available but it seems that the old tickets are still in the system.

The equivalent fares are now routed Via City TL, so someone has updated them. They are priced identically to London TL fares.

 

[rww100]

The equivalent fares are now routed Via City TL, so someone has updated them. They are priced identically to London TL fares.

Was there previously a valid "Not Underground" route to Blackfriars from Cambridge that didn't involve going via City Thameslink?

When trains started running direct via the Core ‘London Thameslink’ tickets were made available but it seems that the old tickets are still in the system.

That's what I had suspected. The logical thing would have been to remove these old tickets when adding the new London Thameslink ones. If the trouble was made to change them from Route "Not Underground" to Route "via City Thameslink" (as above), then why not just remove them completely?

In addition to my booking office experience, it seems some booking engines are also still selling the old tickets, depending on where you buy. This is not great from a customer perspective, as the different tickets have different validity.

As for the barriers swallowing tickets mid-journey, perhaps this is not surprising for GTR levels of competence. If they want to inspect each ticket manually (like they often do) then the barriers should be programmed to reject these tickets instead of swallowing them.

 

[30907]

Was there previously a valid "Not Underground" route to Blackfriars from Cambridge that didn't involve going via City Thameslink?

I suppose you could theoretically go round the North and West London lines!
The route would have been via Kings Cross and Kings Cross TL when the line reopened. My suspicion is that only Thameslink-as-was used "London TL."