Should 'Maltese Cross' permit also include London Overground?

[N1]

First time using the forum but have been browsing for a month or two.

Should tickets marked with a Maltese cross permitting cross London travel by LU, DLR and Elizabeth Line be updated to also permit travel by London Overground?

Browsing this thread https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...-cross-london-using-london-overground.231772/ and based on what NRE says on cross London travel https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/Travelling-to-london.aspx#travelling_connect it is clear that travel via LO is not permitted unless allowed by the Routing Guide (i.e. shortest route wholly by rail, not more than 3 miles than this, or it is a mapped route)

The vast majority of long distance cross London routes the only permitted route is LONDON and as such London Overground is not permitted, but some transfers across London might be easier via London Overground.

An example is London Euston - Blackhorse Road - Barking for onwards travel towards Southend (when I was younger I used this route many times not realising it wasn't permitted and was never challenged once)

I think this would also be helpful for some people travelling with cycles as they could avoid Zone 1 cycle restrictions?

Would TFL agreement be required to update the rules regarding Maltese Cross validity, considering London Overground is covered by NRCoT?

Alternatively, could the routing guide be updated so that LONDON permitted routes are changed to be LONDON+EL+OV and so include travel by London Overground?

What would the benefits and issues be? (I am sure there is lots I haven't thought of)

 

[A0]

An example is London Euston - Blackhorse Road - Barking for onwards travel towards Southend (when I was younger I used this route many times not realising it wasn't permitted and was never challenged once)

That's a bizarre way to go, given you can go direct from Euston Square to Barking on the Hammersmith & City / Met.

 

[NSE]

Being a Londoner, most of my travel is contactless or on a travelcard so I don’t know all the restrictions as they don’t apply to me. Going off my previous knowledge from when I used to cross London regularly, I never had a problem with any of my cross London transfers and I used LO/Tube/DLR. I would also point out most transfers done with Maltese Crosses are between terminals and across Zone 1 and naturally LO isn’t available so it’s probably not the most pressing issue for them.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Aug 2022 ==

That's a bizarre way to go, given you can go direct from Euston Square to Barking on the Hammersmith & City / Met.

I agree. Whilst I appreciate the OP is mentioning cycling (and I have taken slightly off routes to avoid crowds/changing with my bike) I tend to find I cycle across Zone 1 if ever need to cross with my bike.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It would never occur to me that it wasn't valid, though it's only rarely useful.

 

[N1]

That's a bizarre way to go, given you can go direct from Euston Square to Barking on the Hammersmith & City / Met.

Journey times are basically the same as taking H&C to West Ham from Euston Square or Northern Line & DLR to Limehouse mostly because there are significantly less stops. Although I agree it is not the obvious route.

I agree it is only useful in very rare occasions, however when I commuted to MKC I spoke to quite a few people on how to cross London without using the Underground when the Southern Milton Keynes Central to East Croydon was cancelled (This was Pre-Covid when Govia were unable to run a service)

Mostly they had quite a bit of luggage, although the WLL doesn't offer many advantages in terms of time.

Also some routes are permitted by mapped routes and others aren't. E.g.

Bedford to Ascot is permitted by MM+OV+WX but Bedford to Staines is not.

AFAIK this would be the shortest route wholly by rail for either of the above, depends on how you count the fixed link at West Hampstead, although I am by no means an expert in the routing guide at all