Cambridge to Farringdon: why do TOCs sell me tickets to City Thameslink instead?

[Jovian98]

Just curious why I haven't been able to buy a Cambridge to Farringdon ticket online, I am always issued with a Cambridge to City Thameslink ticket instead. I understand that Cambridge to City Thameslink is the same price across all singles/returns, so perhaps a Cambridge to Farringdon ticket makes no sense in any situation. However such tickets seem to exist so I would have thought that when requesting Farringdon as a destination that would be the ticket that I am given.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@Jovian98. Is the ticket from Cambridge definitely not actually being issued to "London Thameslnk" route "Not Underground" (rather than to "City Thameslink" route "Not Underground")?

 

[jfollows]

Cambridge to Farringdon & Cambridge to London Thameslink appear identically priced, routed NOT UNDERGROUND at https://www.brfares.com/!expert?orig=CBG&dest=ZFD&period=20250608

The latter ticket also gives a range of destination stations, rather than Farringdon alone.

 

[Jovian98]

Yes, sorry it's London Thameslink.

Is the Cambridge to Farringdon ticket completely pointless then?

 

[Watershed]

Effectively, yes. It offers less flexibility than London Thameslink. It may just exist so that a ticket still comes up if you search specifically for Farringdon, on a 'dumb' ticket machine that doesn't override the destination to an overarching group where available.

 

[Hadders]

A ticket from Cambridge to London Thameslink is valid to:

Kings Cross
St Pancras
Farringdon
City Thameslink
Blackfriars
London Bridge
Elephant & Castle

 

[swt_passenger]

Cambridge to Farringdon is possibly an obsolete relic of ‘pre Canal tunnels’, when you’d have presumably needed a ticket to the named station? Would it have been issued as a ticket to LU zone 1?

 

[Hadders]

Cambridge to Farringdon is possibly an obsolete relic of ‘pre Canal tunnels’, when you’d have presumably needed a ticket to the named station? Would it have been issued as a ticket to LU zone 1?

There were tickets to Farringdon routed 'Not Underground'. You changed onto Thameslink at St Pancras.

You needed a ticket to Zone U1 if you wanted to use the Underground to Farringdon.

 

[swt_passenger]

There were tickets to Farringdon routed 'Not Underground'. You changed onto Thameslink at St Pancras.

You needed a ticket to Zone U1 if you wanted to use the Underground to Farringdon.

Ah yes that would make sense.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

A ticket from Cambridge to London Thameslink is valid to:

If you wanted Liverpool Street as well, presumably the destination would have to be London U1.

 

[Hadders]

If you wanted Liverpool Street as well, presumably the destination would have to be London U1.

That answer is a bit more complex!

Cambridge to London Terminals is valid to:
St Pancras
Kings Cross
Moorgate
Liverpool Street (via the West Anglia Mainline)

But...

You could travel to Kings Cross and use the inter-availability to travel to Moorgate on the Underground. I know Moorgate isn't Liverpool Street but the stations are joined via the Elizabeth Line platforms.

I know someone who purchased a Stevenage to London Zones 1-6 Travelcard season to travel to their work near Liverpool Street! The look on their face when I told them they could save over £1,000 a year on their commute was a picture...

 

[Silver Cobra]

A ticket from Cambridge to London Thameslink is valid to:

Kings Cross
St Pancras
Farringdon
City Thameslink
Blackfriars
London Bridge
Elephant & Castle

Is Kings Cross definitely valid with a ticket to London Thameslink? When I looked up a Stevenage to London Thameslink ticket on LNER's website (I'm purchasing one for Friday), the list of valid stations on their page did not include Kings Cross. I've attached a screenshot below from the LNER website:

 

[yorkie]

Is Kings Cross definitely valid with a ticket to London Thameslink? When I looked up a Stevenage to London Thameslink ticket on LNER's website (I'm purchasing one for Friday), the list of valid stations on their page did not include Kings Cross. I've attached a screenshot below from the LNER website:

It is valid. That list is not authoritative.

 

[Hadders]

Is Kings Cross definitely valid with a ticket to London Thameslink? When I looked up a Stevenage to London Thameslink ticket on LNER's website (I'm purchasing one for Friday), the list of valid stations on their page did not include Kings Cross. I've attached a screenshot below from the LNER website:

It is 100% valid.

Travelling in London | National Rail

Whether you’re travelling to, from, or in and around London by train, we can help you find the best routes and prices for your journey.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

Picture shows a diagram detailing validity of London Thameslink tickets.

 

[Silver Cobra]

It is valid. That list is not authoritative.

It is 100% valid.

Travelling in London | National Rail

Whether you’re travelling to, from, or in and around London by train, we can help you find the best routes and prices for your journey.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

Picture shows a diagram detailing validity of London Thameslink tickets.

Thanks for the clarification. When I thought about it more after making my post, it seemed logical to me that it should be valid to Kings Cross, and your posts fully confirm it. It's just that I couldn't find anything on the Thameslink website when I looked there before then using LNER's site (I guess I just didn't look in the right place on Thameslink's site).

 

[OscarH]

Yes, sorry it's London Thameslink.

Is the Cambridge to Farringdon ticket completely pointless then?

Yes. Lots of London Thameslink tickets are duplicated with irritating point to point fares at the same price. They're worse in every way possible.

I understand the origins come from the fact in the fares data a station can only be a member of one fare group, which for most of the London Thameslink they're already members of London Terminals. So everyone selling London Thameslink tickets has done a horrible bodge. The duplicates existed at the start to ease the pain with people who hadn't done the bodge yet. In an ideal world they would have been removed by now.

 

[Haywain]

Yes. Lots of London Thameslink tickets are duplicated with irritating point to point fares at the same price. They're worse in every way possible.

I understand the origins come from the fact in the fares data a station can only be a member of one fare group, which for most of the London Thameslink they're already members of London Terminals. So everyone selling London Thameslink tickets has done a horrible bodge. The duplicates existed at the start to ease the pain with people who hadn't done the bodge yet. In an ideal world they would have been removed by now.

So there's no need for the same situation on the MML side because we don't have, or need, London Terminals tickets?

 

[OscarH]

So there's no need for the same situation on the MML side because we don't have, or need, London Terminals tickets?

The problem is that St Pancras is still a London Terminal member and not a London Thameslink member, so without those duplicates a TIS without the bodge wouldn't offer London Thameslink tickets

 

[Haywain]

The problem is that St Pancras is still a London Terminal member and not a London Thameslink member, so without those duplicates a TIS without the bodge wouldn't offer London Thameslink tickets

But as far as I am aware there are no such duplicates from MML stations, such as Leagrave or Harpenden. Whereas GN stations still need tickets to London Terminals as well as to London Thameslink.

 

[OscarH]

But as far as I am aware there are no such duplicates from MML stations, such as Leagrave or Harpenden. Whereas GN stations still need tickets to London Terminals as well as to London Thameslink.

To be honest, I have very little idea the logic for which flows got duplicates

 

[ClivePage]

The logic is even worse that this if you happen to start from London Bridge and want a ticket to, say, Luton. The ticket machines there refuse to sell you one of any description to that destination. I had to visit a staffed ticket office ot buy one - fortunately it was at a time when one was open.

I complained and the official reply is that London Bridge can sell tickets from that station, or as a member of London Terminals, or as a member of London Thameslink. But their ticket machines are only set up to cope with two different cases not three, so refuse to sell them. Despite the fact that there is a direct service from London Bridge to Luton usually 6 times/hour. I complained in turn to London TravelWatch but they couldn't get anything done about it either - a fairly useless organisation in my experience.

 

[Haywain]

The logic is even worse that this if you happen to start from London Bridge and want a ticket to, say, Luton. The ticket machines there refuse to sell you one of any description to that destination. I had to visit a staffed ticket office ot buy one - fortunately it was at a time when one was open.

I complained and the official reply is that London Bridge can sell tickets from that station, or as a member of London Terminals, or as a member of London Thameslink. But their ticket machines are only set up to cope with two different cases not three, so refuse to sell them. Despite the fact that there is a direct service from London Bridge to Luton usually 6 times/hour. I complained in turn to London TravelWatch but they couldn't get anything done about it either - a fairly useless organisation in my experience.

That's nit good. Off the top of my head, you could get round that - use 'tickets from another station' and choose Elephant & Castle as the origin and it should happily sell you a ticket from London Thameslink!

 

[ClivePage]

Yes that would work in some cases. But most ticket machines at stations will only sell you tickets from the station you are at, in my experience. Of course if you have time you could book the one you want online and then collect it from the machine next to you - but I didn't think I had time for that.

Another oddity is that if you try to buy a ticket from stations on the Bedford line,say from Luton to London you only get the option of London Thameslink not London Terminals. But if you use an online service to get a single from St.Pancras to Luton it will offer you the choice of going from London Thameslink or London Terminals. I think one is 5p cheaper than the other, but can't remember which is which. The whole system needs to be scrapped and designed again from scratch.

 

[Haywain]

Another oddity is that if you try to buy a ticket from stations on the Bedford line,say from Luton to London you only get the option of London Thameslink not London Terminals. But if you use an online service to get a single from St.Pancras to Luton it will offer you the choice of going from London Thameslink or London Terminals. I think one is 5p cheaper than the other, but can't remember which is which.

As far as I know there are no walk-up tickets from Luton to London Terminals. There may be Advance fares priced by EMR, but I think that would be all. I'd be curious what the utility would be for a London Terminals ticket, as St Pancras appears to be the only valid Terminal.

 

[Hadders]

Another oddity is that if you try to buy a ticket from stations on the Bedford line,say from Luton to London you only get the option of London Thameslink not London Terminals. But if you use an online service to get a single from St.Pancras to Luton it will offer you the choice of going from London Thameslink or London Terminals. I think one is 5p cheaper than the other, but can't remember which is which. The whole system needs to be scrapped and designed again from scratch.

How odd. There are indeed tickets from London Terminals to Luton:

Purchase flexible walk-up fares for any British train journey

Purchase flexible single/return tickets & Travelcards – in 3 clicks, at face value with no fees. Every British rail fare shown, railcard discounts included.

www.brfares.com

Quite why is puzzling and they should be withdrawn.

 

[Haywain]

How odd. There are indeed tickets from London Terminals to Luton:

Purchase flexible walk-up fares for any British train journey

Purchase flexible single/return tickets & Travelcards – in 3 clicks, at face value with no fees. Every British rail fare shown, railcard discounts included.

www.brfares.com

Quite why is puzzling and they should be withdrawn.

Interesting to note that reversing that search loses all of the single and return tickets.

 

[Hadders]

Interesting to note that reversing that search loses all of the single and return tickets.

Agreed! It looks like the fares have existed for at least a couple of years. Why, I do not know!

 

[Richardr]

Just looking at London Terminals to Bedford returns for tomorrow, it is slightly cheaper starting in London as there is an advance via East Midlands only. The return for that plus both legs of a return starting in Bedford are endorsed "AP THAMESLINK ONLY". Does anyone know what this means? Obviously the Thameslink part is clear, but does it restrict one to a specific Thameslink train?

 

[jfollows]

Just looking at London Terminals to Bedford returns for tomorrow, it is slightly cheaper starting in London as there is an advance via East Midlands only. The return for that plus both legs of a return starting in Bedford are endorsed "AP THAMESLINK ONLY". Does anyone know what this means? Obviously the Thameslink part is clear, but does it restrict one to a specific Thameslink train?

Any Permitted Thameslink only - any permitted route but with Thameslink trains only
Incorrect, see next, thanks. It didn’t sound right!

 

[Haywain]

The return for that plus both legs of a return starting in Bedford are endorsed "AP THAMESLINK ONLY". Does anyone know what this means? Obviously the Thameslink part is clear, but does it restrict one to a specific Thameslink train?

Yes, as with most other advance purchase tickets. Thameslink have had reservations (of the counted place variety) in place on their trains for some time in preparation for these tickets.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 Jul 2025 ==

Any Permitted Thameslink only - any permitted route but with Thameslink trains only.

No - Advance Purchase Thameslink only. Booked train only.