Luton to London Thameslink - no results found

[ClivePage]

I just tried to use tickets.railforums.co.uk to try to buy a ticket from Luton to London Thameslink, as that is the ticket type (super off-peak return) that I most often get, whether I specify say St.Pancras or Blackfriars as my actual destination. I don't always know at the time I'm buying the ticket where it will be most convenient to get off - that depends on which tubes happen to be working at the time. I really don't want the ticket-selling site to tell me all the possible train times as I already know them (yes there is a new timetable this week but it is barely changed). So I thought that by selecting this virtual destination I could stop it providing me with unnecessary informaton and cut out a few steps in the purchase process. London Thameslink is a valid destination in the drop-down list, but when you try to buy a ticket to it you get one of two errors - either "no results were found for your current search" on the new site or "HTTP 422" on the old one, which I also tried. I suppose that's a slight improvement. But if you can't actually buy a ticket to London Thameslink it would be sensible to not have it on the drop-down list of possible destinations.

It would also be nice to know if therer is any way of buying a simple off-peak return without having to specify which actual service you are going to use: the rail ticket machines at stations don't insist on you doing this nor do staffed ticket offices, if you don't mind queueing up for one. So it is annoying that nearly all the websites that I know about insist on one choosing a specific outward and return train before allowing a ticket purchase. This one more way in which rail ticket selling could be made easier.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Is there a Super Off Peak (Day) Return fare still available from Luton to/from London Thameslink, or has it been discontinued?

 

[ClivePage]

There is indeed, and we've just bought two of them. And the price hasn't gone up (keeping fingers crossed).

 

[Watershed]

Some sites allow you to buy 'saved' or previously bought tickets, without having to enter a time of travel or select an itinerary - for example GTR, Southeastern and Ticketyboo. That might meet your requirements.

 

[Haywain]

Is there a Super Off Peak (Day) Return fare still available from Luton to/from London Thameslink, or has it been discontinued?

It has been discontinued as the fares have been "ovalised". I don't know what the OP has bought but I suspect it's a DDR (the new Off Peak Day Return) with its new evening restrictions.

 

[Vexed]

There is indeed, and we've just bought two of them. And the price hasn't gone up (keeping fingers crossed).

The new Off Peak Day Return is the same price as the old weekday Super Off Peak Day Return. But it's about £6 more than the weekend Super Off Peak Day Return.

The "old" Off Peak Day Return with no evening restrictions is gone.

 

[Haywain]

The new Off Peak Day Return is the same price as the old weekday Super Off Peak Day Return.

With an extra half hour of afternoon restrictions.

 

[Vexed]

Good point. And the earliest non-Anytime Day Return morning arrival at St Pancras International has gone from 1002 to 1019 (but with contactless it might be possible to make the 0929 fast service from Luton, arrive at 1004 and get charged off peak fares given TfL's grace period means off peak as starting at 0927).

Simplification is always a good thing right?!

 

[MrJeeves]

London Thameslink is a valid destination in the drop-down list, but when you try to buy a ticket to it you get one of two errors - either "no results were found for your current search" on the new site or "HTTP 422" on the old one, which I also tried. I suppose that's a slight improvement. But if you can't actually buy a ticket to London Thameslink it would be sensible to not have it on the drop-down list of possible destinations.

It's been a long-standing issue on the TrainSplit sites that searches to London Thameslink do not actually work. It's been the case for a number of years.

If you search to Farringdon, you'll always get tickets to either London Thameslink, London Underground Zone 1, or Farringdon itself, and the new site will let you pick exactly which one you want if there are multiple choices.

 

[ClivePage]

Well I'm sorry to be the bringer of bad news to Haywain and Vexed, but Project Oval is not going very well. If you don't believe me just try tapping in/out at Stanstead Airport.

I can confirm that yesterday the ticketing website offered us Super Off-Peak Day Returns from Luton Airport Parkway to London Thameslink, after of course we had carefully avoided putting in London Thameslink as a destination. And when we collected our tickets at the station the orange stripe at the top said "Super Off-Peak Day Return" as it has done for several years, and at the old price. And it had printed on the front the restrictions nre.co.uk/LS which (I've just checked) says that this ticket can be used on the 09:16 from Luton which gets to St.Pancras at 10:02 and that the evening restrictions are from 16:29 to 19:02. I don't see any "extra half-hour", so I don't know where this comes from. Whether this will change when, in a year or two maybe, Project Oval gets working again I have no idea.

Another irony, or maybe absurdity, is that although one cannot select "London Thameslink" when buying a ticket online, the ticket machines at stations around here all have a prominent sticker on the front telling you that if you want a season or return ticket to (list of stations between St.Pancras and London Bridge) you need to select "London Thameslink" to get the right ticket. These user-interfaces must surely be driven from the same fares database, in which case there must have been at least two teams of programmers working on the alternative interfaces, all of them surprisingly incompetent.

 

[Watershed]

Well I'm sorry to be the bringer of bad news to Haywain and Vexed, but Project Oval is not going very well. If you don't believe me just try tapping in/out at Stanstead Airport.

I can confirm that yesterday the ticketing website offered us Super Off-Peak Day Returns from Luton Airport Parkway to London Thameslink, after of course we had carefully avoided putting in London Thameslink as a destination. And when we collected our tickets at the station the orange stripe at the top said "Super Off-Peak Day Return" as it has done for several years, and at the old price. And it had printed on the front the restrictions nre.co.uk/LS which (I've just checked) says that this ticket can be used on the 09:16 from Luton which gets to St.Pancras at 10:02 and that the evening restrictions are from 16:29 to 19:02. I don't see any "extra half-hour", so I don't know where this comes from. Whether this will change when, in a year or two maybe, Project Oval gets working again I have no idea.

You are not quite comparing like with like. Your original post asked about fares from Luton, which have been 'Ovalised'. However the changes have only come into effect for stations that PAYG has been expanded to as part of Project Oval. Since PAYG already covered Luton Airport Parkway before Project Oval, the fares from there to London haven't changed.

That, of course, leads to a rather absurd position where fares from Luton, Leagrave and Harlington are 'Ovalised' but those from Bedford, Flitwick, Luton Airport Parkway, St Albans City etc. are not.

This means it's sometimes cheaper to buy a ticket for a longer journey than you are making (e.g. to/from Luton if you're making a period return journey to Luton Airport Parkway, since there is single leg pricing based on the cost of Day Returns).

And in other cases (e.g. Luton to London) it is cheaper to split to get around the more onerous time restrictions on Ovalised fares, and the removal of cheap weekend Super Off-Peak fares.

It's a dog's dinner frankly.

Another irony, or maybe absurdity, is that although one cannot select "London Thameslink" when buying a ticket online, the ticket machines at stations around here all have a prominent sticker on the front telling you that if you want a season or return ticket to (list of stations between St.Pancras and London Bridge) you need to select "London Thameslink" to get the right ticket. These user-interfaces must surely be driven from the same fares database, in which case there must have been at least two teams of programmers working on the alternative interfaces, all of them surprisingly incompetent.

This doesn't have anything to do with Project Oval specifically. Rather, it is down to limitations on the 'dumb' (non-journey-planner based) TVMs that are in place at many stations.

If you enter a destination that's a member of the London Terminals fares group, it will sell you a ticket to London Terminals even if you have to cross London to reach it (which is generally not permitted on a London Terminals ticket). That's because it doesn't know anything about how you reach the destination as it doesn't look up the journeys - it just sees that it's a member of the London Terminals group, and thus sells a ticket to London Terminals.

I'm not sure how that has any relevance to London Thameslink, mind you, as those tickets do allow you to cross London (on Thameslink services). But it could be a similar sort of problem.

 

[Haywain]

I can confirm that yesterday the ticketing website offered us Super Off-Peak Day Returns from Luton Airport Parkway to London Thameslink, after of course we had carefully avoided putting in London Thameslink as a destination. And when we collected our tickets at the station the orange stripe at the top said "Super Off-Peak Day Return" as it has done for several years, and at the old price.

There has been no change to fares from Luton Airport Parkway but your previous posts referred to Luton where fares have changed and a Super Off Peak Day Return no longer exists.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Dec 2025 ==

This means it's sometimes cheaper to buy a ticket for a longer journey than you are making (e.g. to/from Luton if you're making a period return journey to Luton Airport Parkway, since there is single leg pricing based on the cost of Day Returns).

As a user of these stations I have put together a quick reference table of fares from the two, to save having to faff about with BRFares.com when I travel. And it plays havoc with the supposed simplicity of using KeyGo!

 

[ClivePage]

Thanks for that clarification - we sometimes travel from Luton and sometimes from Parkway, depending on how we travel to/from the station. Previously there wasn't much difference betwen the two fare regimes excepts tickets from Luton to London are sometimes a little dearer, as it is a mile further. Now it looks if we want to go in after the morning peak but return in the 1600-1900 period then nothing has changed from Luton Airport Parkway but if going from Luton there is nothing except an anytime return or two singles. That does seem absurd. Or maybe split-ticketing with a split at Parkway would do the job - I've not yet had time to check this out. I agree that it's a dog's dinner.

 

[JonathanH]

That does seem absurd.

At some point, the fares at Luton Airport Parkway will be brought into line with the recent changes at Luton. It hasn't yet been announced when that will be.

 

[sheff1]

It's a dog's dinner frankly.

Otherwise know as “simplification”.

 

[Edvid]

Non-Anytime Day Travelcards from the Luton stations are something of a smörgåsbord as well.

An Off-Peak Day Travelcard from LUT is now B3 (valid after 0859), which enables use of the previously peak-only 0913 TL and 0926 (was 0927) EMR departures. This is more generous than the LEA equivalent, which is B2 (valid after 0914) and matches the prior C4 (no Zone 1 arrivals before 1000) in practice.

The paper issue is £30.10 for both but the smartcard issues are £29.10 for LUT and £29.50 for LEA. Heaven knows which fare you'd trigger with KeyGo (which you generally can't use outside the GTR network anyway).

LTN's weekend Super fare (not the Avanti kind!) still exists for now; the paper issue has risen another 40p to £25.60 (third increase this year), though the unfulfillable - ergo useless - smartcard issue hasn't. The regular fare has still fallen to £30.10 (code remains C4) and replaced the weekday Super equivalent... at least the paper issue has, whereas the smartcard issue hasn't changed and the (also unfulfillable) weekday Super equivalent still exists. No chance I'll use KeyGo to work that out!

[LEA - Leagrave, LUT - Luton, LTN - Luton Airport Parkway]

At some point, the fares at Luton Airport Parkway will be brought into line with the recent changes at Luton. It hasn't yet been announced when that will be.

No doubt. I'm surprised they weren't already aligned in the first place.