Durrington Taunton return

[Halsebee]

I needto travel Durrington to Taunton return, out via Salisbury, return via London. I know I can buy a super off peak return via Salisbury and get a change of route excess for the return to an any permitted ticket via London. I've done this before ,no problem, but always direct in London via Paddington and Victoria. My question is, can I use this to travel to Farringdon and change there ( I need to break my journey at Farringdon)? And if I can, will the gateline at Farringdon allow me through both out and in, even if it is clearly valid, as I wonder if they'll know about change of route excesses?

 

[Watershed]

You don't have to go through any gatelines at Farringdon to change from Thameslink to the Elizabeth line. But I wouldn't suggest trying to get the excess there, I would just expect that cause potential issues at the gateline since it's Tube staffed (even though you're entitled to get the excess en-route).

You'll have to change anyway on your way from Durrington to Farringdon, so why don't you change at East Croydon and get the excess there? That would probably be the easiest option.

 

[Halsebee]

You don't have to go through any gatelines at Farringdon to change from Thameslink to the Elizabeth line. But I wouldn't suggest trying to get the excess there, I would just expect that cause potential issues at the gateline since it's Tube staffed (even though you're entitled to get the excess en-route).

You'll have to change anyway on your way from Durrington to Farringdon, so why don't you change at East Croydon and get the excess there? That would probably be the easiest option.

Thanks, I can buy the excess before leaving Taunton. I need to break my journey at Farringdon, hence need to exit and re-enter via gateline.
Am I correct in assuming the ticket is valid via Farringdon?
Sounds like I'm likely to encounter an issue with LU gateline staff, do you think?

 

[Watershed]

Ah I see, I didn't realise you wanted to stop off in Farringdon on the way back from Taunton having already obtained your excess. So the real question here is about travelling via Farringdon and breaking your journey there, rather than the excess.

Travel via Farringdon is permitted and legally speaking there is nothing which rules out a break of journey whilst changing between National Rail services (the Elizabeth line is part of the National Rail network too, even if TfL suggests otherwise).

You shouldn't encounter any difficulties travelling via Farringdon or exiting there using your excess ticket. Your excess ticket might not work the barriers automatically - but when changing from the Elizabeth line onto the H&C/Met/Circle lines, the station signage directs you out of the barriers on the south side of Cowcross street, to cross the street and re-enter via the entrance on the opposite side of the road.

So it'd be perfectly plausible to want to exit and re-enter that way in the middle of a cross-London transfer. Accordingly I wouldn't expect any difficulties when re-entering - if the ticket doesn't work, a quick flash ought to suffice for most staff. Only a very small percentage will care particularly about the exact error code shown by the barriers or what the ticket says.

My concern was more if you were going to try and obtain the excess at Farringdon, since the Tube gateline staff don't have any way of selling you an excess as far as I know.

 

[Halsebee]

Thank you, there were no issues at Farringdon, the staff were very helpful.