Euston to Gatwick Airport tapping in/out.

[celdor]

Good Afternoon

Following a recent post on renewing our senior railcards on which I received spot on advice I have another query.

Our journey is to be from London Euston to Gatwick Airport and I have read several opinions on the use of an Oyster card ( with senior railcards added) for this, which appear to be out of date
and do not seem to reflect current facilities - Pink card readers??.
We live in the North of England so rarely use London transport.

I have narrowed it down to 2 scenarios that may be current and will be cheapest (Travelling at offpeak times)

1 Tap IN on entering the underground at Euston. alight at Victoria underground, Do Not Tap Out, go to the Mainline station, Do not tap in and get on a Southern train to Gatwick, Tap Out at Gatwick.

2 Tap IN on entering the underground at Euston. alight at Victoria underground, Do Not Tap Out , go to the Mainline station, Tap in on a PINK reader and get on a Southern train to Gatwick Tap Out at Gatwick.

Based on those the return might be
1 Tap IN at Gatwick , Do not tap out at Victoria, Board underground at Victoria , Tap out at Euston

2 Tap IN at Gatwick , Do not tap out , Tap IN on a Pink Card reader at Victoria Underground, Board underground at Victoria, Tap out at Euston.

It seems that Pink card readers are only required if not entering Zone 1 which we are actually in all the time?
Anyone able confirm if any of the above is correct or have another plan?

Thank you

 

[dvboy]

You have to tap out and in at Victoria, in both directions, it is impossible to get from the underground to the mainline train and vice versa without doing so.

Oyster will combine the journeys and calculate the correct fare automatically.

 

[swt_passenger]

You can’t enter at Euston underground and not tap out at Victoria underground, (similarly on your return), because the Victoria underground and Mainline services are behind completely separate gatelines. What happens is that your two journeys are automatically joined, as long as you don’t spend too long in Victoria concourse without touching in there.

IIRC you won’t see any pink readers, and they’re not relevant to your route.

 

[Watershed]

Pink readers have no relevance to your journey - they are only used if you want to get a lower fare for avoiding Zone 1. They are therefore located in stations at outer zones, not at Victoria or Euston.

Simply touch in at Euston Underground, out at Victoria Underground, in at Victoria National Rail and then out at Gatwick - and the same in reverse on your way back. The system will charge you the through fare (£8.95 off-peak with Railcard discount or £22.10 peak). I think you will find it quite obvious and straightforward when you make the journey - there is no way of avoiding the barriers.

 

[CyrusWuff]

The only thing to be cautious of is that touching on the Platform 13 and 14 gateline at Victoria will incur the Gatwick Express premium, even if you catch a normal Southern service from one of those platforms.

Staff are usually pretty good at directing customers the the Platform 9 to 12 gateline to touch in/out when a Southern service uses 13 or 14 though.

 

[JonathanH]

Walking the relatively short distance to St Pancras International for Thameslink services to Gatwick provides a cheaper option than travelling from Euston.

 

[ChilliSauce]

Walking the relatively short distance to St Pancras International for Thameslink services to Gatwick provides a cheaper option than travelling from Euston.

If you have the national concession senior bus pass that can be used in London (buses only) so if you don't fancy the walk between Euston and Pancras ..just hop on a 205 or 91etc

 

[Alfonso]

Unless it's pouring with rain it's most likely that walking or taking a bus to St Pancras will be easier than going all the way down to the victoria line and all the way back up again.

 

[celdor]

Thanks all
The replies actually confirm what seemed to me to be the logical solution.
We had considered the walk to St Pancras/KingsCross
as we have done that a few times.
It is not completely ruled out so thanks for mentioning that and the bus if weather is bad.

We will have luggage and a consideration was that the Down escalator to Victoria line travelling south was out of order( OOO) a week or so ago and earlier in the year was OOO for a long period as they
couldnt get parts!! to fix it. It is now reporting as all working , fingers crossed.

TFL seem to be pleased with what they have achieved over the last 25 years pity they couldnt manage to get a lift from a mainline station to all the platforms below. Maybe that was to happen with the HS2 "improvements" but wont hold my breath.

EDIT I have been advised that this last paragraph should have been posted in a different section -Sorry. As it has received a response I will leave it - hope that is ok.

 

[Hadders]

We will have luggage and a consideration was that the Down escalator to Victoria line travelling south was out of order( OOO) a week or so ago and earlier in the year was OOO for a long period as they

The simplest way to avoid stairs when the escalator to the northbound Victoria Line is out of action is to go southbound one stop to Warren Street and return north. It's a cross-platform interchange at Warren Street.

TFL seem to be pleased with what they have achieved over the last 25 years pity they couldnt manage to get a lift from a mainline station to all the platforms below. Maybe that was to happen with
the HS2 "improvements" but wont hold my breath.

Euston is a very complicated station and sadly it's not quit as simple as sinking a lift staft. A complete rebuild is required, which HS2 in its original form would have achieved.

 

[MikeWh]

The simplest way to avoid stairs when the escalator to the northbound Victoria Line is out of action is to go southbound one stop to Warren Street and return north. It's a cross-platform interchange at Warren Street.


Euston is a very complicated station and sadly it's not quit as simple as sinking a lift staft. A complete rebuild is required, which HS2 in its original form would have achieved.

Although I have to say that it is extremely unfriendly to have to go outside* into a potential storm just to go back in for the escalators down to the Underground. Even more so given that you can see the lobby through the glass as you head to the exit. It used to be accessible from the Euston concourse back in the day.

*Before anyone says, I know that if you arrive on platforms 8-11 there is a passage direct to the Underground, but this isn't signed from the concourse, and is further to walk if you've arrived at any other platform.

 

[fandroid]

The simplest way to avoid stairs when the escalator to the northbound Victoria Line is out of action is to go southbound one stop to Warren Street and return north. It's a cross-platform interchange at Warren Street.

I'm not sure how that would help the OP's intended journeys (Southbound from mainline to Tube at Euston & then when returning, northbound from Tube to mainline.)

At the risk of too much advice simply increasing the confusion, would a similar trick work in the other direction? That is, if the Euston escalators from northbound Victoria are known to be OOC, just continue to Kings Cross where it is cross-platform to southbound services.

 

[MartinC]

If you have the national concession senior bus pass that can be used in London (buses only) so if you don't fancy the walk between Euston and Pancras ..just hop on a 205 or 91etc

You may already know, but you need to show your bus pass to the driver as the London bus card readers do not register national cards.

 

[TrainTraveler]

I would also recommend walking to St Pancras if you have wheelable luggage.

It’s also usually cheaper on the Thameslink to Gatwick.

There is a potential trade off between convenience and cost between various ticketing options and time of day.

 

[dastocks]

Just to add to this discussion, I traveled from Brighton to Manchester and back on business a few times last year. I always used off-peak open returns, route 'Any Permitted' including cross-London transfer:

• although my route was usually via St Pancras I sometimes needed to break my journey at/via Victoria.
• when Thameslink was broken I was also able to travel via Victoria.
• A through ticket routed Any Permitted meant I wasn't tied to a particular route which worked in my favour when there was disruption on the WCML: there were occasions where people on split tickets weren't able to use alternative services that didn't call at the station where they had split the journey,

With a senior railcard the discount applied to the full value of the ticket, and delay repays were also applied to the full ticket value. My journeys were expensed so I don't know what deals would have been available on Avanti WC.