Free Pass Travel on Overground Services.

[lincolnshire]

Just a question for our knowledgeable members, can you use a free travel ( ex. BR pass ) on North London Line? since it used to be a BR service in the past.
Is it like the Tyneside Metro arrangements for free travel?

 

[C96]

On overground yes

 

[dk1]

Most definitely. Overground is a franchise/concession so nothing like the underground.

 

[Watershed]

Arriva Rail London Limited (trading as London Overground) are a National Rail operator and so must, and do, accept National Rail tickets and passes in the same way as any other National Rail operator.

There are some lines (e.g. Queens Park to Harrow and Wealdstone) where they provide a service alongside London Underground. Where this is the case, it may be the case that certain staff passes etc. are only valid on London Overground services, but not London Underground services.

 

[62484GlenLyon]

If OP goes to the Rail Delivery Group website and checks the rail staff travel section for this guide - Rail Staff Travel Guide for Safeguarded National Rail Staff. This explains in detail where staff travel facilities are valid, including joint LO/LUL routes such as Queens Park to Harrow that Watershed mentions. I do not know how to post a direct link to the website. Hopefully somebody else can.

 

[Surreytraveller]

Just a question for our knowledgeable members, can you use a free travel ( ex. BR pass ) on North London Line? since it used to be a BR service in the past.
Is it like the Tyneside Metro arrangements for free travel?

Tyneside Metro is different, as it depends upon your start date whether your travel facilities are valid on it.
The North London Line, being part of National Rail, passes are valid. The TfL is just branding, in the same way as ScotRail or Avanti is branding, from a ticketing point of view

 

[SargeNpton]

If OP goes to the Rail Delivery Group website and checks the rail staff travel section for this guide - Rail Staff Travel Guide for Safeguarded National Rail Staff. This explains in detail where staff travel facilities are valid, including joint LO/LUL routes such as Queens Park to Harrow that Watershed mentions. I do not know how to post a direct link to the website. Hopefully somebody else can.

Two links from this web page, depending on whether you want the guide for safeguarded or non-safeguarded staff...

Rail Staff Travel

The website for Rail Staff Travel, delivering rail staff travel facilities to those employed in the rail industry in Britain.

www.raildeliverygroup.com

 

[lincolnshire]

Thank you all for your assistance and information that you have posted.

 

[Falcon1200]

There are some lines (e.g. Queens Park to Harrow and Wealdstone) where they provide a service alongside London Underground. Where this is the case, it may be the case that certain staff passes etc. are only valid on London Overground services, but not London Underground services.

Interesting point; I've used my ex BR staff pass on Underground trains north of Queens Park without it occurring to me it might not be valid ! You would have to be pretty unlucky to encounter a ticket check there however, I would think.

 

[Watershed]

Interesting point; I've used my ex BR staff pass on Underground trains north of Queens Park without it occurring to me it might not be valid ! You would have to be pretty unlucky to encounter a ticket check there however, I would think.

It depends on the kind of pass held. There are also sections where tickets are interavailable. As ever, it's not a simple situation.

 

[62484GlenLyon]

Interesting point; I've used my ex BR staff pass on Underground trains north of Queens Park without it occurring to me it might not be valid ! You would have to be pretty unlucky to encounter a ticket check there however, I would think.

According to the Rail Staff Travel Guide a dated staff travel card is valid from Paddington to Harrow & Wealdstone on the Bakerloo line under the inter-available routes arrangement.

However, I have found many LUL gateline staff seem unfamiliar with these inter-available routes arrangements and I always have the latest edition of the Rail Staff Travel Guide on my ipad to show as confirmation. A few years ago I spent half an hour in an office at Kings Cross LUL discussing this. In the end it took a telephone call to RSTL to confirm that, yes, I was valid to High Barnet on the Northern Line.

 

[Mag_seven]

My pass is interavailable at most Metropolitan Line stations. On one occasion at Watford (where it is valid) it did not open the gates and the gatline attendant insisted it wasn't valid because it didn't open the barriers! He let me out but only grudgingly insisting that I was in the wrong.

 

[Deerfold]

My pass is interavailable at most Metropolitan Line stations. On one occasion at Watford (where it is valid) it did not open the gates and the gatline attendant insisted it wasn't valid because it didn't open the barriers! He let me out but only grudgingly insisting that I was in the wrong.

Certainly for a while, TfL passes didn't operate the gateline at Watford Junction, but I never had problems being let out.

 

[greyman42]

According to the Rail Staff Travel Guide a dated staff travel card is valid from Paddington to Harrow & Wealdstone on the Bakerloo line under the inter-available routes arrangement.

However, I have found many LUL gateline staff seem unfamiliar with these inter-available routes arrangements and I always have the latest edition of the Rail Staff Travel Guide on my ipad to show as confirmation. A few years ago I spent half an hour in an office at Kings Cross LUL discussing this. In the end it took a telephone call to RSTL to confirm that, yes, I was valid to High Barnet on the Northern Line.

Did they have the manners to apologise?

 

[62484GlenLyon]

The woman I was handed over to in the office was very helpful, did apologise and said she had learnt someting. The woman gateline attendant who I first dealt with didn't. She had insisted that this clause meant that I could not use the Northern Line towards High Barnet

- Northern Line: Moorgate to Mill Hill East or High Barnet via Archway, but not for alighting/boarding between Kings Cross and Highgate, except at Kentish Town.

When I showed her the Staff Travel Guide she told me not to tell her what her job was. That is when I asked her to seek guidance from her supervisor and the office got involved.

I have used Liverpool St, Epping, Baker St. and Northwood without any issue. On a fairly recent occasion when I arrived at Moorgate on a GN service I was pointed towards one of the ticket machines to buy a ticket but another member of staff nearby stepped in to explain to his colleague about inter-available routes and that I was valid.

 

[greyman42]

Slightly of topic, i was recently at Kings Cross northern ticket hall to get my Oyster validated for use with my new staff travel card. I asked the staff member to validate it and she said she could not do so as my current staff travel had not expired. I explained to her that this was not the case and had not been in the past to which she replied "well it is now" and walked off.

 

[bakerstreet]

I’ll state at the outset that I’m not TfL or TOC staff but it anazes me that ‘the railway’ can treat other the railway’ in this way. Yes we know the worst (and best) of how the railway can treat its fare paying customers but to treat others in the same industry in the same manner - making up rules, not accepting new information, casting those before them as trying it on or criminal - is astounding to me and suggests the industry has got some deep rooted problems and some members of staff who have no place within it.

What is the solution?

 

[greyman42]

On a fairly recent occasion when I arrived at Moorgate on a GN service I was pointed towards one of the ticket machines to buy a ticket but another member of staff nearby stepped in to explain to his colleague about inter-available routes and that I was valid.

These sort of issues have been going on at Moorgate for years. Why don't they train their staff regarding this?

 

[Falcon1200]

According to the Rail Staff Travel Guide a dated staff travel card is valid from Paddington to Harrow & Wealdstone on the Bakerloo line under the inter-available routes arrangement.

It has occurred to me that a simple, if slow, route between Paddington and Euston is via Bakerloo to Willesden Jc and cross the platform there for the Overground direct into Euston, but I have never yet dared to use my BR pass on the Underground !

 

[62484GlenLyon]

I’ll state at the outset that I’m not TfL or TOC staff but it anazes me that ‘the railway’ can treat other the railway’ in this way. Yes we know the worst (and best) of how the railway can treat its fare paying customers but to treat others in the same industry in the same manner - making up rules, not accepting new information, casting those before them as trying it on or criminal - is astounding to me and suggests the industry has got some deep rooted problems and some members of staff who have no place within it.

I have to say that my overwhelming experience of dealing with other railway industry staff over many years has been positive. Issues such as those that I described above at Kings Cross have been very rare and more than balanced by examples of staff going out of their way to be helpful.

 

[SargeNpton]

Slightly of topic, i was recently at Kings Cross northern ticket hall to get my Oyster validated for use with my new staff travel card. I asked the staff member to validate it and she said she could not do so as my current staff travel had not expired. I explained to her that this was not the case and had not been in the past to which she replied "well it is now" and walked off.

The TfL tourist information centre at St Pancras is really good at getting Oyster validations done. The staff there seem to have a good knowledge of all aspects of it.

 

[Mag_seven]

The TfL tourist information centre at St Pancras is really good at getting Oyster validations done. The staff there seem to have a good knowledge of all aspects of it.

Was that for a PRIV Oyster update for the new staff travel card?

 

[SargeNpton]

My Oyster card includes my Priv season ticket for zone 1-2 and my priv entitlement for outside of that area. The St Pancras TIC extends the end-date for the latter at the same time it does the new season ticket - without a hitch.