inter-available route - direction

[rkww]

The new Great Northern / Thameslink timetable cuts out Finsbury Park from the fast morning Knebworth to Kings Cross trains. I know there's an inter-available underground route from Finsbury Park to Kings Cross (and on to Old Street) with Highbury and Islington being a valid exit point; my question is whether this valid 'in reverse' that is, e.g. Knebworth -> Kings Cross -> Highbury and Islington.

thetrainline.com seems to think it is (using a weekday in mid-June): it costs the same for a via Kings Cross (on Great Northern) as a via Finsbury Park (on Thameslink) ticket (and is the same as a terminate Kings Cross ticket.)

But the national rail planner claims that the via Kings Cross is £24-something (vs. £18-something via Finsbury Park) although both tickets are any time / any permitted route, (and the more expensive ticket is apparently only valid for that particular train.)

Any thoughts ?

--
Roger

 

[yorkie]

King's Cross <> Finsbury Park is an inter-available route, with inter-availability available intermediately at Highbury & Islington (but not the intermediate Piccadilly Line stations)

What ticket do you have?

 

[yorkie]

It looks like SilverRail's implementation is incorrect.

Trainline's provider is correct.

Trainsplit also offers this.

Edit: and so does Worldline (Atos) WebTIS.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Whilst it's logical that a Knebworth - Highbury & Islington ticket (which has no cross-London indicator) SHOULD be accepted via Kings Cross as a result of the timetable change, I wouldn't be surprised to encounter difficulties at the gatelines at both Kings Cross NR and King's Cross St. Pancras LU.

Having said that, I note that Atos WebTIS will also quite happily offer the normal Knebworth - Highbury tickets for travel via Kings Cross in such cases.

With the current timetable, for example, it's possible to get the 0711 from Knebworth, change at Finsbury Park, and get to Highbury at 0742. In the new timetable, that becomes 0713 from Knebworth, changing at Finsbury Park, and not getting to Highbury until 0754.

 

[rkww]

Okay I think we have an answer for Knebworth -> H & I ticket -- so follow up question -- would a London Terminals ticket be valid for that journey if you change onto the Underground at Kings Cross ?

 

[yorkie]

Okay I think we have an answer for Knebworth -> H & I ticket -- so follow up question -- would a London Terminals ticket be valid for that journey if you change onto the Underground at Kings Cross ?

A single? No.

A return? You could break the return portion there & later resume direct to FPK.

Obviously no issue with a Season!

 

[CyrusWuff]

Someone asked Great Northern's Twitter team about the validity via Kings Cross and, after checking, they said that you'd need either a Travelcard or a ticket to Zone U12 instead, which is in line with what NRE and their website says.

To recap:

• NRE : Only offers a Knebworth (KBW) - Highbury & Islington (HHY) ticket for journeys changing at Finsbury Park (FPK).
• GTR : Only offers a KBW - HHY ticket when changing at FPK.
• Trainline : Offers a KBW - HHY ticket for all journeys.
• Chiltern : Website is throwing up an error at the time of writing, but the app only offers a KBW - HHY ticket when changing at FPK.
• Atos WebTIS : Offers a KBW - HHY ticket for all journeys.
• Raileasy : Only offers a KBW - HHY ticket when changing at FPK.
• Trainsplit : Offers a KBW - HHY ticket for all journeys, though won't show those via Kings Cross (KGX) by default.
• Loco2 : Only offers a KBW - HHY ticket when changing at FPK.

So that's five journey planner/booking engines saying you need to change at FPK and three that think you'll be okay going via KGX...which is about as clear as mud! I would, however, note that all of them agree that going via KGX is 7 minutes slower than via FPK, due to minimum interchange times.

 

[yorkie]

Someone asked Great Northern's Twitter team about the validity via Kings Cross and, after checking, they said that you'd need either a Travelcard or a ticket to Zone U12 instead, which is in line with what NRE and their website says....

I wouldn't trust GTR's Twitter feed to answer any fares question accurately. To say they are not knowledgeable on fares matters is a huge understatement.

NRE, Loco2, etc that you list above are websites, but almost all of these websites are actually using third party data providers for fares data e.g. NRE uses SilverRail IPTIS, while Raileasy.com uses Fujitsu RIBS, to give two examples.

Worldline (Atos) WebTIS might actually do their own fares data without third party involvement; certainly their websites do not give consistent results with any of the known suppliers of other websites (they are known for some whacky routeings at times, but they have got this one right!)

I am pretty sure there are 5 fares data providers; 3 of the five are correct while 2 of the 5 are incorrect on this particular matter.