Kent Rover - still available?

[Mike395]

Hi there,

A year or so back, I remember seeing a rover that provides 3 days consecutive travel on any line in Kent (not inc. HS1) for approximately £35. Looking at the southeastern website, theres no no mention of it at all, although it's still listed as a rover ticket on NRE.

Anyone know if its still available? (I'll be purchasing it at a ticket office outside the area of validity, so want to be totally sure it's available before getting them to look for it!)

Many thanks,

Mike

 

[John @ home]

Anyone know if its still available?

It appears to remain available. NFM 08 CD indicates that the code for KENT ROVER is I431. That may assist at a ticket office outside the area of validity. The information in The Manual is:

Product Kent Rover
Validity 3 Day
Price £38.00
Accompanied Child £5.00
Railcard n/a
Discounts Accompanied child (up to four) £5.00. No Railcard discounts. Unaccompanied children must purchase an adult ticket.
Validity Available after 0930 (Monday-Fridays). Available all day Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays. Valid for travel on three consecutive days. Only available within the area shown on the map.

Discrepancy
The map linked above is the projectmapping version from the National Rail site. The Manual's map is attached. It shows additional validity between High Brooms and Tunbridge Wells.

 

[Mike395]

Thanks John!

Just wanted to check as I wouldve thought it unlikely that Bedford station sell many of them! :P

Mike

 

[ashworth]

The whole of Kent is a part of the railk network that I have not really explored. This is partly because of the high fares charged by Southeastern and the lack of convenient rover tickets.
I wish that Southeastern would do a ticket like Southern's Daysave which would allow travel over their network off-peak which included travel on all of their trains to and from London. The Kent 3 Day Rover is OK if you are actually staying in Kent but works out very expensive if you have to travel each day to get there as it doesn't allow travel to/from the London area.

Aren't Southeastern owned by the same company that run Southern or am I mistaken?

 

[Mike395]

Yup, Southern and Southeastern (and London Midland IIRC) are one and the same, so it's surprising that Southeastern seems to get the worst deal in terms of offers and the nonexistance of advance fares!

 

[pendolino]

Yup, Southern and Southeastern (and London Midland IIRC) are one and the same, so it's surprising that Southeastern seems to get the worst deal in terms of offers and the nonexistance of advance fares!

All three are part of the GoAhead/Govia group, but they are separate companies, not one and the same. Govia allows its subsidiaries a fair amount of autonomy in how they operate, so it doesn't necessarily follow that SE and SN would be run identically.

 

[MikeWh]

Yup, Southern and Southeastern (and London Midland IIRC) are one and the same, so it's surprising that Southeastern seems to get the worst deal in terms of offers and the nonexistance of advance fares!

I don't often stick up for Southeastern, but given that SWT don't sell advances from London to anywhere east of Brockenhurst (92 miles) and that London to Ramsgate via Ashford and Canterbury is only 90 miles, perhaps they feel that Advances are inappropriate for their network.

However, living as I do on the edge of Oysterland with three train mad kids, I definitely would appreciate a slightly more expensive rover that included the whole SET network. Or even one which was valid to the last Oyster stations. Quite why it has to stop at Gravesend on the North Kent line is beyond me.

 

[atomicdanny]

That's gone up a bit when i bought it in 2007! (it was £24 then! for the same area).