London terminals

[Nicholas43]

When someone selects London from a TVM, I don't know why it can't offer a choice of Travelcard, a London Terminal (or shown as the valid terminals from that origin) and any station within zone 1 and/or 2. Rather than expecting people to know the ticket type to select from the off.

The user then at least knows what to expect as the screen can show a lot more info than the ticket itself. By all means pop up a disclaimer that must be selected so any subsequent arguments can be dealt with by saying 'you accepted the terms'.

As the any permitted tickets are gradually changed to show more detail, I don't see a problem with the idea of showing London Terminals with the 3 digit station codes instead. They can be easily looked up and now feature on many timetables, route maps and the National Rail app could easily offer a look up table for users. Heck, print barcodes and let the user scan their ticket for more detail (even easier than the /(code) lookup URL for restrictions that I'm sure many people don't know about).

I think it's mad to sell a ticket that isn't valid from that station, and crazy for people to assume that not everyone wants to travel from there or may have another ticket. Of course some might, but that's not the default stance for a ticket machine to take.

I support this. If I'm at (for example) Charing Cross going to Effingham Junction, I'd like to be offered CHX to Effingham Junction via WAE. If I ask for Cambridge, I'd like to be offered U1 to Cambridge, or King's Cross/Moorgate/Liverpool Street to Cambridge, or Boundary zone 6 to Cambridge, or ideally, a cheap ticket "Liv St only" to Cambridge if one is available that day. If I buy a return to Effingham Junction, I don't know if it's practicable to show that I can come back to Victoria, Vauxhall, Waterloo, Charing Cross, London Bridge, and (when London Bridge gets to a fit state) Cannon Street, Blackfriars, City Thameslink. I think it would be best to show those explicitly, but I could cope with a code such a VIC + LOR and an explanation that LOR means all the London Riverside stations. I'd like the fact that there is an additional charge for Farringdon to be as transparent as possible.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

How about a destination of 'London British Rail' with no validity on the tube but valid on rail services through central London to get to any station in Zone 1?

I fear the problem with that idea is the confusion it would cause because it won't necessarily be obvious to non-rail-enthusiasts which trains in London actually count as 'rail' rather than as 'tube'. Yes, at places like Euston or Victoria it's fairly obvious because to get to the tube you have to enter a separate 'tube' station. But elsewhere there are too many places where you can interchange between National Rail and TfL services within a station, without passing through any barrier. Not only that, but with the advent of Crossrail, you'll have TfL running trains that look basically like National Rail trains within zone 1.

 

[Nicholas43]

...with the advent of Crossrail, you'll have TfL running trains that look basically like National Rail trains within zone 1.

And you already have Govia Thameslink running trains to Farringdon and insisting on their cut from tickets valid to Farringdon.