Procedure for purchasing season ticket when ticket office closed

[Mike395]

Hi,

First Capital Connect have helpfully decided they're closing the Bedford ticket office for refurbishment the first week of August. As I can't renew a monthly Travelcard season using the TVMs (you can renew point-to-point tickets but not Travelcards), what is the official process for doing this? FCC are advising on Twitter that I would have to either renew the working day before (I'll be in Scotland until the night before) or renew online....

I know with non-seasons, you can buy on board/at destination if the product you want is unavailable - but does this apply with seasons, especially as they cannot be issued on board?

 

[najaB]

I know with non-seasons, you can buy on board/at destination if the product you want is unavailable - but does this apply with seasons, especially as they cannot be issued on board?

You can only buy weekly season tickets onboard, I'm not sure what the procedure would be for buying at the destination. My guess would be that if you bought and showed a single to the destination station they would discount the monthly season ticket by the same amount.

 

[maniacmartin]

najaB's suggestion should work and is the way detailed in NRCoC section 3.

3. Where the full range of tickets is not available
If you cannot buy an appropriate ticket for the journey you want to make because the
range of tickets that is available at the station from which you intend to start your journey
is restricted, you must buy a ticket or Permit to Travel before you travel that entitles you to
make at least part of the journey. You must then, as soon as is reasonably practicable, buy
an appropriate ticket to complete your journey. In these circumstances, you only need to
pay the fare that you would have paid if you had bought a ticket immediately before your
journey. The price you will have to pay will be reduced by the amount paid for the ticket or
Permit to Travel.

However I suspect it will be less hassle to buy it on the previous working day. You can buy season tickets dated to start Monday from Friday afternoon onwards, so you won't be paying for days you don't need

 

[reb0118]

You should be able to buy it at most booking offices in Scotland too.

 

[ASharpe]

You should be able to buy it at most booking offices in Scotland too.

But it wouldn't be a Gold Card then.

 

[Hadders]

It's a monthly season so a Gold Card's not relevant.

 

[reb0118]

But it wouldn't be a Gold Card then.

Funnily enough we do see a lot of internal Scottish seasons issued on Gold Card ticket stock, As an aside tickets issued at Haymarket seem to have a TfL roundel design at present.

 

[maniacmartin]

Oops!

 

[hairyhandedfool]

You should be able to buy it at most booking offices in Scotland too.

Could be a bit of a pain if the op manages to lose it though........

 

[island]

Proper procedure is to buy a single to London Thameslink or wherever it is you're going, the cost of which will be deducted from your renewal if you present it at the booking office.

 

[Starmill]

Buy the single and hope to God they manage better with this sort of thing at London St Pancras than Manchester Piccadilly!