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I recently bought an anytime return from London Thameslink to Gatwick Airport as an e-ticket (on the TrainSplit app) and used the outbound portion immediately. However, I just found out that there are engineering works on the day I plan to return (13th) and that paper tickets are accepted on some additional TfL services. https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/engineering-works/st-pancras-finsbury-park-13-june-20260613/
Therefore, would it be possible to reissue the return ticket as a paper ticket? If not, would it still be possible to use the e-ticket to travel on the trams and the tube?
I think reissuing would be difficult given the fact the the outward portion was already used... Obviously no help now, but I would recommend using paper tickets for all journeys involving London just in case disruption makes the tube the best option. It is certainly a suboptimal situation (though likely being resolved soon by TFL acceptance of e-tickets). I wonder if the best option would be to contact Trainsplit/Thameslink customer support to see if they can arrange some other form of authority to travel on TFL...
Didn't want to chance a paper ticket since I was trying to make a flight and don't want to miss my train fiddling around with the ticket machine. Good to know for next time though
Didn't want to chance a paper ticket since I was trying to make a flight and don't want to miss my train fiddling around with the ticket machine. Good to know for next time though
Makes sense (and although I prefer paper, in 2026 it is absurd that there is no digital alternative with the same acceptance). For avoiding station faff, I believe that c2c and Chiltern offer 1st class post free of charge (subject to advance booking though).
Going back to your current situation, I (again) would advise contacting both Thameslink and Trainsplit customer support explaining the issue. If they refuse, I suppose you could try turning up and seeing if TfL staff are reasonable (or if Thameslink staff on the ground can arrange anything). If they refuse, I suppose the only way to use TfL services would be to purchase a ticket covering that section of journey (and then seeing if customer service would consider reimbursing as a goodwill gesture)…
It's certainly worth a try, but I wouldn't hold your hopes too high. My experiences in the past with trying to get zero value excesses has not been good.
An alternative might be if you have a paper printout of the e-ticket, then that might be accepted. Again, no guarantees.
If the OP is away from home, then printing it may be more difficult. However, if he is staying in a hotel for example, hotels are often willing to print things for guests. Worth asking reception. I have had hotels print airline boarding passes for me, for example, by emailing it to the hotel reception.
I think it is optimistic to think that a printed eTicket has a better chance of being accepted by TfL staff than one presented on a mobile phone. It is still an eTicket, after all.
It's certainly worth a try, but I wouldn't hold your hopes too high. My experiences in the past with trying to get zero value excesses has not been good.
An alternative might be if you have a paper printout of the e-ticket, then that might be accepted. Again, no guarantees.
Maybe worth asking GTR what the alternative travel arrangements are between London Bridge and St Pancras for holders of e-tickets, and if they say there aren't any, ask them for a partial refund for the unused portion of your ticket? I'd be suggesting £3 as a fair sum of money, since that'd get you to Kings Cross St Pancras underground using Contactless.
Barrier from Thameslink to the street at Farringdon are TFL staffed, have no QR code scanners, and those staff allow you thru with an e-ticket. Why wouldn't they allow it anywhere else?
Barrier from Thameslink to the street at Farringdon are TFL staffed, have no QR code scanners, and those staff allow you thru with an e-ticket. Why wouldn't they allow it anywhere else?
Farringdon and other LU stations with 'paid-area' access to NR services (not including the Elizabeth line core) are the exceptions to the rule. If it's a LU station that's merely adjacent to a NR station (e.g. King's Cross St Pancras) then barcode tickets will not be accepted.
Barrier from Thameslink to the street at Farringdon are TFL staffed, have no QR code scanners, and those staff allow you thru with an e-ticket. Why wouldn't they allow it anywhere else?
Probably for the reason @MrJeeves mentions, in spite of the fact staff at Farringdon never use the handheld readers.
But we can only speculate as to how TfL, in its infinite wisdom, has arrived at its current policy position. My experience of trying to get access to information held by TfL is they just apply a totally spurious cost exemption, uphold it on internal review, and then when you go to the ICO you find there's about a 10-month wait even to get the case assigned to an investigating officer. The absolute state of the ICO and the role of its Chief Executive in this probably merits its own thread in General Discussion, but the outcome is, essentially, that organisations do not, in practice, have to comply with their obligations under either the FOIA or DPA at the present time, and TfL appears to be one of the organisations that has clocked that.
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Farringdon and other LU stations with 'paid-area' access to NR services (not including the Elizabeth line core) are the exceptions to the rule. If it's a LU station that's merely adjacent to a NR station (e.g. King's Cross St Pancras) then barcode tickets will not be accepted.
Without wanting to nitpick, but that's not what the advertised ticket acceptance says. It says "paper rail tickets" will be accepted on LU. It makes no distinction between PRT and CCST.
If TfL's view is that a ticket that was issued as an e-ticket but has been printed out doesn't count as a paper rail ticket despite being a rail ticket and being held on paper, they have neither stated nor explained that (though I agree with @Haywain that there's every chance, in spite of this, that LU staff would reject such tickets anyway).
Without wanting to nitpick, but that's not what the advertised ticket acceptance says. It says "paper rail tickets" will be accepted on LU. It makes no distinction between PRT and CCST.
That is true, and the average passenger would have no reason to believe otherwise. But it doesn't change that TfL is usually reluctant to accept barcode tickets their gates can't even attempt to validate at most LU stations;* whether the barcode is on paper or a backlit screen makes no difference.
By "paper" they probably mean CCST (or the more colloquial "magstripe"), and not making that explicit is another failing of TfL and/or the TOCs.
If TfL's view is that a ticket that was issued as an e-ticket but has been printed out doesn't count as a paper rail ticket despite being a rail ticket and being held on paper, they have neither stated nor explained that (though I agree with @Haywain that there's every chance, in spite of this, that LU staff would reject such tickets anyway).
It could go either way. As I say, I'd ask GTR what alternative travel is available for e-ticket holders and request a partial refund if there are none, but they're not going to respond before the weekend, so I would attempt to use the e-ticket to make the tube journey. If it was accepted for travel, then I would contact GTR to say don't worry about the partial refund as the ticket was used for the full journey to St Pancras. If it wasn't accepted and I had to use Contactless then I would continue to pursue GTR for the partial refund.
And no further phasing out of CCST should happen in the South East until that has happened, imho. Because it would be silly to assume it's going to happen when it's supposed to.
I'd ask GTR what alternative travel is available for e-ticket holders and request a partial refund if there are none, but they're not going to respond before the weekend
I think it is optimistic to think that a printed eTicket has a better chance of being accepted by TfL staff than one presented on a mobile phone. It is still an eTicket, after all.
I think it is optimistic to think that a printed eTicket has a better chance of being accepted by TfL staff than one presented on a mobile phone. It is still an eTicket, after all.
Personally I don't buy tickets to or from London Thameslink as e-tickets and this case illustrates one reason why.
The same sort of thing could happen without prior notice if, for example, a failed train in the Thameslink core were to close the line. LU ticket acceptance would be announced and the official position would be that e-ticket users can't benefit from that (even if the good sense of staff means that ridiculous policy isn't always enforced).
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