Routing advice (Hever and Leigh stations)

[Barn]

I'm going to do one of the Time Out country walks soon. The walk is from Hever station to Leigh station.

The book is usually quite helpful about ticketing. For this walk it says: "Take the train nearest to 10.20am from London Bridge Station to Hever. Journey time 41 minutes. On Sundays there is no direct service from London stations to Hever; you will need to travel from Victoria or London Bridge and change at East Croydon and/or Oxted, with a longer journey time.

Returning from Leigh, you can either take a westbound train via Edenbridge and Redhill to London Bridge (on Sundays you might need to change at Redhill), or an eastbound train and change at Tonbridge for Charing Cross. The journey time for both routes is about 1 hour. It is usually best to take the first train to arrive, so check the timetable when you arrive in order to decide on the right platform.
buy a day return to Leigh (Kent).

This is valid for both return routes, but on the way out it is only valid as far as Edenbridge Town (on a different line, but tickets via the two Edenbridge stations are interchangeable). In practice a Leigh ticket is usually accepted to Hever, the next stop, but you might be asked to pay a small supplement." More details here.

Because for professional reasons I definitely cannot afford to get caught up in any ticket irregularities, can anyone kindly let me know what's the cheapest way to do a London Bridge - Hever and a Leigh - London Bridge journey on the same day? Ideally I'd like the flexibility of making the return journey via Tonbridge. I've got a gold travelcard out to zone 3.

Thanks!

 

[yorkie]

The "supplement" it talks of would simply be a Edenbridge Stations to Hever single, priced at £1.60 (NFM10 price).

Edit: see post below for advice

 

[Barn]

The "supplement" it talks of would simply be a Edenbridge Stations to Hever single, priced at £1.60 (NFM10 price).

Cheers yorkie, that's great. I'll just get that extra ticket in advance then. Just to check, the Edenbridge stations are interchangeable even if you're passing through them rather than going to them? In other words, a Leigh ticket is valid at Edenbridge Town simply because you could use it to travel short to Edenbridge?

 

[yorkie]

Having considered the Routeing Guide, and given your wish to return via Tonbridge, and the fact that you hold a Zone 1-3 Travelcard Gold Card, I would advise the following:

Boundary Zone 3 [0042] to Leigh (Kent) [[stn]LIH[/stn]] £5.10
Edenbridge Stns [0259] to Hever [[stn]HEV[/stn]] £1.05
(Fares shown above are NFM10 prices with Gold Card discount applied)

Outward journey:
My calculation is that a ticket from Boundary Zone 3 to Leigh (Kent) is valid via Oxted by interchanging at Edenbridge Stations under the shortest route rule (there is no question that you would be valid via Redhill - a longer route by rail than walking between the stations at Edenbridge) however this is difficult to calculate. In any case, you will be travelling by a route that is shorter than a mapped route, therefore it is unlikely you would be challenged. However I would see the guard before your train departs East Croydon to check the guard is happy with this. At Edenbridge Town, your ticket validity ends as you would have to change there to walk to Edenbridge to get to Leigh (Kent), so from Edenbridge Town you need to switch tickets and use the Edenbridge Stns to Hever ticket from that point.

Return journey:
There is no question that the shortest route from Leigh (Kent) to Boundary Zone 3 is via Tonbridge, so this is most certainly valid.