Southeastern High Speed supplement - useful tip?

[maxbarnish]

Yesterday, I went from Woolwich Arsenal to Canterbury day return.

I needed high speed routing on way back as there were no more 'normal' trains left. If you try to buy a ticket that is valid on this, it will be nearly £35 with railcard compared to £18 on the normal day return.

What I did is much cheaper - just ask for a High Speed upgrade (an excess fare) on way back - was just over £4.

What I can't advise on is the official validity of connections routes to Woolwich Arsenal/that area as there seems no Maltese cross for underground/DLR - but the Guard on SE high speed said I could go via Underground to London Bridge and then the train, or leave at Stratford Int for DLR.

I did the latter and had no issues - but no inspection. I did have the authorisation of a railway staff member anyway.

The DLR as a connection to rail seems to cause some annoying and complex routing disagreements though - had a couple in past.

So, my comment here is only suggesting the excess rather than getting two separate single tickets - and not on the routing once London is reached.

 

[yorkie]

I can't find an £18 return; do you have a Railcard?

I think you had a 'NOT LONDN/EBBSFT' ticket. Normally, the correct action would be to excess the return portion to '✠ANY PERMITTED', a difference of £8.60.

However, rather than faff around with traditional excess fares, Southeastern have decided to issue "supplements" to validate route restricted tickets to be valid via HS1.

The problems in this case is that the supplement is too cheap and also you don't get a maltese cross. Arguably they are issuing the supplement in lieu of the excess, so the ticket should be deemed to have the same validity as the excess, but without the maltese cross you may find the ticket rejected by LU or DLR staff. If a Penalty Fare was issued, it would be a complex case to deal with.

The DLR as a connection to rail seems to cause some annoying and complex routing disagreements though - had a couple in past.

Providing the ticket is appropriately routed, it should not be contentious.
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/46587.aspx

List of London Underground and DLR Stations between which single/return tickets valid for travel ‘via London' may be used - subject to route of the through journey being made.

Stratford International (DLR) and Woolwich Arsenal (DLR) are both on the list.

This demonstrates one of the flaws in Southeastern's method of issuing supplements in lieu of excess fares for this route. I think they do this because the staff who check tickets on these trains (On Board Managers or OBMs for short) might otherwise struggle to get through the whole train; it takes longer to issue an excess fare than it would to issue a supplement.

I'm sure Southeastern read this forum, but whether they will (or can) do anything about it, I'm not sure.

 

[paul1609]

I can't find an £18 return; do you have a Railcard?

I think you had a 'NOT LONDN/EBBSFT' ticket. Normally, the correct action would be to excess the return portion to '✠ANY PERMITTED', a difference of £8.60.

However, rather than faff around with traditional excess fares, Southeastern have decided to issue "supplements" to validate route restricted tickets to be valid via HS1.

The problems in this case is that the supplement is too cheap and also you don't get a maltese cross. Arguably they are issuing the supplement in lieu of the excess, so the ticket should be deemed to have the same validity as the excess, but without the maltese cross you may find the ticket rejected by LU or DLR staff. If a Penalty Fare was issued, it would be a complex case to deal with.


Providing the ticket is appropriately routed, it should not be contentious.
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/46587.aspx

Stratford International (DLR) and Woolwich Arsenal (DLR) are both on the list.

This demonstrates one of the flaws in Southeastern's method of issuing supplements in lieu of excess fares for this route. I think they do this because the staff who check tickets on these trains (On Board Managers or OBMs for short) might otherwise struggle to get through the whole train; it takes longer to issue an excess fare than it would to issue a supplement.

I'm sure Southeastern read this forum, but whether they will (or can) do anything about it, I'm not sure.

I think that the supplements were introduced because it allows a route change for season ticket holders of which there are a lot.
For a couple of years I held a Rye to London Travelcard route not high speed. As I worked near Lambeth bridge the quickest route was to travel to Charing Cross and walk or hop on the bus. I couldn't justify the price difference of a plus HS1 season but if I was socialising in say Kings Cross I could just buy an off peak HS supplement.