Southern only ticket bought on SWR app

[lolly_p]

Hoping to get some advice! I bought an off peak travelcard on the SWR with a route from Leatherhead to Euston via London Victoria on the way out and selected an option that took me to board a SWR train at Vauxhall on the way back.

Picked up the ticket and it clearly states Southern Only.

SWR chat ‘think it’s fine’ to take Vauxhall-Lhd route but suggest I ask the guard when I try to board at Vauxhall (which is a pain if I then have to go back to Victoria). Has anyone had this? Seems bonkers SWR can sell tickets they aren’t sure about validity of.

 

[Watershed]

Can you upload a picture of the ticket (with any reference number/barcode removed)? Or the price you paid, and any Railcard you applied, would also help.

Like many train companies, SWR's customer services are, AFAIK, outsourced to a customer support centre where nobody has any real training on how rail ticketing works. That is completely separate to the company (Worldline) who provide their actual software.

 

[lolly_p]

Cheers. Here is ticket and confirmation of journey in the app.

 

[Haywain]

It is fine to take an SWR service from Vauxhall, but only as far as Ewell West, as that is covered by the Travelcard zonal validity. It is only the remainder of the journey that is restricted to Southern services. This may be the cause of the confusion with SWR.

 

[Hadders]

You've got a Travelcard. Within London fare zones 1-6 any national rail train may be used (or London Underground, DLR, Eizabeth Line or Bus). So Vauxhall to Waterloo on SWR is fine.

The Southern only restriction only refers to traibs between Leatherhead and the Boundary of London Fare Zone 6.

 

[Watershed]

Cheers. Here is ticket and confirmation of journey in the app.

Ok, so that's definitely a glitch on the part of the ticket issuing site. The "Southern only" restrictions doesn't apply to travel within Zones 1-6 as the ticket is a Travelcard which allows travel on all trains, buses and Underground services within those zones.

However the site has incorrectly applied this rule to the part of the Vauxhall to Leatherhead service that goes beyond Zone 6 (i.e. from Ewell West onwards). It's an SWR service as you say, so you wouldn't normally be permitted to use that on a "Southern only" ticket.

Since you have an itinerary specifying an SWR train, you're contractually entitled to travel on that train despite the fact that the ticket would not normally be valid on it. That's also been confirmed by SWR's customer services (albeit they probably don't really understand the problem).

But there is always a possibility you encounter problems onboard the train because the guard (or a member of revenue protection staff) might not understand that principle, and might wrongly charge you for a new ticket or issue you with a Penalty Fare.

If you want to guarantee a hassle-free journey I'd suggest either asking SWR for a free refund and rebooking for the "Any Permitted" Travelcard (or a ticket to Underground Zone 1 if that's the only journey you'll be making). Or you could just use a Southern service as per the ticket's route restriction.

 

[lolly_p]

Thanks all!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 10 Jul 2025 ==

Just an update - I ended up not risking the route SWR had sold me. After telling me the route was permissible by webchat, the customer service contact followed up by email just now to confirm it was definitely Southern only.

 

[OscarH]

This has been reported, along with other similar cases.