Staff says London Terminals ticket is not Valid

[goldmineghost]

Hi, i regularly make a trip from London to Tunbridge Wells.

My journey is as follows
London St.Pancras to London Bridge (thameslink service) and London Bridge to TunBridge Wells (South Eastern)

I get an advanced single from trip.com thats says “London Terminals to Tunbridge Wells”.

It normally works at the gates st St Pancras but this time it didn’t and staff said its not correct.

How does it work? I belive it is valid.

Am i wrong?

I have attached a picture of the ticket.

Your help and guidance will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[walkingsophie]

What London Terminals means changes depending on whether you are coming into London from the North or the South.
See: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/travel-information/travelling-in-london/

 

[Mcr Warrior]

07:36 to Tunbridge Wells is from London Bridge, isn't it? Also, doubt that any ticket from London Terminals to Tunbridge Wells is ever valid starting from an origin station North of City Thameslink if/when then travelling via Farringdon. Unless you've been sold some 'cut and shut' combination ticket? How much did you pay for the ticket, and did it not come with an accompanying itinerary?

 

[mmh]

If it's an advance single it should have been sold against an itinerary - what stations are in the itinerary?

 

[Hadders]

The station staff are correct. The ticket isn't valid from St Pancras.

With an Advance ticket you must take the trains specified in your itinerary.

With a flexible ticket (eg Anytime, Off Peak, Super Off Peak) you can use the appropriate London Terminal but St Pancras isn't an appropriate London Terminal for a journey to Tunbridge Wells.

As an aside where was the ticket purchased from? The terminology 'Any Permitted' isn't appropriate for Advance tickets. The ticket should really state the London Terminal, eg London Bridge (LBG) in this case and give a route of 'South Eastern only' or 'Booked train only'.

 

[thejuggler]

OP mentions purchase is from trip.com. A site I'd not buy anything from.

 

[yorkie]

Hi, i regularly make a trip from London to Tunbridge Wells.

My journey is as follows
London St.Pancras to London Bridge (thameslink service) and London Bridge to TunBridge Wells (South Eastern)

I get an advanced single from trip.com thats says “London Terminals to Tunbridge Wells”.

It normally works at the gates st St Pancras but this time it didn’t and staff said its not correct.

How does it work? I belive it is valid.

Am i wrong?

I have attached a picture of the ticket.

Your help and guidance will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

It's not valid, and shouldn't be issued, but if you are following an itinerary from St Pancras on such a ticket, then staff must accept it (they are entitled to record details of the incorrectly issued ticket for investigation and to report the matter so that the original retailer can fix their system to avoid issuing such tickets in future)

Did your itinerary actually start at St Pancras?

If so, where did you get the ticket from? Our ticketing website absolutely would not do that.

OP mentions purchase is from trip.com. A site I'd not buy anything from.

Ah, that explains everything. They issue all sorts of tickets they shouldn't be issuing, and get up to all sorts of dodgy stuff.

The only reason I'd use them is if they were issuing something that was, shall we say, unexpectedly cheap. I certainly wouldn't trust them!

In case anyone isn't aware, Trip.com is the company that owns Trainpal and they are absolutely notorious for poor practice, poor customer service, and all sorts of other stuff.

 

[mmh]

The ticket should really state the London Terminal, eg London Bridge (LBG) in this case

I agree, but I find it quite common that advances I buy come with tickets to a group of stations rather than the actual single station it's valid to, rather stupidly. Advance tickets to Glasgow Central which are marked Central / Queen Street (GLW), and tickets to Warrington Bank Quay marked to Bank Quay / Central (WRG).

Just yet another silly broken thing in the shambles that is rail ticketing though, I guess.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 May 2026 ==

This appears to be because Southeastern have set the route as 'ANY PERMITTED' on their advance tickets rather than something like 'SOUTHEASTERN', so I expect any retailer would issue this ticket marked the same.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I get an advanced single from trip.com thats says “London Terminals to Tunbridge Wells”.

What does the itinerary attached to the booking say?

Advance tickets are only valid on the booked train(s). So what booked train(s) did trip.com give you?

I note the ticket only refers to a single train, which was at 0736 this morning. No other trains are listed. There wasn't a train from St Pancras International to London Bridge at 0736. There was a train from London Bridge to Tunbridge Wells at 0736. You can't just randomly add connections to an Advance ticket as you see fit. Booked train(s) only means booked train(s) only.

If you've been getting away with this consider yourself lucky. You may not be so lucky next time.

 

[4COR]

OP (on Reddit) states that the itinerary says London Bridge to Tunbridge Wells. So yes, not as per booked, and yes, not valid at StP as suspected.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I agree, but I find it quite common that advances I buy come with tickets to a group of stations rather than the actual single station it's valid to, rather stupidly. Advance tickets to Glasgow Central which are marked Central / Queen Street (GLW), and tickets to Warrington Bank Quay marked to Bank Quay / Central (WRG).

That's not a bad thing. There are plenty of examples where this is better for the passenger.

For instance, Manchester Oxford Road vs Manchester Piccadilly where many trains call at both. It's useful to be able to use either station. Same in Glasgow where not all advance tickets will have a specific connecting service on the itinerary, so you can take any appropriate connecting service- this could be to Central or to Queen Street.

The OP's issue is more the age-old issue that London Terminals validity doesn't cross Farringdon.

 

[furlong]

The ticket has been issued incorrectly and I'd argue that it should have been accepted for departure from any London Terminal on the first train at or after 07:36 just as a typical passenger using it would expect, the information on the face of the ticket providing extended validity in line with consumer law.

(If it was intended only to be valid from London Bridge, that should have been stated on the face of the ticket.)

 

[redreni]

Advance tickets are only valid on the booked train(s). So what booked train(s) did trip.com give you?

That's what the public-facing T&Cs say, but in this case Thameslink is a connecting leg and the main leg is on Southeastern. In those circumstances, Thameslink's (GTR's) policy is you can use any appropriate connecting service.

This journey is a good illustration of why they have that policy - sometimes when Thameslink is recovering from earlier disruption through the core, everything seems to be about 30 or 40 minutes late, but there is still a regular service in the core section. It would be absurd if people had to let the first 15 trains go, wait for their booked train and miss their connection at London Bridge. Even making people seek permission from staff to use an earlier train would be daft. The Thameslink core is very much akin to an underground line in terms of its operation (if not always its ticketing).

 

[Haywain]

That's what the public-facing T&Cs say, but in this case Thameslink is a connecting leg and the main leg is on Southeastern. In those circumstances, Thameslink's (GTR's) policy is you can use any appropriate connecting service.

It's a requirement for the ticket to be valid for the journey being made, which this wasn't.

 

[Tetchytyke]

The ticket has been issued incorrectly

How do we know that? The OP hasn’t come back, and I doubt they will.

 

[redreni]

It's a requirement for the ticket to be valid for the journey being made, which this wasn't.

It was if Trip.com sold it on an itinerary starting from St Pancras. It's quite simple; if the ticket was valid on that route at all - even if only by dint of an itinerary - then the policy releases the ticket holder from any obligation to use the booked service on the connecting leg on Thameslink.

 

[4COR]

It was if Trip.com sold it on an itinerary starting from St Pancras. It's quite simple; if the ticket was valid on that route at all - even if only by dint of an itinerary - then the policy releases the ticket holder from any obligation to use the booked service on the connecting leg on Thameslink.

Except, in my tests, stating St Pancras as the starting station doesn't result in the ticket as presented being offered.

The starting station "London (Any)" results in the following - it's clear here that the journey sold is from London Bridge. It's left as an exercise for the purchaser to ensure they can get to the starting station, but in no way does that mean they can start from wherever they wish.

If you specify St Pancras, it's correct in the itinerary and ticket(s) sold.