SWR query - Guildford validity

[Lifelong]

Good evening...had a slightly weird occurrence today and wondered if was a one off....

I have a gold card from Effingham Jct to London Terminals. I sometimes go to Guildford and buy the requisite ticket from EJ.

Today I found myself in Guildford by other means, and somewhat on auto pilot put my gold card through the machine for my single journey back. It let me through. I was 2 stops down the line before I realised it had done this on the gold card (as I say auto pilot).

I guess my question is - is my gold card actually valid via Guildford as well as the Cobham and Epsom routes? Would be excellent if it was - but if it’s not why did the gates let me through earlier?

many thanks

 

[Watershed]

Good evening...had a slightly weird occurrence today and wondered if was a one off....

I have a gold card from Effingham Jct to London Terminals. I sometimes go to Guildford and buy the requisite ticket from EJ.

Today I found myself in Guildford by other means, and somewhat on auto pilot put my gold card through the machine for my single journey back. It let me through. I was 2 stops down the line before I realised it had done this on the gold card (as I say auto pilot).

I guess my question is - is my gold card actually valid via Guildford as well as the Cobham and Epsom routes? Would be excellent if it was - but if it’s not why did the gates let me through earlier?

many thanks

No, it's not valid via Guildford. It would present a substantial 'loophole' if it did (not that this would inherently prevent it from being valid).

Your valid routes are via Cobham or Epsom as you say, alternatively also via Sutton/Mitcham Jn.

Ticket barriers aren't particularly smart and often aren't, or can't be, programmed for all possible routes. This works both ways, sometimes barriers reject valid tickets and other times they accept invalid ones. The acceptance or rejection of a ticket in a barrier shouldn't be taken as an indicator of validity.