Ticket Routing

[ETMbloke]

Evening all,

Long time lurker, but I have a interesting query.

I have a London Terminals - Portsmouth Stations season ticket, which has any permitted routing. Tonight, I was travelling between Havant and Fareham on a Southern service. My ticket was scanned by the OBS at Portchester, where the OBS then accused me of fraudulent travel as he is adamant the ticket is not valid beyond Cosham. I did try to tell the OBS that the ticket is valid via Basingstoke, Guildford or Three Bridges. But he was again adamant, that he was correct. He says that he has passed the ticket details to the Southern Fraud team and the conversation was recorded and will be passed to the police.

My question is, is this ticket valid between Havant and Fareham or have I unfortunately encountered an OBS who (politely) may not be au fait with the routing guide?

Many thanks

ETMbloke

 

[jfollows]

Of course it’s a valid route, there’s even an hourly service along it which would be pretty strange if it weren’t a permitted route.
Havant to Cosham may not be valid, though, on a normal ticket, but on a season ticket it is.

 

[ETMbloke]

Thanks

That's what I thought, but I fear the OBS had a blinkered view of this.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Sep 2025 ==

Mods, sorry I may have put this in the wrong section, please feel free to move to the correct section.

 

[Hadders]

The ticket is absolutely valid via Havant. If you get a letter from GTR about this then do come back here for and forum members will assist in proof reading a letter to GTR.

 

[ETMbloke]

The ticket is absolutely valid via Havant. If you get a letter from GTR about this then do come back here for and forum members will assist in proof reading a letter to GTR.

Hadders,

Thanks very much. Was also put off by his attitude as much, as he didn't offer me to pay the excess fare from Cosham to Fareham or didn't take my details, if OBS's are allow to take details. Also he switched on his camera to record our conversation, which I thought was odd, as I would have thought it would be always on.

 

[fandroid]

Given the OBS's apparent ignorance of the via Basingstoke route, I wonder why he picked on Cosham as the limit for valid travel.

 

[Tester]

Given the OBS's apparent ignorance of the via Basingstoke route, I wonder why he picked on Cosham as the limit for valid travel!

Sadly, made it up as usual

 

[ETMbloke]

Given the OBS's apparent ignorance of the via Basingstoke route, I wonder why he picked on Cosham as the limit for valid travel!

I did try to explain the Basingstoke route, but he wasn't having none of it.

I think it was that he checked me just after Portchester, just having stopped at Cosham just before

 

[Ben Rhydding]

I was once reported for prosecution whilst holding a valid ticket. But fraud and police didn`t enter the conversation. If these were the OBS`s starting point, then it sounds like he was just an ignoramus drunk with power. In which case it`s hardly surprising that he didn`t know the validity of the ticket.

 

[Hadders]

It shouldn't happen but people do sometimes make mistakes. The key thing now is what GTR do next.

 

[transportphoto]

Also he switched on his camera to record our conversation, which I thought was odd, as I would have thought it would be always on.

Body worn video cameras aren’t always recording - they are activated as required. Allows some privacy for the employee, and also reduces the amount of personal data collected unnecessarily.

 

[pelli]

Given this SWR map, I can see how Hilsea-Cosham and Hilsea-Bedhampton each form a part of a longer journey from Portsmouth to London via Basingstoke (exiting the map to the northwest) and via Guildford (exiting the map to the north), respectively, but what is the argument for the ticket being valid for the third leg of the triangle, Bedhampton-Cosham (as used by the relevant train direct from Havant to Fareham)?

Are we relying on a less-than-3-miles-longer-than-the-shortest-route argument for Portsmouth-Hilsea-Cosham-Bedhampton-London vs Portsmouth-Hilsea-Bedhampton-London? If so, then I find it interesting that the ticket's validity on the third leg of the triangle hinges crucially on the existence of nearby Cosham station, which if it were to close would invalidate the route due to Portchester being too far away for a less-than-3-miles detour. Also, the 3-miles argument might explain why the member of staff rejecting the Basingstoke route would claim that the limit of validity for Portsmouth-London is Cosham?

 

[JB_B]

View attachment 188495
Given this SWR map, I can see how Hilsea-Cosham and Hilsea-Bedhampton each form a part of a longer journey from Portsmouth to London via Basingstoke (exiting the map to the northwest) and via Guildford (exiting the map to the north), respectively, but what is the argument for the ticket being valid for the third leg of the triangle, Bedhampton-Cosham (as used by the relevant train direct from Havant to Fareham)?

...

That's a good question.

The Havant-Cosham section is on a permitted route - e.g. from Waterloo to Portsmouth and Southsea ( within 3 miles of shortest route.)

The Fareham-Cosham section is on a permitted route - a mapped route (on map SW ) from London Group to Portsmouth Group.

Since the OP holds a season ticket they can switch between any subsets of any permitted route at any point.

I can imagine that it could be something a member of onboard staff might not immediately appreciate.