Over the past two years I have been travelling between North East Essex and the Kent Coast, and for the past year have been using the HS1 high speed route to get to Dover Priory and Canterbury West. The HS1 route saves me an hour, or more, each way.
For the first few journeys on this route I had to purchase the supplement at Stratford International, this added £4.50 per day, £9.00 for a period return. When I challenged my local station (Dovercourt) I was told that I could not purchase an Any Permitted ticket for the route.
Unfortunately Southeastern stopped selling the supplements and I was warned on one journey as I had a "not valid HS1" ticket even though I was prepared to pay the extra. I spoke to a guard and between us we discovered that the correct tickets were valid from Wrabness, an unmanned village station on the Harwich Branch. The system, however, refused to issue Any Permitted tickets for Kent destinations from Harwich Town, Dovercourt or Harwich International.
For the past year every ticket I have used between Essex and Kent has started, or finished, at Wrabness. I haven't once had a problem even though this is two stops beyond my starting point. The onboard staff did their best via their managers to query the absurd situation. I also wrote to NXEA in Norwich and was told that it was an ATOC problem, so there.
Two weeks ago I travelled to Dover Priory for a day trip and rather amazingly the guard (who was familiar with the Wrabness issue) actually sold me the correct ticket (almost, I got a saver return instead of a cheap day return but didn't notice until the return trip).
The day return fare now costs me £1.15 more than before but at least it's the correct ticket.
Topsy
For the first few journeys on this route I had to purchase the supplement at Stratford International, this added £4.50 per day, £9.00 for a period return. When I challenged my local station (Dovercourt) I was told that I could not purchase an Any Permitted ticket for the route.
Unfortunately Southeastern stopped selling the supplements and I was warned on one journey as I had a "not valid HS1" ticket even though I was prepared to pay the extra. I spoke to a guard and between us we discovered that the correct tickets were valid from Wrabness, an unmanned village station on the Harwich Branch. The system, however, refused to issue Any Permitted tickets for Kent destinations from Harwich Town, Dovercourt or Harwich International.
For the past year every ticket I have used between Essex and Kent has started, or finished, at Wrabness. I haven't once had a problem even though this is two stops beyond my starting point. The onboard staff did their best via their managers to query the absurd situation. I also wrote to NXEA in Norwich and was told that it was an ATOC problem, so there.
Two weeks ago I travelled to Dover Priory for a day trip and rather amazingly the guard (who was familiar with the Wrabness issue) actually sold me the correct ticket (almost, I got a saver return instead of a cheap day return but didn't notice until the return trip).
The day return fare now costs me £1.15 more than before but at least it's the correct ticket.
Topsy