Using Oyster via Dartford as per NRES

[MikeWh]

Hi,

Yes, I ought to know the answer to this one, but it's an oddity and I'm seeking opinions before sending my wife out this afternoon. She needs to get from Crayford to Abbey Wood this lunchtime and home again this evening. On the way there is no problem as direct trains run which bypass Dartford. This evening it will be in the rush-hour so there are no direct trains unless she wants to wait nearly an hour. So, I go to the NRE website and enter details of the journey, then check the trains I want and ask for fares. First off I'm surprised to see all permutations priced at £2.60 single each way and £4.50 return. I assumed that the via Dartford ones would be more expensive. But then I noticed a box under the journey summary saying that if i used Oyster it would cost £3.90 and save me 60p. That is the correct fare according to TfL's single fare finder where one way is off-peak and the other is peak. But I didn't think direct tickets were valid via Dartford, let alone Oyster.

So, what are the views. I'll give my wife printouts of the journey summary page with the Oyster box and also the TfL fare-finder page. Should that be enough if she is asked for tickets between Slade Green and Crayford? Obviously she won't try to leave the station at Dartford.

 

[W-on-Sea]

If she were travelling with a travelcard (that up to zone 6, but not beyond it), that would certainly not be correct. No ambiguity about it, Dartford is beyond the zonal boundaries.

Direct tickets are surely valid via Dartford though; the through services, which, as you say, don't run consistently through the day (or week) have only existed for a few years. Previously the only option was to go via Dartford. I'm sure that would be fine with a paper ticket; but as Dartford is beyond the area of Oyster validity, that option surely isn't (technically) permitted.

Sounds like a "benign mistake" in the favour of people making that journey to me. (It's not as if there is any way that Oyster could tell if you'd gone direct or via Dartford in any case, unless the train stopped on the avoiding curve next to a carefully positioned pink reader....) I think a printout of the TfL instructions should be sufficient.

Although I see can the case for getting a paper ticket on grounds of "better safe than sorry"

 

[MikeWh]

Thanks for that. I see what you're saying about the point-to-point paper ticket being valid because the route is no more than about half a mile further (well under the 3 miles anyway). I think I may have been confusing it with a travelcard in the past.

She seems quite happy with the wad of paper I've given her though, so we'll see what happens. I've only once encountered RPIs on the footbridge at Dartford and she may not need to use that anyway.