What does “Not Available” actually mean?

[andy33gmail]

One already got advance singles to Liverpool Street for this Wednesday, normally I walk to work and back

To mix it up I thought I’d investigate doing the tiny little Thameslink to Blackfriars

Having realised it’s as slow as walking and costs the price of a small castle, I won’t be … or I’ll tap in/out for £2.90

But that aside … why would tickets not be available? I only normally see this for when I try to book a ticket for a train that’s “too soon” - which needlessly forces me to get the correct ticket by picking the next train

Best guess is it’s a requirement for paper tickets only to make short-ticketing harder?

 

[bb21]

I don't think point-to-point fares are available as it involves Elizabeth line core, so you will be looking at the paper version of the Underground single cash fare, at £7.00 each way, which I think can only be retailed at ticket offices and not online (but can be wrong).

 

[OscarH]

Are all those journeys Elizabeth Line to Farringdon and Thameslink from there?

The £14 fare (2x £7 singles) should be available, they can be sold online

 

[bb21]

Farringdon to Blackfriars should be retailed at £4.10 surely?

 

[Haywain]

Farringdon to Blackfriars should be retailed at £4.10 surely?

No mention of Farringdon to Blackfriars until now.

 

[bb21]

There are some strange ticket offerings being put up for this journey. The 0917 itinerary appears to be for a change at Whitechapel then via the Underground, which should be covered by a £7 single but being retailed at £14 by The Trainline? If I put an enquiry into NRE, there is a variety of routings being offered including via Whitechapel XR above (correctly at £7), via Farringdon XR (£8.20(?) for an SDS), and directly via the Underground (again correctly at £7).

Not sure what is going on here but to say it is a mess is not an exaggeration. The Trainline seem to prefer to route the passenger via the Underground between Liverpool Street and Farringdon, but even so the £7 fare should be valid too, not throwing up either no fare (possibly understandable if Route 998 fares cannot be retailed online) or worse, a misleading offering of £14.

Then there is the curious variety of contactless fares being indicated on NRE for the variety of routes stated above ranging from £2.90 to £5.90 when the peak fare of £2.90 (off-peak £2.80) should be valid on all options.

 

[andy33gmail]

Weirdly if I do it via Splitticketing it comes as two singles (£7 + £7)

If I explicitly ask for Liverpool Street to Farringdon and Farringdon to Blackfriars I get the same

If I do them separately on TheTrainLine I get £7+£4.10

And on TFL’s journey planner, it tells me to do one

 

[fandroid]

I think the moral is:

Don't try to do anything fancy in Zone 1 unless you have money to burn.

 

[andy33gmail]

I had more free time than self control tonight…

Now we (provisionally) know!