What ticket did my friend have?

[antharro]

Met up in London with a friend recently, on a weekday. We traveled on the tube to a half dozen different locations. She had two tickets and once had a problem getting through barriers on the tube. I looked at the tickets and I couldn't figure out how she was able to get in and out of the tube. She said she had a travelcard, but it didn't look like a travelcard to me - it was two tickets rather than one, and it didn't state travelcard, didn't have the TfL roundel printed on it, and had a standard NR printed layout rather than the travelcard layout. So I thought I'd post here so someone can educate me!

She had two tickets - Broxbourne to Zones 1-3 with a B2 restriction, discounted with a senior railcard. I didn't see her return but the outbound stated "valid for one journey between". It did not have the maltese cross symbol on it.

My thinking on it was that the ticket was valid for a single journey from BXB to a destination in Zones 1-3, and then on the return journey, a single journey from a station in Zones 1-3 to BXB. So when she exited at Canary Wharf, her first "exit" on the tube, that was the end of the outbound journey. Then, when she tried to get back in at CW with the same ticket, the gates said no. Staff let her in. Given she was now "in" the system, it allowed her to get out with that same ticket at Waterloo. That doesn't explain how it then let her back in at Waterloo though, and out again at Piccadilly Circus. Later, her return ticket allowed her to get back onto the tube to (I think) Liverpool Street to get her train home.

Would I be right in thinking that she was NOT travelling on a travelcard and was in fact unintentionally "misusing" tickets that allowed her a single outbound and a single return journey with part of that journey being allowed on the tube?

 

[Watershed]

Met up in London with a friend recently, on a weekday. We traveled on the tube to a half dozen different locations. She had two tickets and once had a problem getting through barriers on the tube. I looked at the tickets and I couldn't figure out how she was able to get in and out of the tube. She said she had a travelcard, but it didn't look like a travelcard to me - it was two tickets rather than one, and it didn't state travelcard, didn't have the TfL roundel printed on it, and had a standard NR printed layout rather than the travelcard layout. So I thought I'd post here so someone can educate me!

She had two tickets - Broxbourne to Zones 1-3 with a B2 restriction, discounted with a senior railcard. I didn't see her return but the outbound stated "valid for one journey between". It did not have the maltese cross symbol on it.

My thinking on it was that the ticket was valid for a single journey from BXB to a destination in Zones 1-3, and then on the return journey, a single journey from a station in Zones 1-3 to BXB. So when she exited at Canary Wharf, her first "exit" on the tube, that was the end of the outbound journey. Then, when she tried to get back in at CW with the same ticket, the gates said no. Staff let her in. Given she was now "in" the system, it allowed her to get out with that same ticket at Waterloo. That doesn't explain how it then let her back in at Waterloo though, and out again at Piccadilly Circus. Later, her return ticket allowed her to get back onto the tube to (I think) Liverpool Street to get her train home.

Would I be right in thinking that she was NOT travelling on a travelcard and was in fact unintentionally "misusing" tickets that allowed her a single outbound and a single return journey with part of that journey being allowed on the tube?

That is exactly the case - the ticket would have been issued to "London Underground and DLR Zones 1-3", and as the ticket would have said, it is only valid for one journey in each direction. Therefore your friend was lucky not to encounter any RPIs!

 

[antharro]

Brilliant. I've given her a run-down on her ticket, and the consequences for her mis-using it. Thanks for confirming, @Watershed .