SE23 Forum

My usual journey to work is between Forest Hill and Charing Cross National Rail station - I wondered if anyone else has encountered the same issue as me of late.

In January, I was issued with a replacement paper ticket for my annual goldcard/season ticket which allowed me to use London Underground and alight between London Bridge, Southwark, Waterloo and Charing Cross underground stations in lieu of not being able to change for South Eastern services at London Bridge. This was great as it saved me pestering the guy sat down in his little kiosk at Waterloo and the gate bunfight at London Bridge underground station.

I've recently renewed my annual goldcard and have tried to get the ticket replaced in the same way but to no avail. Both Southern Customer Services and a Southern ticket office have told me that I can no longer travel to these underground stations. I've pleaded with the fact that nothing has changed.

Has anyone else been unlucky enough to have this happen to them? Whilst I will try and plead with the underground staff, it's a massive pain to do this every day and I can't find another legitimate way of travelling on this route that doesn't incur further costs.

Am I missing something or are Southern/TfL in effect offering me one less route into town?

You are entitled to travel to these underground stations on your Gold Card if you change at London Bridge. This continues to be the case until August 2016. You shouldn't need a special ticket as the ticket barriers know that tickets to London termini should allow this connection (unlike your ticket from last year which would have needed replacing to allow this).

Details are on the Southern website: http://www.southernrailway.com/your-jour...r-journey/ and there is no doubt that they should be honouring this commitment to tickets working on the underground.

I've had a lot of discussions with Southern and TfL about the available routes, so if the ticket really doesn't work in the ticket barriers, let me know and I'll chase up with the Stakeholder Relations Manager. You can email me at michael@fhsoc.com

Thanks Michael, I'll let you know.

I'm most gutted about the extra time it's going to take me to get through ticket barriers on a journey I already hate having to take.

Cheers!

Hurrah! My ticket worked fine on the tube this evening. Still baffled as to why Southern staff aren't aware of the arrangement though...

Can't you walk over to platforms 1-6 and jump on a Southeastern train to Charing X?

No, not until August 2016 at least. Follow michael's link for more details.

Are you sure it was a Southern ticket office? London Overground (LOROL) have a bad reputation when it comes to issuing National Rail tickets.

Yup, had the pleasure of spending my lunch in Victoria station queuing!