Renewing TfL Travelcard with refund vouchers

moogal · 18 Oct 2012

Hi,
I hold an annual Zone 1-2 travelcard. My commute involves both London Underground and London Overground services, so over the course of the year I've accumulated several refund vouchers from delays. The LU ones are in the form of TfL vouchers, the Overground ones are National Rail vouchers.

What's not entirely clear is, can I use this combination of both to renew my travelcard? If so, can I only do this at an Overground station or should an Underground station be able to do it?

RailUK Forums

island · 18 Oct 2012

Welcome to the forum!

I think LU stations accept rail travel vouchers. Someone will be along shortly to correct me if not.

What is definite is that LU stations can only issue annual Travelcards onto Oyster.

barrykas · 18 Oct 2012

It's perfectly valid to use the vouchers in combination, but AIUI would have to be done at a National Rail ticket office (which includes London Overground), as LU can't take Rail Travel Vouchers as far as I know. And obviously it needs to be one that can issue Oyster if you want it loaded onto same.

moogal · 18 Oct 2012

Thanks for the swift replies - that's confirmed what I was guessing (about needing to go to a station which handles NR tickets too). As I live in London it's loaded on an Oyster anyway so that's not a problem.

bicbasher · 18 Oct 2012

LUL stations do accept NR Rail Travel Vouchers. I used it to top up my Oyster at Queensway, but the clerk had to read the manual before using the terminal.

I find it's best to use a station that's next to a mainline station or shares with NR.

maniacmartin · 18 Oct 2012

LUL accept RTVs. I have used a mixture of LUL and Rail Travel Vouchers multiple times before. Many clerks are unaware that LUL accept them, however.

Last time I did it, the clerk also had to consult some literature (a small glossy brochure with pictures of each type of voucher they accept), but it was hassle-free. My memory's sketchy, but I believe it was labelled "NR Voucher" or similar in their system.

Also, according to NRE, LUL vouchers can also be used to buy travelcards that are valid on tube services, from NR stations in the NSE area.

barrykas · 18 Oct 2012

maniacmartin said:
LUL accept RTVs. I have used a mixture of LUL and Rail Travel Vouchers multiple times before. Many clerks are unaware that LUL accept them, however.

Mea culpa. Makes sense really, given there are some "joint" stations (like Harrow-on-the-Hill and points between Rickmansworth and Amersham) where there's only an LU ticket office.

Cheers,

Barry

bicbasher · 18 Oct 2012

maniacmartin said:
LUL accept RTVs. I have used a mixture of LUL and Rail Travel Vouchers multiple times before. Many clerks are unaware that LUL accept them, however.

Last time I did it, the clerk also had to consult some literature (a small glossy brochure with pictures of each type of voucher they accept), but it was hassle-free. My memory's sketchy, but I believe it was labelled "NR Voucher" or similar in their system.

Yes, it was a glossy brochure which gave them step by step instructions on how to add the voucher as payment into the system including typing the number on the bottom of it.

maniacmartin · 18 Oct 2012

bicbasher said:
Yes, it was a glossy brochure which gave them step by step instructions on how to add the voucher as payment into the system including typing the number on the bottom of it.

That method fell down when I used multiple RTVs as the clerk I had couldn't work out how to add multiple vouchers, so entered the number of the first voucher, with a value of the sum of all the vouchers (worked out with pen and paper) and stapled them together

Whether this is policy or not, I do not know. Also, I'm unsure as to whether you can buy a ticket that is not valid on any NR services with RTVs (e.g. a Zone 1 LU Single).

transportphoto · 18 Oct 2012

Yes, LUL do accept RTV's however ONLY IF the ticket is valid on National Rail services as well as LUL. This includes Travelcards and Oyster PAYG, among others.

TP

maniacmartin · 18 Oct 2012

transportphoto said:
Yes, LUL do accept RTV's however ONLY IF the ticket is valid on National Rail services as well as LUL. This includes Travelcards and Oyster PAYG, among others.

TP

But you can then use that PAYG on a journey not involving NR

transportphoto · 18 Oct 2012

maniacmartin said:
But you can then use that PAYG on a journey not involving NR

That is correct.

TP

transmanche · 18 Oct 2012

maniacmartin said:
Also, I'm unsure as to whether you can buy a ticket that is not valid on any NR services with RTVs (e.g. a Zone 1 LU Single).

Engaging pedantry mode...

If there was a Z1 LU single, it would be valid on Thameslink between St Pancras and London Bridge/Elephant & Castle. But there really isn't such a thing anymore, the minimum fare of £4.30 covers Z1-3 nowadays.

Be3G · 18 Oct 2012

It seems that London Underground ticket offices can do several surprising things regarding ticketing none of them particularly obvious. I had no idea they could take National Rail vouchers; I know that NR take TfL vouchers as the vouchers say so on them, but didn't know it worked vice-versa too. (Actually I remember going to use some TfL vouchers at my small local railway station, the ticket clerk was pleased to be given them as he was training someone else up who'd not yet witnessed them being used on National Rail.)

Something else that surprised me when I learnt of it several years ago was that TfL stations offer railcard discounts whilst everyone here is probably aware of that, I'd never seen it actually stated anywhere on something official. Even more surprising, I discovered a few weeks ago that tube stations can offer tickets from boundary zones! I'd gone to Tottenham Hale only to find the NR ticket office closed, so I went to the LU ticket office and said I don't suppose you can? but it turned out the clerk could. However, in order to issue them he had to refer to printed sheets with lots of numbers (prices?) on them from a ring binder, and he was a bit slow, so probably not something he's often done. Was good to see it was possible though, but I expect that if I asked for something similar from a tube station that didn't have rail services, the clerk would be baffled.

transmanche · 18 Oct 2012

Be3G said:
It seems that London Underground ticket offices can do several surprising things regarding ticketing none of them particularly obvious.

I used to buy a Z1-6 + Burnham (Bucks) Travelcard from my local tube station back in 1995...

maniacmartin · 18 Oct 2012

Be careful of buying tickets to outside of the TfL area from LU though Be3G, as I believe their prices can be higher than buying the equivalent NR ticket. (?)

transmache: My bad! I'm sure someone could think of a LU ticket that does isn't valid on any NR

RJ · 18 Oct 2012

maniacmartin said:
Be careful of buying tickets to outside of the TfL area from LU though Be3G, as I believe their prices can be higher than buying the equivalent NR ticket. (?)

transmache: My bad! I'm sure someone could think of a LU ticket that does isn't valid on any NR

Only if there are any zones with no interavailable services! The DC alone puts paid to most of them, though I doubt a Zone 6 only ticket would have any validity on an NR service.

Be3G · 18 Oct 2012

transmanche said:
I used to buy a Z1-6 + Burnham (Bucks) Travelcard from my local tube station back in 1995...

Yes, I'm sure you did I'm not purporting to be the only one who knows that they sell less obvious tickets.

But my point is that, well, it's not at all obvious that they offer such facilities. For example, I knew they offered tickets to popular National Rail destinations outside London, but even so I'd never have imagined they sold tickets from boundary zones until I discovered it a little while ago.

maniacmartin: whilst my sample size is rather small (one ticket!) I can confirm it was the same price, with Network Railcard discount, as would be charged at a NR station.

bicbasher · 19 Oct 2012

Thinking about it, it's not that surprising they accept RTV's seeing that LUL run over some NR infrastructure including the Bakerloo from Queens Park to Harrow & Wealdstone where they manage the stations on behalf of Network Rail with the exception of Willesden Junction, which is sub-contracted to LOROL, the Amersham branch of the Met etc.

I'll have to try the next time I receive a TfL voucher if my local LOROL station will accept it, they use SHERE instead of FasTIS. I don't want to baffle the poor clerk though!

transmanche · 19 Oct 2012

Be3G said:
Yes, I'm sure you did I'm not purporting to be the only one who knows that they sell less obvious tickets. But my point is that, well, it's not at all obvious that they offer such facilities.

Yes, I was just backing up your statement!

maniacmartin · 19 Oct 2012

See related current thread here for buying NR tickets from LUL

Mojo · 20 Oct 2012

It sounds like this 'glossy brochure' people refer to is actually Ticketing & Revenue Book 5 which had information on procedures for staff in the ticket office.

Information is on page 33 and 34 of the current issue.

maniacmartin · 11 Jan 2013

I have obtained a copy of Ticketing & Revenue Book 5

Download

Renewing TfL Travelcard with refund vouchers

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