Help! Want to get from Clapham Junction to Hackney with my bike but 3/4 of the Overground is closed tomorrow!

[miklcct]

I will go to Haslemere tomorrow and need to ride my bike for a destination far away from the station. The line through Surbiton is closed with trains diverted via Richmond. I plan to ride from my home to Victoria along the A5, take Southern to Clapham Junction and change to South Western Railway there.

Afterwards I want to go to Hackney. However, the West London Line (WLL) is closed. Last week when North London Line (NLL) was closed I used the South London Line / East London Line to Dalston and rode from there, however what I forgot to check was that, the South London Line (SLL) is closed, and the East London Line (ELL) is also closed in addition to the West London Line!!! Leaving the North London Line (Richmond - Stratford) the only segment of the orbital operating. I have nowhere to put my bike as I will head onto the North London Line to go home afterwards without returning to South London.

It's possible for me to go to Victoria, travel on the District to Whitechapel, and ride from there. However this will incur a mixed-mode premium. Unfortunately I forgot to check that the whole orbital through Clapham Junction was closed before buying my rail ticket and now what I have is a Clapham Junction - Haslemere ticket instead of a London Terminals - Haslemere ticket, as I didn't expect to use the Underground at all and based my calculation using Overground / National Rail fares. This mistake has cost me £0.35 compared to buying a London Terminals ticket as I will travel through Victoria both ways by switching to the District to Whitechapel. However, considering that the trains between Woking and Clapham Junction are diverted via Richmond, it's possible for me to switch to a stopper at Woking in order to alight at Richmond, and use North London Line to go to Hackney to have the lowest PAYG fare (£1.20) if my National Rail ticket allows doing so.

I have a 26-30 Railcard and a discounted Oyster card. So my questions are:
1. Is my Clapham Junction - Haslemere ticket valid at Richmond, other than by the "direct train" rule? If so, I can switch to a stopper at Woking and end my journey short at Richmond, in order to have the cheapest fare.
2. If I return to Clapham Junction, where's the best station for me to travel to, such that I can ride my bike to London Fields afterwards, within £1.85 (a Zone 1-2 fare on the NR scale) on PAYG, considering that the SLL and WLL are all closed?

 

[zwk500]

This mistake has cost me £0.35

Oh good heavens, however will you cope.

2. If I return to Clapham Junction, where's the best station for me to travel to, such that I can ride my bike to London Fields afterwards, within £1.85 (a Zone 1-2 fare on the NR scale) on PAYG, considering that the SLL and WLL are all closed?

It may sound slightly harsh to say it, but Clapham Junction to London Fields comes back as just under 1hr by bike. If you're willing to pay the Zone 1 NR fare then going up to Waterloo will save you a few miles of pedalling. From waterloo the bike ride is 30 mins or so. If you changed to Waterloo East and hopped up to London Bridge you could knock another 10 minutes off that, but I've got no idea if that satisfies your fares criteria or what the validity of bikes on those journeys would be..

 

[JonathanH]

I plan to ride from my home to Victoria along the A5, take Southern to Clapham Junction and change to South Western Railway there.

Unfortunately I forgot to check that the whole orbital through Clapham Junction was closed before buying my rail ticket and now what I have is a Clapham Junction - Haslemere ticket instead of a London Terminals - Haslemere ticket, as I didn't expect to use the Underground at all and based my calculation using Overground / National Rail fares.

Why not just ride to Clapham Junction? It isn't much further than cycling from Cricklewood to Victoria. Three miles at most. By the time you stop at Victoria, get on and off the train to Clapham Junction, you might as well cycle all the way.

However, considering that the trains between Woking and Clapham Junction are diverted via Richmond, it's possible for me to switch to a stopper at Woking in order to alight at Richmond, and use North London Line to go to Hackney to have the lowest PAYG fare (£1.20) if my National Rail ticket allows doing so.

Isn't it better to go to Clapham Junction on the train from Haslemere, touch in, ride back to Richmond and use the NLL from there? Nothing wrong with going Clapham Junction - Richmond - Hackney Central.

I recognise you don't like doubling back but the stopping service from Woking to Richmond isn't quick, and you already have a ticket to Clapham Junction.

This mistake has cost me £0.35

Hopefully my suggestions have alleviated your fear of losing 35p.

 

[pelli]

However, considering that the trains between Woking and Clapham Junction are diverted via Richmond, it's possible for me to switch to a stopper at Woking in order to alight at Richmond, and use North London Line to go to Hackney to have the lowest PAYG fare (£1.20) if my National Rail ticket allows doing so.

I believe that even cheaper than £1.20 is to return on your paper ticket to Clapham Junction (Z2), tap in, and head back out to Richmond (Z4) for a within-gateline interchange to the NLL for Hackney. Since your venture into Z4 is undetectable, this should be charged as if you used the (closed) WLL staying within Z2 only, so £1.05 (offpeak, railcard).

Edit: Apologies, didn't see JonathanH's edit.

 

[JonathanH]

I believe that even cheaper than £1.20 is to return on your paper ticket to Clapham Junction (Z2), tap in, and head back out to Richmond (Z3) for a within-gateline interchange to the NLL for Hackney. Since your venture into Z3 is undetectable, this should be charged as if you used the (closed) WLL staying within Z2 only, so £1.05 (offpeak, railcard).

Indeed, and the OP gets a greater choice of services doing it that way than having to travel on the slow train from Woking. However, they have an aversion to doubling back on railway journeys.

 

[Watershed]

Unfortunately I forgot to check that the whole orbital through Clapham Junction was closed before buying my rail ticket and now what I have is a Clapham Junction - Haslemere ticket instead of a London Terminals - Haslemere ticket, as I didn't expect to use the Underground at all and based my calculation using Overground / National Rail fares. This mistake has cost me £0.35 compared to buying a London Terminals ticket as I will travel through Victoria both ways by switching to the District to Whitechapel.

Others have covered some of the options you have, but I would just point out here that if you have used a retailer that doesn't charge admin fees for refunds, this shouldn't be a problem as you can simply get a refund and then buy the correct ticket. If you didn't use such a retailer for this purchase, you might want to consider doing so in future.

Is my Clapham Junction - Haslemere ticket valid at Richmond, other than by the "direct train" rule? If so, I can switch to a stopper at Woking and end my journey short at Richmond, in order to have the cheapest fare.

Yes, a Clapham Junction-Haslemere ticket is valid via Richmond without needing to rely on the direct trains rule. Map combination TW+WU+HE refers

 

[miklcct]

Others have covered some of the options you have, but I would just point out here that if you have used a retailer that doesn't charge admin fees for refunds, this shouldn't be a problem as you can simply get a refund and then buy the correct ticket. If you didn't use such a retailer for this purchase, you might want to consider doing so in future.

Unfortunately I had some credit left from GWR last year from the Book with Confidence programme so I bought the ticket again from there.

I will definitely use another retailer in the future.

Indeed, and the OP gets a greater choice of services doing it that way than having to travel on the slow train from Woking. However, they have an aversion to doubling back on railway journeys.

One of the two trains per hour from Haslemere has a good connection at Woking to the stopper, and I am not going all the way to Clapham Junction and back just for the sake of £0.15. I may consider if I'm on the other train which doesn't have a good connection at Woking, and I'll weigh against paying an extra £0.80 to travel to Waterloo and cycle from there which is much faster than going forth and back West London.

Why not just ride to Clapham Junction? It isn't much further than cycling from Cricklewood to Victoria. Three miles at most. By the time you stop at Victoria, get on and off the train to Clapham Junction, you might as well cycle all the way.

Thanks for your suggestion again. I have checked the mileages again and this can be taken into consideration. I usually remember the mileage from Waterloo to Clapham Junction and it's much further than Victoria to Clapham Junction.

 

[pelli]

One of the two trains per hour from Haslemere has a good connection at Woking to the stopper, and I am not going all the way to Clapham Junction and back just for the sake of £0.15. I may consider if I'm on the other train which doesn't have a good connection at Woking, and I'll weigh against paying an extra £0.80 to travel to Waterloo and cycle from there which is much faster than going forth and back West London.

Looking at a random hour,
Haslemere 16:17 - Woking 16:43 connects to Woking 16:52 - Richmond 17:47.
Haslemere 16:17 - Clapham Junction 17:26 connects to Clapham Junction 17:35 - Richmond 17:45 (ignoring the minimum connection time of 10min, although you'll need to take your bike from (expected) platform 3 through the subway to the gateline to tap in and then back to platform 5).
So the stopper is slower than the double-back, provided you make the connection, and either way you end up on the same Overground train, Richmond 17:56 - Hackney Central 18:45.

Indeed cycling from Waterloo will be much faster. If you disembark at Clapham Junction at 17:26 to tap in and manage to catch the 17:29 from platform 4 to arrive Waterloo at 17:43, then assuming 30 minutes cycle time you'll likely arrive London Fields around 18:15. (If you miss 17:29 then 17:38 arrives Waterloo 5 minutes later.) You can also cycle all the way from Clapham Junction for free, which if it takes 50 minutes would get you to London Fields around 18:20.

 

[miklcct]

I made the journey yesterday. I ended up cycling to Clapham Junction from my home in Cricklewood / Dollis Hill per the advice above as according to the timetable, there were 20 minutes from the Victoria departure and the Clapham Junction departure and I believed that I wouldn't save time paying £1.85 for the connection. The ride was 13.66 km and it took me 0:40:15.

On the return I broke my journey at Woking in order to have a lunch as there was absolutely nowhere open in Haslemere that I could have my lunch. Everything was closed and restaurants only opened in the evening. It was like a dead town.

After finishing my lunch at Woking the timing wasn't good for the hourly stopper so I took the next train (16:21) with next stop Clapham Junction, where I exited and reentered and continued (17:17) to Waterloo, then Waterloo East (17:33) to London Bridge.

I then cycled to London Fields but my routing software got me into some nasty areas, including a weekend-only street market, and I was stuck behind a garbage collection vehicle, and it took me 0:25:44 to ride 6 km there.

 

[telstarbox]

For London Fields I would go across London Bridge (which has cycle lanes), continue onto A10 Bishopsgate, turn right onto Hackney Road and then left onto Goldsmiths Row which is then a straight line to the Fields.