Huntingdon to London Bridge

[poptea]

Hello,

I travel from Huntingdon to London Bridge twice a week (return) for work on the Thameslink train.

I normally buy a flexipass via Trainline as it generally works out that i make the trip about 8 times a month.

The best price I've found for this journey is to split it at Stevenage.

I've also recently got a key smartcard with key go enabled.

Two questions:
1. Is the above trip Hun-Stevenage/Stevenage-London Terminals the most affordable way? Is there anything I'm missing to bring the price down?
2. How would this journey work if I used my Key Smartcard. I thought I'd be able to just buy the passes via the Thameslink app and then activate them on the day of travel but I'm really confused about how both the smartcard and key go work and the site won't allow me to buy two flexipasses in the same transaction.

TIA

 

[MrJeeves]

I'm not sure about multiple flexi-seasons on one smartcard, but you should not have any flexi-season on the same smartcard as keyGo, otherwise you could end up overcharged.

See: https://www.southernrailway.com/tickets-and-payment-methods/flexi-season-ticket-and-keygo

 

[Roger1973]

Does 'London Terminals' from north of the river include London Bridge, though?

'London Terminals' from south of the river won't take you to Kings Cross / St Pancras (I'm not quite sure whether it takes you to Blackfriars or to City Thameslink as successor to the old Holborn Viaduct station which was a Southern Region terminus.)

 

[MrJeeves]

Does 'London Terminals' from north of the river include London Bridge, though?

'London Terminals' from south of the river won't take you to Kings Cross / St Pancras (I'm not quite sure whether it takes you to Blackfriars or to City Thameslink as successor to the old Holborn Viaduct station which was a Southern Region terminus.)

From the North, London Terminals would include St Pancras and Kings Cross in this case.

From the South, it's Elephant & Castle, London Bridge, Blackfriars and City Thameslink.

From either direction London Thameslink would include St Pancras, Kings Cross and stations on Thameslink through to London Bridge and Elephant & Castle.

OP would need London Thameslink or Travelcard Zone 1 to make this journey valid.

Stevenage to London Terminals is £204.20 for Flexi Season
Stevenage to London Thameslink is £218.60 in comparison

If OP is currently using a season to London Terminals through to London Bridge, it's only a matter of time before they get caught based on the forum's experience with seeing people use Terminals tickets at Farringdon.

 

[Watershed]

Hello,

I travel from Huntingdon to London Bridge twice a week (return) for work on the Thameslink train.

I normally buy a flexipass via Trainline as it generally works out that i make the trip about 8 times a month.

The best price I've found for this journey is to split it at Stevenage.

I've also recently got a key smartcard with key go enabled.

Two questions:
1. Is the above trip Hun-Stevenage/Stevenage-London Terminals the most affordable way? Is there anything I'm missing to bring the price down?

Welcome to the forum!

I've done a check of most of the intermediate stations between Huntingdon (HUN) and London Bridge (LBG) and the cheapest station for splitting when buying Flexi Seasons appears to be Knebworth (KBW), costing £134.20 for HUN-KBW and £191.80 for KBW-LBG for a total of £326 per 8 journeys.

Trains from HUN don't tend to stop at KBW, but that's not a problem when combining Flexi Seasons - you are allowed to pass through your split station non-stop when using one or more season tickets (which a Flexi Season counts as). The only restriction is that you can't travel via an alternatives route, e.g. via Hertford, that doesn't involve passing through your splitting station. Splitting somewhere further north, like Stevenage or Hitchin, would leave that option open to you - but comes at a higher price.

The KBW-LBG ticket is actually issued to "London Thameslink" (THK) - you need a ticket to THK to travel beyond St Pancras (STP), as London Terminals (LON) tickets are only valid as far as Kings Cross (KGX), STP or Moorgate (MOG) when coming from the north on your route. Tickets to THK are valid beyond KGX/STP to all the Thameslink 'core' stations through London, including LBG.

If you'd be prepared to travel to MOG instead of LBG, you could buy LON tickets at a slightly cheaper price. This would involve changing at STP/KGX and then taking the Underground (Circle/H&C/Met line) to MOG, or changing at Finsbury Park (FPK) and taking a Great Northern train to MOG. The latter is probably quicker as it's an easy change at FPK to the adjacent platform, as compared to a long walk to the Tube at STP/KGX.

If you meet the criteria for a 16-25, 26-30, Veterans or Disabled Railcard then using one of these to buy daily Anytime Day Returns would almost certainly work out cheaper than using a Flexi Season - splitting at Stevenage would then likely be cheapest.

2. How would this journey work if I used my Key Smartcard. I thought I'd be able to just buy the passes via the Thameslink app and then activate them on the day of travel but I'm really confused about how both the smartcard and key go work and the site won't allow me to buy two flexipasses in the same transaction.

TIA

The most convenient option is probably to buy your Flexi Seasons as sTickets in an app - you can then easily activate a day's travel in the app. If you prefer to use a physical smartcard, I would suggest using a different smartcard for each Flexi Season. Also make sure you don't use a smartcard that has KeyGo activated - this could result in being you incorrectly charged for journeys covered by your Flexi Seasons.

You can activate your first Flexi Season from HUN by tapping the smartcard (which has that Flexi Season loaded) on the readers at HUN. I would suggest activating the second Flexi Season (e.g. KGX-LBG) using the National Rail Smartcard Manager app, or the app you use to buy the Flexi Season.

It is very important to make sure each Flexi Season has been correctly activated before you board the train, especially if you are splitting at a station that the train doesn't stop at. You could otherwise be treated as ticketless.

 

[poptea]

Thank you for your help on this. I think I may have inaccurately described my ticket. I bought it via Trainline as London (Any). When I checked this did include London Bridge - the overground station, not the tube line. The Thameslink train from Huntingdon goes all the way through to Horsham and I've never had any problems with guards or automated tickets machines so as far as I'm aware it's valid.

@Watershed can I just double check that I'm ok to split that ticket at Kneboworth? Again it's the flexipass of 8 tickets and I'll be travelling on a Thameslink services. The train won't stop at Knebworth but I believe it passes through. In which case Huntingdon > Knebworth, Knebworth > London Bridge/London Any is a cheaper option.

It's quite a complicated system so apologies If I'm asking what seems like a simple question.

 

[Watershed]

Thank you for your help on this. I think I may have inaccurately described my ticket. I bought it via Trainline as London (Any). When I checked this did include London Bridge - the overground station, not the tube line. The Thameslink train from Huntingdon goes all the way through to Horsham and I've never had any problems with guards or automated tickets machines so as far as I'm aware it's valid.

Trainline's terminology is potentially misleading. "London (Any)" doesn't mean that you can travel to any National Rail London station/terminal. It is an unhelpfully dumbed-down way of talking about London Terminals, which has a defined meaning in railway ticketing - when coming from Huntingdon direction, it means you can only travel as far as KGX/STP/MOG.

You cannot travel to London Bridge on a ticket from Huntingdon to London Terminals (also shown as LON on eTickets or sTickets). You need a ticket to London Thameslink (THK) if you want to travel to London Bridge from the north. London Bridge is only part of the "London Terminals" group when you travel from the south.
The fact that the barriers at LBG accept your LON ticket doesn't necessarily mean it is valid; the barriers are often programmed in a very simple way (e.g. "if it's a LON ticket, it's valid"). If you are checked between STP and LBG, or at LBG by revenue staff who look at your LON ticket carefully, you could end in quite a bit of trouble.

@Watershed can I just double check that I'm ok to split that ticket at Kneboworth? Again it's the flexipass of 8 tickets and I'll be travelling on a Thameslink services. The train won't stop at Knebworth but I believe it passes through. In which case Huntingdon > Knebworth, Knebworth > London Bridge/London Any is a cheaper option.

Yes, that would be fine as long as your second ticket is to London Thameslink (THK).

If one or both of your tickets are season tickets (which a Flexi Season counts as), you can pass through your split station non-stop. Knebworth is between Stevenage and Welwyn on the mainline.

It's quite a complicated system so apologies If I'm asking what seems like a simple question.

No problem, it certainly is complicated!

 

[pelli]

Confusingly, "London (Any)" is a search term (not a ticketing destination) that tells Trainline that you want to be shown any ticket that is valid for a London (terminal) station regardless of which one it is, not that you want a ticket that is valid to any London station. You then have to select the actual ticket to buy, and if you have been scrolling down to "London Bridge" for £415.10 or selected "London Thameslink" for the same price then you're fine, but the "London Terminals" for £401.10 is not valid to Farringdon and beyond.



It's certainly not unreasonable to mistakenly believe that if you enter "London (Any)" and are offered a ticket to "London Terminals" then it's valid to any London Terminal station, especially when clicking into the ticket details does not show anything to indicate that it's not - Trainline assumes here that the customer understands that "London Terminals" is a technical term with a specific meaning that excludes a large number of stations in the London Terminals group, and no clarification is necessary. (Although the customer could notice that more expensive tickets are offered below for explicit London Terminal stations, and wonder why that would be the case if the cheapest ticket is valid to all of them...)