Question regarding BoJ

[Leogilbert007]

Going to be in Balham from 9am to 3pm tomorrow, getting there by train from my local station. I’ll then be going on to Horley in the afternoon. can I get a ticket from my local station to Horley, one that allows me to go via Balham, and simply break my journey at Balham for multiple hours? Or do I need a separate ticket to Balham and then to Horley?

 

[signed]

can I get a ticket from my local station to Horley, one that allows me to go via Balham, and simply break my journey at Balham for multiple hours?

Yes, as long as you finish your journey before 0429 the next day. Your ticket must allow BoJ however.

 

[Iggy12a]

Where are you actually starting from?

 

[Leogilbert007]

where are you actually starting from?

@Iggy12a Gipsy Hill

 

[Iggy12a]

So putting your journey from Gipsy Hill to Horley via Balham into the National Rail journey planner, it shows that via Balham is not a permitted route, and requires a combination of tickets purchasing.

 

[Watershed]

Going to be in Balham from 9am to 3pm tomorrow, getting there by train from my local station. I’ll then be going on to Horley in the afternoon. can I get a ticket from my local station to Horley, one that allows me to go via Balham, and simply break my journey at Balham for multiple hours? Or do I need a separate ticket to Balham and then to Horley?

If you are buying a walk-up ticket, and it's valid via Balham, then in almost all cases you can break your journey there for as long as you want - until the ticket expires (at 4:29am the following morning, generally).

However as you are travelling from Gipsy Hill, you would need a combination of tickets to travel via Balham, since it's not on a valid route to Horley.

 

[Leogilbert007]

Perfect, thank you for your answers

 

[30907]

If you are buying a walk-up ticket, and it's valid via Balham, then in almost all cases you can break your journey there for as long as you want - until the ticket expires (at 4:29am the following morning, generally).

However as you are travelling from Gipsy Hill, you would need a combination of tickets to travel via Balham, since it's not on a valid route to Horley.

Single from Gypsy Hill to Balham then an Offpeak to Horley which is of course valid via Gypsy Hill. Or the Oyster (etc) equivalents.

 

[kieron]

So putting your journey from Gipsy Hill to Horley via Balham into the National Rail journey planner, it shows that via Balham is not a permitted route, and requires a combination of tickets purchasing.

That is not correct. If NRE says an itinerary isn't valid with one ticket, this means, at most, that that itinerary does not follow a permitted route. There could be any number of other itineraries you haven't asked it about.

In this case, you did not ask it about an itinerary like this one*, with search terms "via Balham" and "not via Clapham Junction". It doesn't like the itineraries via Gatwick, but there's only so much you can specify.

* You may need to delete nationalrail.co.uk cookies for this link to open correctly.

 

[30907]

That is not correct. If NRE says an itinerary isn't valid with one ticket, this means, at most, that that itinerary does not follow a permitted route. There could be any number of other itineraries you haven't asked it about.

In this case, you did not ask it about an itinerary like this one*, with search terms "via Balham" and "not via Clapham Junction". It doesn't like the itineraries via Gatwick, but there's only so much you can specify.

* You may need to delete nationalrail.co.uk cookies for this link to open correctly.

Avoiding the double-back at CLJ may work as you suggest, but for the OP it is significantly cheaper to use an Offpeak Day Return from BAL as I stated in post #8.

 

[Leogilbert007]

UPDATE: the reason for the journey ended up being cancelled so I ended up not needing a ticket. Feel free to continue the discussion, but I no longer need advice. Thanks for all your answers.