This does seem to be a bit of an issue. I came across a similar issue a couple of years ago when trying to take a train home after midnight. I know that the "railway day" generally runs until 4am so peak prices should not apply before that time. I was trying to get home from Heathrow Airport and my flight was delayed departing and got further delayed on arrival as it was windy and had to abort the first landing, go around and then wait in a holding pattern The result was I missed the last National Express coach so had opted to go home by train via London instead, knowing I still had time to make the last train and that would be significantly cheaper than a taxi.
However on arrival at Waterloo the ticket machines were not letting me buy an off peak ticker or use my Network Card, only offering peak fares. Fortunately the ticket office was still open so going there the member of staff was very helpful and when I asked for a single ticket quoted me the expected price. It was only when I looked at the ticket I realised they'd actually issued me a ticket for the day before (since it was just after midnight)! Of course that was I believe the correct ticket here as I believe it's valid until 4am the next day and I was making a single journey so no issues about the return portion being for the wrong date. I was grateful to them as they obviously understood the issue I was having and were very helpful. However I've no idea what the official policy here is and whether the staff member did the right thing by selling a ticket dated the previous day, but it is a similar issue in that the ticket machines were unable to sell me the fare I wanted, which was valid at that time.
In fact the fact the "railway day" generally ends around 4am does cause some confusion. The SWR timetables for Monday - Friday show trains after midnight with codes like SO or SX even though it's the weekday timetable. The reason is because these trains run at different times after midnight on a Friday (which is of course then Saturday), but they are still shown on the Monday - Friday timetable and by way of comparison the train times for Saturday don't show the departures in the early hours of the morning, but only those from about 4:30am.
There are similar issues when the peak period ends at 10am and you want to take a train at (say) 10:01am but the machine won't sell off peak tickets until 10am, leaving insufficient time to buy the ticket and get to the right platform. I know you can solve some of these issues if you know in advance by buying a ticket on your phone for example, but that isn't always possible.
However on arrival at Waterloo the ticket machines were not letting me buy an off peak ticker or use my Network Card, only offering peak fares. Fortunately the ticket office was still open so going there the member of staff was very helpful and when I asked for a single ticket quoted me the expected price. It was only when I looked at the ticket I realised they'd actually issued me a ticket for the day before (since it was just after midnight)! Of course that was I believe the correct ticket here as I believe it's valid until 4am the next day and I was making a single journey so no issues about the return portion being for the wrong date. I was grateful to them as they obviously understood the issue I was having and were very helpful. However I've no idea what the official policy here is and whether the staff member did the right thing by selling a ticket dated the previous day, but it is a similar issue in that the ticket machines were unable to sell me the fare I wanted, which was valid at that time.
In fact the fact the "railway day" generally ends around 4am does cause some confusion. The SWR timetables for Monday - Friday show trains after midnight with codes like SO or SX even though it's the weekday timetable. The reason is because these trains run at different times after midnight on a Friday (which is of course then Saturday), but they are still shown on the Monday - Friday timetable and by way of comparison the train times for Saturday don't show the departures in the early hours of the morning, but only those from about 4:30am.
There are similar issues when the peak period ends at 10am and you want to take a train at (say) 10:01am but the machine won't sell off peak tickets until 10am, leaving insufficient time to buy the ticket and get to the right platform. I know you can solve some of these issues if you know in advance by buying a ticket on your phone for example, but that isn't always possible.
