Archived on 6/5/2022

Travelcard query

Phil
2 Jan '20

I have always bought an annual zone 1-3 travel card on oyster, but this year it makes more sense for me to buy a southern rail pass.

I travel from Honor Oak to London Bridge, but note that the cost of the season ticket is the same if I were to buy Forest Hill to London Bridge.

If I were to purchase a Forest Hill season ticket, can I use the ticket gates at Honor Oak? Or vice versa (given that the cost is the same)?

ForestHull
2 Jan '20

I’ve messed around with single and return paper tickets in that way, and yes, it did open the barriers when I got of at an ‘earlier’ stop. The barriers also didn’t consume the ticket, which can be useful if you want to then go on to send a picture into delay-repay or similar.

At the time I looked up the conditions of carriage on the ticket, and my reading of it was that it was totally permitted as I still had a single ticket covering the whole journey. I don’t recall the exact section now though!

Mazz
3 Jan '20

I travel from Sydenham to London Bridge on a weekly return and I sometime get off at Forest Hill. My ticket doesn’t work there but the staff are always happy to let me out when I show them my ticket.

beatrix
3 Jan '20

When I used to buy the Southern Rail annual season ticket, I uploaded it to my Oyster card which covers you for zones rather than to certain stations. I could tap out at Honor Oak or Forest Hill with no problems. I haven’t purchase a season ticket for a couple of years now but I do believe you can still do this.