Cheaper Southern and Thameslink train tickets accepted on Gatwick Express until September

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• John says:

  14 Jun14 June 05:04

  As I understand it, since all these trains are operated by the same company (Govia Thameslink Railway), they have no legal basis to actually restrict tickets by “sub-brand”, however having an argument with poorly-trained staff every day is not worth it and someone needs to be willing to test this in court.

  • Ian P says:

    14 Jun14 June 10:14

    I believe they changed the contract of carriage a few years ago to fix that issue.

• Stu R says:

  14 Jun14 June 05:09

  Wow, respectfully, today must be a very slow news day …. ?

  • James123 says:

    14 Jun14 June 06:59

    Why? For anyone travelling to Gatwick,the second busiest airport in the country, from London by train this saves them ~£15 per trip. I’m going this weekend and wouldn’t have otherwise known I could buy a cheaper ticket.

  • Rob says:

    14 Jun14 June 08:49

    I thought this was quite interesting and, importantly, you won’t read it anywhere else.

    • sunguy says:

      14 Jun14 June 10:39

      +1

    • Neil says:

      14 Jun14 June 15:37

      Thanks Rob, certainly helps me out next week.

    • bob sponge pants says:

      14 Jun14 June 22:05

      this is a great article. credit to rob

  • Ian says:

    14 Jun14 June 08:59

    Yes it’s very interesting and relevant to many readers I imagine. I don’t live in London but I’ll be travelling round the Southern region over the next few days and I’m grateful to be made aware that I can enjoy the comfort of the Gatwick Express on a cheaper ticket.

    • Ian P says:

      14 Jun14 June 10:18

      There’s no additional comfort on GX. In fact, it’ll be less comfortable on a new GX 387 with the “ironing board” seats than the older Southern 377s with actual seat cushions.

      The only advantage to Gatwick Express is you might get there 2-5 minutes sooner and it’s usually less crowded than the Southern services that stop at Clapham Jn and East Croydon.

      • Leo says:

        14 Jun14 June 18:30

        I’m on this route every day and I’d always rather be on the Gatwick Express….seats are hard though.

• Tim says:

  14 Jun14 June 06:45

  In an attempt to steer this site from being London-only, should we not mention the thousands of daily cancellations in the North as part of the ’emergency timetable’. Even on the emergency timetable fewer than half of trains are running on time if at all. I fear for those travelling to the airports.

  • Leo says:

    14 Jun14 June 07:43

    Really? This is about the Gatwick Express specifically not the epic national train timetable cock up.

  • Anna says:

    14 Jun14 June 08:45

    As public transport is so dire up here anyway, I am not reliant on it and therefore oblivious to disruptions lol!

  • Rob says:

    14 Jun14 June 08:48

    To be fair we haven’t mentioned the London cancellations until today …..

  • Gbtp says:

    15 Jun15 June 19:38

    What is it with the boulder of shoulder chips falling from The Regions?

    Relax.

• CountryKerry says:

  14 Jun14 June 07:04

  A consequence of this timetable is that you can buy a London Blackfriars- Gatwick Airport Thameslink only ticket and jump on at Victoria and take the Gatwick Express straight there. (Suppose this is only useful for those who pass Victoria on the way!)

  This is because tickets are also valid on the London Underground via any reasonable route (and it’s reasonable to go Blackfriars – Victoria on the district line, then take the Gatwick Express).

  • Simon says:

    14 Jun14 June 07:20

    What’s not clear is whether you could now use oyster on the Gatwick Express in the same way that you can currently use it on Southern and Thameslink.

    • Lumma says:

      14 Jun14 June 08:42

      You can use Oyster/Contactless on the Gatwick express and you’ve been able to since it was accepted on the other trains. You get charged a premium to use it however as the Gatwick express uses two specific platforms at Victoria and the charge is linked to the card readers at those particular gates.

      Unless of course, there’s problems on the route and the train has to use an alternative platform at Victoria, then you’d be charged the Southern rail fare

• Mark Horne says:

  14 Jun14 June 07:28

  Can u use Oyster cards on the Gatwick Express as well?

  • Lumma says:

    14 Jun14 June 08:42

    Yes but it’s more expensive

• ankomonkey says:

  14 Jun14 June 08:23

  Does this work in both directions: London->Gatwick and Gatwick->London?

• Andy says:

  14 Jun14 June 09:18

  I have one of the £5 specific train only sothern advance single tickets Gatwick to Brighton, do i still have to take that train if it is running or can i jump on a different one? The brief says “normal time restrictions” apply?

  • Rob says:

    14 Jun14 June 10:31

    That is based on the peak / off-peak restrictions.

    There is virtually a 0% chance your Southern train will actually be running so I wouldn’t worry about it anyway!

  • Alan says:

    14 Jun14 June 18:07

    Yes, you still have to take that train if it’s running. I’ve checked with Southern & GX and had the following reply…

    “Advance tickets still need to be used on their booked train. Ticket acceptance is only for single and season tickets. If a service is cancelled then you could use it for the previous or following train.”

• Ben says:

  14 Jun14 June 09:52

  If you were planning on getting the Thameslink to Gatwick and using contactless payment instead of a paper ticket, I presume there is no way to use this reciprocity and be charged what you would have been charged on a Thameslink only journey?

  • Lumma says:

    14 Jun14 June 11:18

    It’s the gates at Victoria which are programmed to know if you’re getting on the express or not, so you’d still be charged £19.80 each way I believe

    • Suzanne says:

      14 Jun14 June 18:29

      Gatwick Express website requests that you touch through specific gates in order to pay the reduced fare. To quote the website as updated at 12.19 today (click on ‘Ticket Acceptance arrangements’ banner at top of page): “I use Oyster or Contactless – what should I do? Customers travelling using Oyster or Contactless between Victoria and Gatwick Airport (and vice versa), please make sure that you touch in/out at London Victoria using the 9-12 gates, rather than those on 13/14, to ensure you are charged the correct fare during this time.”

      • ADS says:

        14 Jun14 June 19:43

        presume you have to get a member of staff to let you into the 9-12 platform area after arriving into the 13/14 platforms ?

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