After a long delay Southeastern and TfL last month finally agreed some limited acceptance of rail tickets on tubes and buses from 12 January.  Southeastern have now quietly put some more details and Frequently Asked Questions on their website (here’s the original version).  There’s some bad news:

• some existing rail-only season tickets will need to be reissued
• it’s clear that you will not be allowed to get on or off the tube at intermediate stations

Season Tickets

If you have a National Rail only season ticket purchased before 13 November and valid after 11 January 2015, your ticket will need to be reissued.  This is in order to put a code on the magnetic strip so that the London Underground ticket gates can recognise them.  The ticket reissue will have to be done at your local ticket office – it will be free, but it will take time.  That will be bad news for queues during the Christmas and New Year period, when there are a lot of infrequent passengers also buying tickets to go shopping or to a show in London, and when normal annual ticket renewals are at a peak. We have asked Southeastern whether they will be opening extra ticket windows and opening ticket offices for London.

It is disappointing that the need to reissue tickets has only been discovered now. This should have be thought through months ago so that the tickets had the correct code when they were originally issued. It may make people worry about what else about the London Bridge rebuilding has been overlooked.

Update 17 November

Southeastern have very helpfully given us some more information about the season ticket exchange:

• un-exchanged season tickets can still be used on the Underground from 11 January. However you will have to show the ticket to the gate attendant and they will need to open the gate manually. That will slow you up each time. If the ticket has been reissued it will let you through the automatic barriers without any delay.
• it follows that it is not essential to exchange your ticket by 11 January. If it more convenient you can wait a while.
• because many people buy annual season tickets in late December just before the fares go up the number of tickets which need to be re-issued is only around 17,000.  Southeastern will be writing to each of the affected ticket holders with detailed instructions over the next few weeks.
• the process at the ticket office will be similar to the current process for replacing a worn season ticket. We’ve asked Southeastern to look at whether the paperwork for the ticket clerk can be streamlined.

Update 26 November

Southeastern have started writing to individual season ticket holders about the details of the ticket exchange:

• Only season tickets issued before 13 November and valid after 11 January need to be exchanged. Season tickets issued from 13 November onwards already have the correct code on them.
• You’re strongly encouraged to exchange your season ticket as soon as possible – before the Christmas rush and the peak of the annual season ticket renewals around 29-31 December. You no longer have to wait; you can do it today.
• Extra resources are being put into ticket offices until 30 December to help with the extra work.
• If you don’t manage to exchange your season ticket by 30 December, don’t worry: it can be done at any time afterwards, although you might have to wait a bit longer at the ticket office.
• You only have to exchange your season ticket if you plan to use the Underground and want it to go through the automatic gates – although we’d advise you to do it anyway if case you need to use the Underground at times of disruption.

Intermediate Stations

The Southeastern website is now clearer that you will only be able to travel from one stated tube station to another stated tube station – essentially from one rail station to another. You will not be able to get on or off the tube at intermediate stations. So, for instance, if you work or study at Kings College in the Aldwych and normally walk from Charing Cross you will be able to take the train to Cannon Street and then take the tube to Embankment and walk back, but you will not be able to get off at Temple.  If you try to leave the tube system at Temple you will be charged a Penalty Fare by TFL.

We think that this restriction is petty.  Southeastern say that it is because “many of these stations are smaller and do not have the capacity to carry significant volumes of additional passengers.”  We are not convinced – there is a counter-argument that spreading entrances and exits to the intermediate stations would lessen dangerous congestion at the small number of named stations.  It’s more likely that intermediate stations have been banned because TfL and Southeastern could not agree financial terms to cover the small amount of existing tube fares lost.  In the context of a £6 billion project it is pitiful that this could not have been sorted out.