Category Archives: Fares

Advance tickets: it sometimes pays to wait

Posted on by January 26, 2020

I wanted to buy some tickets to travel to Bristol in March. When I checked on National Rail Enquiries site for Advance Single tickets on the first day that they should have been available the only ones offered were from Bat & Ball to Bristol changing onto the Bakerloo line at Elephant and Castle. Changing at Elephant and Castle is not very convenient. Only Anytime Returns were available for travel via Sevenoaks and London Bridge costing £62.45.

I decided to check on a daily basis for Advance Single tickets via Sevenoaks and London Bridge to become available. These did become available five days later; my outward journey cost £15.20 and the return £13.20. A saving of £34.05!

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Equal fare misery for Bat & Ball … in Ashford not so much

Posted on by January 27, 2020

When the new fares are introduced in January 2020, Southeastern have kept their promise to restore identical season ticket fares from Otford, Bat & Ball and Sevenoaks to London Terminals.

However my research indicates that Sevenoaks is still the second most expensive season ticket per mile to London (Charing Cross) at 42p*. That’s only beaten by St Albans City to London St Pancras at 46p.

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Senior Railcard Moments October 2019

Posted on by November 24, 2019

Our Bat & Ball correspondent, Keith Alderman, has now retired. However, when Thameslink allow him, he’s making good use of his Senior Railcard!

Delay Repay Claims: total 1 January 2019 to 31 October 2019 inclusive = £137.36
(East Midlands Trains £5.36, Greater Anglia £8.90, Southeastern £31.50, Southern £2.00, South Western Railway £19.56, Thameslink £15.90, Virgin £53.63, West Midland Railway £0.51). One claim outstanding.

This month’s delays: total 120 minutes, Southeastern 67, Thameslink 53

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Bat & Ball Rounding

Posted on by November 5, 2019

Regular readers will recall that I queried with Southeastern why the January fare increase resulted in different season ticket prices to London Terminals for Bat & Ball when compared to Otford and Sevenoaks; historically the fares to London Terminals for all three stations have been identical. The annual fare increase was 3.2%, this was applied to Bat & Ball fares, but Otford and Sevenoaks fares only increased by 3.09%. Southeastern blamed the differences on rounding and advised that the fares were set in stone and will not be corrected/reviewed until the fare revision in January 2020!

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Egham puzzler: £40.40, £17.05 or £15.15?

Posted on by July 24, 2019

If you’re going from the Sevenoaks area via London to somewhere else in the London & South East Network Area between 0900 and 1000 a through ticket may not be your best option. For instance from Bat & Ball to Egham via Waterloo on the 0921 the train company websites quote you an “Anytime Return” for £40.40. But two off-peak returns (Sevenoaks to Waterloo, Waterloo to Egham) are valid and would cost a total of £17.05. Even better, an off-peak Travelcard and a return from Feltham to Egham would cost a total of only £15.15 – before any railcard discounts are applied.

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