Talk:Gatwick Express
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Trains, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to rail transport on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. |
| See also: WikiProject Trains to do list | |
| B | This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale. (assessment comments) |
| ??? | This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale within the Trains WikiProject. |
 |
This article is maintained by WikiProject UK Railways. |
 |
This article is maintained by the Passenger trains task force. |
[edit] Ticketing
London-Gatwick is the only journey on the UK National Rail network for which passengers are required to choose between different operators when buying tickets — on all other flows shared by different National Rail operators the tickets are inter-available, although some restrictions may apply (such as "NOT THAMESLINK" or "WAGN ONLY"). Through tickets for which the London-Gatwick line is part of a permitted route are valid on the Gatwick Express, provided they are not endorsed "NOT GATWICK EXPRESS". Tickets from London to stations south of Gatwick generally bear this restriction.
I moved this down the article from the introduction. But its a load of mumbo jumbo really and needs to be edited or deleted. Mrsteviec 20:17, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
I think the statement "London-Gatwick is the only journey on the UK National Rail network for which passengers are required to choose between different operators when buying tickets" is wrong. There are many other routes where chosing an operator is required. Some examples:
| Route | Fast & Expensive | Cheaper | Cheapest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peterborough - London | GNER | First Capital Connect | |
| London - South West | First Great Western | South West Trains | |
| London - Birmingham | Virgin | Chiltern | Silverlink |
| London - Hull | GNER | Hull Trains | |
| London - Manchester | Virgin | Midland Mainline | |
| London - Edinburgh | GNER | Virgin | |
| Leeds - Carlisle | Various | Northern Rail | |
| London - Glasgow | Virgin | GNER | |
| Edinburgh - Glasgow | First Scotrail | GNER |
--82.39.43.61 11:50, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
But usually the expensive fare is inter-available, although the services of the company that sets the fare are usually the ones you're likely to use because they're the most convenient or there are more of them. For example, the "Virgin Trains" fare from Birmingham to London is actually inter-available. It can be used on the Chiltern, Silverlink and Central services as well as the Virgin ones. It's just that you're very unlikely to want to do so because the Virgin services are faster.
Also when I wrote that I was considering walk-on fares, rather than bookahead. For London to Scotland, the walk-on fares are inter-available except for cheap tickets valid only on the ScotRail sleeper services. However, Virgin and GNER compete for customers who book ahead: the cheap tickets booked weeks in advance are specific to one operator or the other.
The London-Gatwick ticketing is an anomaly because the more expensive fare is actually only valid on the more expensive train (i.e. Gatwick Express). I feel it's important to point this out because otherwise one would get the impression that rail passengers in the UK normally have to worry about which operator to travel with when they buy tickets for travel straight away --- when for the great majority of journeys they need neither know nor care. Flagboy 10:24, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
