18May
Do you have a question about public transport in the UK? Why not get one of the largest hive minds, the London Underground, to answer your question?
A reader writes: Dear Underground, While travelling on a Standard Open return, the guard asked to see both parts of the Open return, not just the 'out' bit - saying that this is apparantly part of the regulations for that ticket.
Well, the guard (or ticket inspector, or whatever they're calling them this week) is entitled to ask to see your ticket, and that pertains to all the various coupons (outward and return, but also seat reservations, cabins for the overnight sleeper, ticket for the Motorail train...) He's technically incorrect in saying that this rule only applies to full-fare tickets, the sort that are so expensive you'd be excused for expecting to keep the train once you've finished travelling on it. It applies to all tickets, though it's only ever enforced on full-fare ones.
The logic here is that passengers have to show the unused return portion when travelling on the outward half of a ticket, so that they couldn't get away with using outward and return portions in the wrong order to get around time restrictions. In turn, this reflects a change to the Conditions of Carriage last July:
17. Using a return ticketA return ticket (including a two-part return ticket) is only valid for the outward journey shown on that ticket if the ticket is completely unused. You may not use the outward part of a return ticket after you have used the return part.
It emerged a few years ago that some people had been buying a cheap ticket, and an expensive one at the same time, and mixing and matching the two half-journies to their advantage. Though legal at the time, the train operators held this to be unreasonable, and amended the rules in their favour. Of course, if Labour actually had anything approaching a public transport policy, this loophole would not be worth exploiting or closing.
Next question!
Dear Underground, What's your chosen route between Kings Cross mainline and Holborn or Chancery Lane?
Probably Picadilly to Holborn, then hoof it. We would consider changing at Finsbury Park if the train stops there, to avoid the worst of the crush at KX. Perhaps the great missing link in the tube network is a line roughly parallel to the Bakerloo, but about a mile and a half further east. If constructed, the proposed Cross River Tram would provide surface transport from KX to Holborn and Aldwych.
If the Underground doesn't know, it will make a connection (allow 60 minutes) and find out. So do write in!
