A change of rule for Boundary Zone fares

A lot of RAIL readers tell me how frustrating it is to be unable to buy Boundary Zone 6 fares from the internet, or (indeed) from ticket machines.

These fares were there specifically to allow a journey using a Day Travelcard in London to be made that went outside the zones without the train having to call at the boundary. They only existed for journeys within Network SouthEast - hence you could buy one from Boundary Zone 6 to Didcot Parkway, but not to Swindon. Nearly a quarter of a century on and you still can’t, although the rules have now changed.

If you had a period Travelcard you could always use it in conjunction with another ticket and the train didn’t have to call. But for a Day Travelcard it did, unless you bought Boundary Zone fares.

The last National Rail Conditions of Travel (Oct 2016) changed the rule, and paragraph 14.2 states: ‘If you are using a … daily zonal ticket …in conjunction with another ticket and the last station at which one ticket is valid and the first station that the other ticket is valid are the same, then the train does not need to call at that station for your combination to be valid.’

In short, you can now buy a return from West Drayton to Swindon and join a train at Paddington which is first stop Reading, or one from Hadley Wood to Peterborough and use LNER from King’s Cross.

Again, even with period Travelcards, the rule used to be that you could never book from the boundary for any journey using Virgin West Coast, East Midlands Trains or what is now LNER, because those inter-city operators received no income from Travelcard. I have been assured that this rule has also been superseded by Para 14.2, which is all-embracing.

So, is there still a use for Boundary Zone 6 fares at all? Yes, but only if you wanted to travel out one way and return another.

For example, a return Boundary Zone 6 to Brockenhurst allows use via Reading, Winchester or even Croydon via Brighton or Horsham (in short, all ‘permitted routes’), whereas if you buy one from the boundary station of Surbiton it only permits use via Winchester or Haslemere & Havant.

Finally, note all this applies only to Travelcards, and remember National Rail issues are all Zones 1-6. Only Transport for London issues versions to Zone 9, so take care when selecting your boundary station.