how to get these CIV tickets !?

[Sebastien]

Hi all,
so my issue is: I'm buying Brussels-London Eurostar tickets at the
student discount price from STA Travel. But I actually need to travel
to Cambridge and back. So I would like to buy my London - Cambridge
and return ticket at the same fare as I get when I buy the through
journey from the eurostar.co.uk website (at the normal rate, not the
student rate here), ie a ticket type "EURO HIGH SVR S" from LNDON
ESTAR CIV to CAMBRIDGE, and return.

My question is: where/how do I buy these tickets ?

Staff at St Pancras and King's cross couldn't print the tickets.
Seat61.com (http://www.seat61.com/UKconnections.htm#Option%202) still
says you can buy them from raileasy.co.uk, but I didn't succeed
('We're sorry but there are no fares for the journey you've
selected").

I'd rather buy them over the Internet as staff are often completely
lost when you ask them about these.

Any hint?

Thanks
Seb

[Theo Markettos]

Post by Sebastien
Hi all,
so my issue is: I'm buying Brussels-London Eurostar tickets at the
student discount price from STA Travel. But I actually need to travel
to Cambridge and back. So I would like to buy my London - Cambridge
and return ticket at the same fare as I get when I buy the through
journey from the eurostar.co.uk website (at the normal rate, not the
student rate here), ie a ticket type "EURO HIGH SVR S" from LNDON
ESTAR CIV to CAMBRIDGE, and return.
My question is: where/how do I buy these tickets ?

I don't know what the current situation at Cambridge is (various people had
problems in the past), but I've successfully bought such tickets (to London,
rather than from London) recently at both a small SWT station and Cardiff
Central (run by ATW). In both cases the clerk knew what he was doing
(slightly unexpectedly at Cardiff Central, give the distance from London).

First thing to know:
LONDON ESTAR CIV is a Eurostar advance purchase ticket (which may or may not
be restricted to a specific train). Only Eurostar can issue those as part
of a through booking.

The ticket other sellers can issue is one to/from LONDON INTL(CIV), aka
London International. AFAIK there's no actual difference in CIV conditions,
other than this ticket is never booked for a specific train (except perhaps
on Virgin). I don't know of pricing differences compared with LONDON ESTAR
CIV, but London International is the only option available to you if you
already have your Eurostar ticket.


Second thing to know:
The three-letter code for London International is LNE. Usually telling the
clerk that is enough to bring up the fares. Should you need it (and I never
have) the NLC is 5470.

Once you've told them to set the destination as LNE, the fares pop up as
normal and there should be no problems. Don't get into a discussion about
train times - the National Rail website gives spurious results, and as it's
a flexible ticket you don't need them for booking.


Another point: GB railways don't have 'student' rates. Either you're under
16, in which case you get child rate, or you're an adult. If you're an
adult you pay the full fare, but if you're 16-25 or a full time student you
can get a 33% discount with a 16-25 Railcard. It's possible that Eurostar
will let you book a discounted LONDON ESTAR CIV ticket if you're under 26
but have no railcard, but you will need one for buying a discounted London
International ticket.

Post by Sebastien
Staff at St Pancras and King's cross couldn't print the tickets.
Seat61.com (http://www.seat61.com/UKconnections.htm#Option%202) still
says you can buy them from raileasy.co.uk, but I didn't succeed
('We're sorry but there are no fares for the journey you've
selected").

TrainsEurope (desks at St Pancras, was having some teething troubles on
Monday, Cambridge, and on the phone - very well informed) should be able to
issue them, but they may charge a booking fee.

Theo

[Barry Salter]

Post by Sebastien
Hi all,
so my issue is: I'm buying Brussels-London Eurostar tickets at the
student discount price from STA Travel. But I actually need to travel
to Cambridge and back. So I would like to buy my London - Cambridge
and return ticket at the same fare as I get when I buy the through
journey from the eurostar.co.uk website (at the normal rate, not the
student rate here), ie a ticket type "EURO HIGH SVR S" from LNDON
ESTAR CIV to CAMBRIDGE, and return.
My question is: where/how do I buy these tickets ?

You can't buy a CIV ticket from inside the UK, other than as part of a
journey *from* the UK to Europe. Possibly the easiest option would be to
book the ticket online from DB[1] and get it posted, though that has the
disadvantage of not knowing the price at the time of booking, and is
likely to be more expensive than a normal London to Cambridge walk-up
ticket.

Cheers,

Barry

[1] <http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en>

[bob]

Post by Barry Salter

Post by Sebastien
Hi all,
so my issue is: I'm buying Brussels-London Eurostar tickets at the
student discount price from STA Travel. But I actually need to travel
to Cambridge and back. So I would like to buy my London - Cambridge
and return ticket at the same fare as I get when I buy the through
journey from the eurostar.co.uk website (at the normal rate, not the
student rate here), ie a ticket type "EURO HIGH SVR S" from LNDON
ESTAR CIV to CAMBRIDGE, and return.
My question is: where/how do I buy these tickets ?

You can't buy a CIV ticket from inside the UK, other than as part of a
journey *from* the UK to Europe. Possibly the easiest option would be to
book the ticket online from DB[1] and get it posted, though that has the
disadvantage of not knowing the price at the time of booking, and is
likely to be more expensive than a normal London to Cambridge walk-up
ticket.

The "London International (CIV)" tickets are a slightly different
beast, though, and are a fudge BR introduced in the dim and distant
past. Because international trains tend to start from London, and BR
didn't want to have a whole range of fares from Berney Arms to
european destinations, they introduced the "London International
(CIV)" as a destination, that allowed the whole journey to some far
flung point in Europe to be covered by the CIV regulations [1]. The
idea is that you book your international journey from London to
$Europe, and then buy a London International (CIV) ticket, which takes
you to the station where you pick up your international train. In the
past these were all boat trains (I believe the Liverpool St - Harwich
and Euston to Holyhead boat trains are still legitimate connections
from a London International (CIV) ticket, but the most useful
connection these days is via Eurostar.

I had some trouble a couple of years ago buying such a ticket from
Cambridge, and had some correspondence with various railway customer
service types, which I wrote up here, and should be findable on google
groups. If you follow Theo's advice, you should be OK (and bear in
mind that the ticket you want is to London International (CIV), not
London Estar CIV, which is a different beast, and you will probably
not be able to book.

[1] I believe there has been some discussion here in the past about
whether a ticket not marked CIV is still covered by the rules if
booked together with an international journey, but that's a different
can of worms. My understanding is that Eurostar will convey you on
the next train if you arrive late due to railway delays, so they
effectively treat any ticket to London as CIV.

Robin

[Bob Martin]

Post by bob
The "London International (CIV)" tickets are a slightly different
beast, though, and are a fudge BR introduced in the dim and distant
past. Because international trains tend to start from London, and BR
didn't want to have a whole range of fares from Berney Arms to
european destinations, they introduced the "London International
(CIV)" as a destination, that allowed the whole journey to some far
flung point in Europe to be covered by the CIV regulations [1]. The
idea is that you book your international journey from London to
$Europe, and then buy a London International (CIV) ticket, which takes
you to the station where you pick up your international train. In the
past these were all boat trains (I believe the Liverpool St - Harwich
and Euston to Holyhead boat trains are still legitimate connections
from a London International (CIV) ticket, but the most useful
connection these days is via Eurostar.

May I just summarise this please?
When my E* ticket arrives next week I should take it to my SWT station
and ask for a London International (CIV) return.
I hope that it will be a lot cheaper than the anytime return I've been forced
to buy in order to get to Waterloo before 8am!

[Theo Markettos]

Post by Bob Martin
May I just summarise this please?
When my E* ticket arrives next week I should take it to my SWT station
and ask for a London International (CIV) return.

Yes. Note the LNE trick I mentioned in case you need it.

Post by Bob Martin
I hope that it will be a lot cheaper than the anytime return I've been
forced to buy in order to get to Waterloo before 8am!

Cheaper, but not as cheap as a Cheap Day Return, sorry Off-Peak Day Return.
It's about the same as a Saver/Off-Peak Return would be if such fares to
London existed for your station.

Normal railcard rules apply - discounted tickets only usable in the morning
peak if the railcard allows it.

Theo

[Bob Martin]

Post by Theo Markettos

Post by Bob Martin
May I just summarise this please?
When my E* ticket arrives next week I should take it to my SWT station
and ask for a London International (CIV) return.

Yes. Note the LNE trick I mentioned in case you need it.

Post by Bob Martin
I hope that it will be a lot cheaper than the anytime return I've been
forced to buy in order to get to Waterloo before 8am!

Cheaper, but not as cheap as a Cheap Day Return, sorry Off-Peak Day Return.
It's about the same as a Saver/Off-Peak Return would be if such fares to
London existed for your station.
Normal railcard rules apply - discounted tickets only usable in the morning
peak if the railcard allows it.
Theo

So I might be better off not using my Senior Railcard? Unreal.
On my last E* trip the ticket from Havant to St P and back with the railcard
cost £54. Yet my upcoming trip (St P to Valence TGV) is only £89 return, for
a journey 8-9 times further.

[Roland Perry]

Post by Bob Martin
So I might be better off not using my Senior Railcard? Unreal.
On my last E* trip the ticket from Havant to St P and back with the railcard
cost £54. Yet my upcoming trip (St P to Valence TGV) is only £89 return, for
a journey 8-9 times further.

Rail tickets are not priced at cost-plus.

This is a well known fact :)

[Brian A60K]

Post by Barry Salter

Post by Sebastien
Hi all,
so my issue is: I'm buying Brussels-London Eurostar tickets at the
student discount price from STA Travel. But I actually need to travel
to Cambridge and back. So I would like to buy my London - Cambridge
and return ticket at the same fare as I get when I buy the through
journey from the eurostar.co.uk website (at the normal rate, not the
student rate here), ie a ticket type "EURO HIGH SVR S" from LNDON
ESTAR CIV to CAMBRIDGE, and return.
My question is: where/how do I buy these tickets ?

You can't buy a CIV ticket from inside the UK, other than as part of a
journey *from* the UK to Europe. Possibly the easiest option would be to
book the ticket online from DB[1] and get it posted, though that has the
disadvantage of not knowing the price at the time of booking, and is
likely to be more expensive than a normal London to Cambridge walk-up
ticket.

CD's very useful 'Jizdenka' ('ticket') website is your friend here -
www.jizdenka.cz and click the English language option, then
International ticket. Hey Presto!

All of the UK TCV tickets are listed - CD and DB (at least) sell this
entire range at exactly the prices quoted, other railways may not sell
the complete range and prices may vary by a small amount depending on
the ticketing system/currency/ticket issue fee policies.

[Brian A60K]

Post by Sebastien
Hi all,
so my issue is: I'm buying Brussels-London Eurostar tickets at the
student discount price from STA Travel. But I actually need to travel
to Cambridge and back. So I would like to buy my London - Cambridge
and return ticket at the same fare as I get when I buy the through
journey from the eurostar.co.uk website (at the normal rate, not the
student rate here), ie a ticket type "EURO HIGH SVR S" from LNDON
ESTAR CIV to CAMBRIDGE, and return.
My question is: where/how do I buy these tickets ?
Staff at St Pancras and King's cross couldn't print the tickets.
Seat61.com (http://www.seat61.com/UKconnections.htm#Option%202) still
says you can buy them from raileasy.co.uk, but I didn't succeed
('We're sorry but there are no fares for the journey you've
selected").

You can't buy such tickets in connection with an inward (to the UK)
journey unfortunately. Only the standard range of London Terminals to
Cambridge tickets are available in such circumstances.

It will depend on when you're travelling, but sometimes a TCV ticket
(2 month validity, any time open return) bought on the continent (e.g.
the international ticket desk at Brussels Midi) will be suitable. In
this case:

London - Cambridge Anytime Return (National Rail ticket) - £38.20
London - Cambridge TCV Return (from SNCB) - €48 (approx £42)

In this case therefore the TCV option is only worthwhile (apart from
the novelty value) if you're travelling in the peak and/or want to
break your journey for longer than the National Rail ticket allows.
If, however, you have Railplus on any of the continental national
railcards, then the TCV price comes down to €36 (approx £31).

One caveat however - while DB and some other railways sell the full
range of UK TCV tickets, SNCB don't load all UK relations into their
system - you would need to check with the Belgian ticket office to see
if they can sell it.