Season and Flexi Season Ticket Terms & Conditions

Using your Season Ticket

• You can use your Season Ticket up to and including its expiry date for any number of journeys between the stations and/or within the zone(s) shown on it at any time of day. It may be used at intermediate stations, and on any permitted route, unless a route or any other restrictions are specified on the ticket. Details are available where these tickets are issued.
• With First Class Season Tickets you may travel in the First Class or Standard Class areas of the train. Standard Class Season Ticket holders may upgrade their Season Ticket to First Class at the ticket office before they board the train (or on the train if there is no open ticket office where you board the train).
• Travelcard Season Tickets allow unlimited travel at any time of day on National Rail, London Underground, Docklands Light Railway, Croydon Tramlink within the London Fare Zones Area. Travelcard Season Tickets are also valid on most London Bus services throughout the London Bus network. For journeys starting outside the London Fare Zones Area, the Travelcard Season Ticket allows travel by train between the starting station and the London Fares Zones Area boundary, and then unlimited travel within the zones paid for. Full bus details are available from: Transport for London, 55 Broadway, London SW1H OBD Tel: 020 7222 1234.
• You cannot transfer your Season Ticket to another person.

Photocards

• You need a photocard to buy most Season Tickets. These are issued free of charge from ticket offices. You must provide a recent passport-type photograph of yourself.
• Where required, your photocard number must be on your Season Ticket. For your Season Ticket to be valid, you must show both your Season Ticket and photocard with matching numbers if requested by rail staff.

Photocards for Children

• All children aged between 5 and 15 (inclusive) require a photocard. Proof of age will be required when the Season Ticket is issued.
• A photocard for a child aged under 14 is valid for 2 calendar years from the date of issue. So, for example, a card issued on 22 January 2010, expires on 21 January 2011.
• If the child reaches 16 within 2 1/2 years of the photocard being issued, the photocard will be dated to expire on the day before their 16th birthday.

'Changeovers'

• If you move house, change your place of work or wish to change the class of travel, you may apply to exchange any Season Ticket with a month or more remaining, for one with the same expiry date for your new journey or class. This is called a changeover.
• A changeover may be applied for at any rail ticket office (preferably one relevant to the new journey), a few days in advance of the date of the change. Any additional charge or refund will be based on the ticket prices when the original Season Ticket was bought, pro rata to the periods before and after the changeover.
• No administration charge is made. Any ticket that has already been exchanged in this way may be accepted for further exchanges if necessary.

Refunds

• If you stop travelling and no longer need your Season Ticket, please hand it in at, or post it to, the ticket office where you bought it.
• Any refund is calculated from the date the Season Ticket was handed in. It will be the difference between the price you paid and the cost of a ticket or tickets for the period for which you have actually used the ticket, plus an administration charge. Because of the discounts on longer term Season Tickets, refunds are not made pro rata to the periods before/after surrender and Annual Season Tickets have no refund value after about 10 1/2 months. For this reason we recommend that employers' Annual Season Ticket loan schemes are set up so that reimbursements are made in 10 equal monthly payments with two 'free' months at the end of the year, rather than in 12 equal monthly payments.
• There must be at least seven days remaining on a Monthly Season Ticket or at least three days remaining on a 7 Day Season Ticket to obtain a refund (although on some 7 Day Season Tickets there may be no refund value after three days of use, dependent upon the relevant Standard Day Return price.
• In cases of illness, the refund can be backdated if you produce suitable documentary evidence for a period before you hand in your ticket, provided that you have not started travelling again using your Season Ticket since your illness.

Discounts

The Passengers' Charter of each Train Company gives performance targets and details of the discounts available for Season Ticket renewals if the time keeping or reliability of the train service falls below set standards. The Train Companies will publicise details of any Season Ticket discounts.

Lost or stolen Season Tickets or Photocards

• If you lose your Season Ticket or it is stolen, report this immediately to the ticket office where you bought it. You should also report this to the police. If the ticket cannot be recovered, an application for a duplicate ticket will be considered, if the original was issued for a period of one month or more. Duplicates are not issued in respect of lost or stolen 7 Day Season Tickets. There is an administration charge when a duplicate Season Ticket is issued.
• Only one duplicate to be issued in any 12 month period. However, a second is allowed if: the original Season Ticket is returned to the train company which sold it within one month of you reporting the loss; OR the first or second request for a duplicate was because of theft, robbery, fire or other exceptional circumstances, the facts of which have been reported to the police, the fire service or another appropriate body. No more than two duplicate Season Tickets in any 12 month period under any circumstances will be issued.
• A refund will be allowed (with no administration charge) for the cost of tickets you buy while you are waiting for the duplicate ticket to be issued, if you hand these tickets in.
• If you lose your photocard or it is stolen, a new one can be issued, for which a further passport-type photograph is required. If you need to have a reissue of your Season Ticket, an administration charge will be made.

Damaged or defective Season Tickets

If your Season Ticket is damaged, illegible or defective, for example it will no longer work in ticket gates, it will be replaced at the office from which it was issued provided the Train Company which sold it can confirm the ticket is still valid.

Travel not covered by your Season Ticket

• Please buy the appropriate additional ticket at the ticket office before you travel, if your Season Ticket has expired, does not cover your journey in full, has been left behind (see section 9), or is for Standard Class accommodation but you wish to travel First Class.
• If you are travelling from a penalty fare station on a penalty fare train and your Season Ticket does not cover you for all of your journey, you must buy an accompanying ticket or permit to travel before you start your journey. If you do not you may be liable to a Penalty Fare.

Season Tickets left at home

If you do not have your Season Ticket with you when you travel you must buy a ticket for your journey. You will be able to get a refund on the fare paid on the first two occasions this happens in any 12 month period. On the second such occasion an administration charge will be made (see below). No more than two of these types of refund will be made in any 12 month period. You will need to hand in the tickets you have bought. You should make refund claims of this type within 28 days of travel.

Season Ticket administration charges

• Refunds - Not more than £10
• Duplicates for lost or stolen tickets - £10 (First Capital Connect and Southern charge £20, but will offer a refund of the charge if the original ticket is found and returned before the expiry date of the ticket)
• Issue of replacement photocard including new Season Ticket - Not more than £10
• Replacement of damaged or illegible season tickets or those which can no longer operate ticket barriers - Free of charge

These charges are subject to change.

• One-third discount on off-peak travel for Annual Gold Card holders
• There is no discount on First Class fares even if the Gold Card is First Class.
• Annual Gold Card holders buying discounted Day Travelcards (Off-peak) for accompanying adults or children must buy one for themselves if their Annual Gold Card is not valid for travel on all the London Fare Zones.
• For full terms and conditions, please see the Network Railcard website.
• First Class upgrade for Annual Gold Card holders
• View more information about upgrading to First Class.

Flexi Season

Flexi Season tickets are valid for a 28-Day period and entitle you to 8 days of travelling between the stations specified, within that 28-Day period.

You must activate a day’s worth of travel in your Flexi Season ticket before you board a train service. If you board a train without activating a day’s worth of travel, you will be treated as not having a valid ticket, unless:

1. a) you are specifically permitted to board a train service with an un-activated Flexi Season by an authorised member of staff or notice of the Train Company whose service you intend to board.

Once activated, your Flexi Season ticket is valid for any number of journeys between the origin and destination stations, including intermediate stations, as long as the Flexi Season ticket you hold is valid for the route you wish to use. It remains valid until 04:29 the day after it is activated.

Once activated, you cannot deactivate or refund a day’s travel if you decide not to travel.

Flexi-Season refunds

You must apply for a refund before the end of the 28-Day validity period.

A refund is calculated as the difference between the price you paid for the Flexi Season ticket and the cost of the appropriate ticket(s) to travel at peak time, covering one return journey between the origin and destination of the Flexi Season ticket, for each day’s travel you have activated. Where the price is higher between the destination and origin of the Flexi Season ticket for the appropriate ticket(s) to travel at peak time, covering one return journey, this higher price will be used in the refund calculation.

The refund calculation will be based on the price of the appropriate peak time fare as it was on the start date of your Flexi Season ticket.

We will not make any refund on additional tickets purchased when you forgot to carry your Flexi Season ticket.