Frequently asked questions

Children aged 5 to 15 pay half fare. Under 5s travel free. Adult fares apply from the age of 16.

This depends on what kind of ticket you have. If it’s an Advance ticket, you must travel on the train you’ve booked, but you can change your booking at any time before your first booked train’s departure time – you’ll have to pay the difference between what you paid and the price of the new ticket, plus a re-booking fee, currently £10. If you have an Off-Peak ticket, you can travel on any Off-peak train – if you want to travel at peak times, you’ll have to pay the difference before you travel. If you have an Anytime ticket, you can travel on any train on the date the ticket is valid for. Check when your ticket is valid before you travel.

When buying tickets online you can pay using debit cards, credit cards and PayPal. 

For now, you’ll need to visit one of our ticket offices – they can accept your vouchers in full or part payment for your ticket. At present it’s not possible to use Travel Vouchers online.

No. There is no VAT on train tickets. A receipt is printed along with your tickets when you collect them from a ticket machine, or on request from the ticket office. If you need proof of purchase for accounting purposes, you can use this or your confirmation email, which contains all the relevant payment information.

No. If you buy an Advance ticket, you must travel on the train you’ve booked but you are free to choose any seat – this must be in Standard Class if you have a Standard Class ticket.

As a rule, you must buy a ticket before boarding the train. If the station has a ticket office or ticket machines, you’ll only be able to buy a full-price single ticket once you have boarded the train – you won’t be able to benefit from any Railcard discount and you may be liable for a Penalty Fare if you travel without a ticket. Onboard staff will only sell you an Off-Peak ticket or give you a Railcard discount on the train if there is no ticket office at the station, or it is not open, or the ticket machines are out of order.

No. With GroupSave you must all travel together on the same train – otherwise you may be asked to pay the full fare for the journey or be liable for a Penalty Fare. If your group needs to split up at any time then you should buy separate GroupSave tickets for each smaller group (3-9 people).

You can collect your tickets at any of our stations with a ticket machine – it doesn’t have to be the one you’re travelling from, or the one you selected when booking. We recommend leaving at least 2 hours between buying your tickets and collecting – your tickets might be ready earlier, but at busy times it can take time for your booking to be processed and transmitted to the station ticket machines.

You’ll need to bring the debit or credit card you paid with – this is for ID purposes only, it won’t be charged again. You’ll also need your Collection Reference Number – it’s 8 characters long, with a mixture of letters and numbers, for example AB12345C. Take care to note the correct number, not the booking reference or transaction number.
Make sure you leave enough time to collect your tickets before your train is due to leave – you must not get on the train without them.

Find out more about buying and collecting train tickets.

You can collect tickets from any self service ticket machine at any of our stations. At some stations we also have dedicated ticket collection machines. If there are no machines or you have a problem with collecting your ticket please go to the ticket office and our staff will be able to process your ticket – you’ll need your Collection Reference Number and the payment card you used to buy the tickets.

If there is no ticket office and the ticket machines are not working, please see the guard as soon as possible when you board the train, and collect your ticket from the machines at a station where you change trains or when you arrive at your destination.

If you have an Oyster PAYG card you can top it up at our ticket machines at South Western Railway stations within the London Zones. We also accept other forms of contactless payment for journeys within the London Travelcard area, including CPAY contactless bank cards, Apple Pay and Android Pay.

If your journey involves travelling through London, this will be included in the ticket price. If you’re heading to London and want to travel around when you get there, you’ll need to add a Travelcard when you buy your ticket.

If your ticket is to “London Terminals” it is usually only valid to the main London station to which your train is heading, which will be one of the following. Tickets from London Terminals are usually only valid at the main London station on this list from which your train starts.

City Thameslink

Kings Cross Thameslink

London Blackfriars

London Bridge

London Cannon Street

London Charing Cross

London Euston

London Fenchurch Street

London Kings Cross

London Liverpool Street

London Marylebone

London Paddington

London St Pancras

London Victoria

London Waterloo

London Waterloo East

Moorgate Underground

Old Street Underground

Vauxhall

Tickets to or from London Terminals will NOT include travel between these stations on London Underground, Docklands Light Railway or London buses. They are also NOT valid  beyond King’s Cross Thameslink when travelling from the north or beyond City Thameslink when travelling from the south.

If a ticket has been damaged or altered in any way, it is not valid for travel. However, if you return it we’ll issue a replacement ticket, unless we have reason to suspect that the ticket has been, or will be, used for fraudulent or improper purposes. You may have to pay a reasonable administration charge (no more than £10) for the replacement.

If a season ticket (or a smartcard containing a season ticket) is damaged, or can no longer be read easily, or no longer works in automatic ticket gates, you can return it to where you bought it and we’ll replace it, provided that we can confirm the ticket is still valid. You won’t have to pay any administration charge.

If your season ticket stops working in the ticket gates, the most likely reason is that the magnetic strip on the back has been damaged or affected by magnetic fields. To avoid this:

• Store your season ticket separately in the wallet provided
• Try to keep it away from mobile phones and other devices, and anything magnetic – handbag clasps, name badges and the like
• Do not laminate your season ticket

We will be continuing to accept the free weekend travel tickets you were offered by the previous franchisee, and these will be valid for use as long as you maintain a Gold Card season ticket for a SWR route and the original terms and conditions of issue will apply. We will not be offering these to customers that buy or renew their ticket after the 19 August 2017. You will continue to receive the many other Gold Card benefits with an annual season ticket.

This depends on what kind of ticket you have. In general, yes, you can get on or off your train at any station in-between your journey’s start and end stations, unless there’s a restriction on your ticket that does not allow this – you can view your ticket’s Terms and Conditions when you book. If you have an Advance ticket you may not get on or off at intermediate stations except to change trains as specified on your ticket, reservation coupon or travel itinerary.

We’ll be running more trains, more frequently, with more carriages. This will mean 52,000 more seats a day across peak times at London Waterloo by December 2020 – 30% more than today. At stations, we’ll also be giving you live information on seating availability, letting you know where best to stand to board emptier carriages.

Find out more about our plans.

No, the use of e-cigarettes or vaping is against the law anywhere on trains or stations.

Contact us by phone or online. Find out more about Lost Property.

In general, we love to welcome cyclists and their bicycles, but safety is important to us, so we do have some restrictions on where and when you can take your bike on our trains. Even when there isn’t a restriction, spaces for bikes can become limited at busier times and our staff have the right to refuse a bicycle if there is no space for it to be transported safely. Please be considerate of other passengers at all times, and ensure that you place your bike in the appropriate areas on the train.

Find out more about our cycle policy and schemes.

We will work with Network Rail to improve punctuality and we’re partnering with MTR, who have significant experience in running commuter services including the Hong Kong Metro, and we look forward to working with them in this area.

They are good trains that we will make use of. However, an important part of delivering the improved efficiency and smooth running of the network relies on having a homogenous fleet so when we have brought in our new trains we expect to cascade the Class 707s out to other parts of the national network, and we are confident there is demand for them elsewhere.

The franchise is subject to the Government’s fares regulation policy. During the current Parliament that policy means no increase in regulated fares above the Retail Price Index.

Yes. You’ll need to return it to the same place you bought it. If it’s a monthly Season ticket, there must be at least 7 days remaining on it. If it’s a weekly Season ticket, there must be at least 3 days remaining on it – but it might not have any refund value left. See how we calculate the refund value below.

Refunds are calculated from the date you return the Season ticket. If you’ve been ill, we can backdate the refund if you provide written evidence and have not started using the Season ticket again. We won’t give you a refund or extend your Season ticket just because you don’t use it for a period of time, for example because you’ve been on holiday.

To calculate the refund value we’ll work out the total cost of the tickets you’d have needed to buy to make one return journey a day up to the date you returned your Season ticket. The refund will be the difference, if any, between this total cost and the price you paid for the Season ticket, less a reasonable administration fee (no more than £10). This means the refund won’t be just a fixed proportion of what you paid, and in some cases there may be no refund value – because of the discount on annual Season tickets, for example, they have no refund value after 10 months and 12 days.

If you want a refund for a duplicate Season ticket we issued to replace one that was lost or stolen you’ll need to contact our Customer Service Centre. We will  normally give a refund for a replacement Season ticket where any of the following applies:

 1. The original Season ticket is returned within 1 month of the date you told us it was lost
 2. The original and replacement tickets were Electronic Tickets and it was possible to cancel the original ticket
 3. You were made redundant, resigned, retired, changed your job or address, became pregnant or suffered prolonged illness, and you provide satisfactory evidence of this

We’ll also consider a refund on a replacement Season ticket in other circumstances, but we may ask you to attend a meeting with us to confirm the reason for your refund. All train companies have agreed a Code of Practice for such meetings, which you can find on the National Rail website.
If we agree to a refund, we’ll calculate the amount in the same way as for ordinary Season tickets.

If you’ve applied for a replacement Season ticket and had to buy tickets to travel while waiting for it to arrive, we’ll give you a full refund on the extra tickets you’ve bought. This applies only to tickets for the same journey as on your Season ticket

Our refund policy is set under the National Rail Conditions of Carriage, Section E. If you are unable to travel or decide not to, we will consider a refund – you must return the unused ticket, or send us a scan or photo of it online, within 28 days after the ticket expiry date, and we may charge a £10 administration fee.

If you are entitled to a refund because your train has been delayed or cancelled, you won’t pay any fee.

Find out more about compensation and refunds.

There is no refund on Advance tickets – this is part of the conditions for this type of ticket. However, you can change your booking at any time before the departure time of the first train you’re booked on – see “Can I travel on a different train?”

You could be entitled to compensation if your journey is delayed by 15 minutes or more.

Find out more about compensation and refunds.

Some scooters are too bulky and heavy to fit on our trains, so we’ll need to check your make and model and issue you a Scooter Card first – please allow 7 to 10 working days for this. Contact our Customer Service Centre.

We have a dedicated Assisted Travel service to help – call 0800 52 82 100 or book online. They can arrange a ramp, assistance navigating the station, or other help. We recommend you let us know 24 hours before you travel, as our trains and staff can get very busy.

More about Assisted Travel.