Tickets

Yes, you’ll need a valid ticket (or permit to travel) to travel on our trains. If you travel on a train without a ticket, you’ll be asked to pay the full single or return fare or, may be given a penalty fare.

What are penalty fares?

You can buy tickets for rail journeys throughout Great Britain – not just Great Northern.

You can get:

• regular single and return fares
• season tickets
• cheaper Off-Peak tickets
• discount fares for group tickets
• savings when you buy a carnet
• low-cost children's fares

You can use your Railcard to get a third off for some journeys too.

Types of tickets explained

Find the right ticket for you

Discounts and railcards

You can buy rail tickets with our online ticket booking system, from a ticket vending machine or at a ticket office at your local station. If you buy online you won’t pay a booking fee and delivery is free.

More about buying tickets

Buy a ticket now

It depends on the age of your child.

Children aged under 5: Up to two children under five can travel with you free of charge if you have a valid ticket. But they can only sit in a seat if it's not needed by another passenger with a ticket.

Children aged 5-16: You pay child fares up to the child's 16th birthday.

Children aged 16+: Once children turn 16 they must buy an adult ticket. The 16-25 Railcard can save money for young people in full-time education. How the 16-25 Railcard works

Children aged 16-18 and in full-time education may be eligible for a Student Connect card, which gives discounts on season tickets for travel to school or college. Find out more about Student Connect

Anyone travelling on a child fare may be asked for proof of age by our inspectors.

You can use Oyster Travelcard season tickets on our trains for journeys insidethe valid zones.

You can also use Oyster pay as you go (PAYG) within the Travelcard zone area.

See how easy it is to use Oyster cards on our network

Yes, a Season ticket that includes ‘London zones 1-6' does allow the ticket holder to travel on the tube, bus, DLR, overground, tram, and any other trains in zones 1 to 6.

There's a range of railcards that suit different kinds of passengers - that offer you around a third off standard fares.

See the range of railcards available

You can buy railcards online or from any of our ticket offices. Choose the one that suits you best.

No. We don't offer seat reservations on any of our services.

If part of your journey is with another train company who do offer seat reservations, we can arrange them for you (subject to availability) when you buy your ticket at a ticket office or online.

Freedom pass holders can travel free on National Rail routes within the valid zones after 09:30 on weekdays or at any time on weekends and public holidays.

You can travel free at all times on most Transport for London (TfL) services.

If you are planning a trip that takes you out of the London zones and the service you are using stops within the London area, you will need to buy the additional appropriate ticket at the start of your journey.

You can show your pass and you will only have to pay the additional fare starting from where the London Zone boundary ends to your final destination.

Freedom passes are issued to older and disabled Londoners by your local council.

Find out more about the freedom pass

Yes, we accept company cheques for the purchase of annual season tickets from a ‘PLC’ or ‘Limited company’. We don't accept personal cheques.

Many companies have season ticket loan schemes so that their employees can get the benefits of an annual season ticket. These are often paid for by company cheque and so if your company cheque has the wording "for and on behalf of "(Name of the Company) and ends with one of the following - PLC/Limited/Ltd/ LLC / LP/ LLP we can accept those too.

If the ticket is a new issue (first purchase) the customer must produce two forms of ID:

Photo ID such as a driving licence or passport

A seperate ID from those detailed above which verifies the customers home address

The cheque should be made payable to Govia Thameslink Railway Limited.

Different tickets have different terms and conditions. For all information regarding refunds and change of journeys for all ticket types, please visit our refunds page.

If you’re a season ticket holder who’s been temporarily unable to travel for more than four weeks because of sickness you can apply for a discretionary partial refund.

We'll ask for supporting evidence, such as a medical certificate. You can visit your local ticket office for advice and assistance.

Paper Season tickets

Please report a lost or stolen season ticket valid for one month or longer to a staffed Great Northern, Southern or Thameslink Railway ticket office as soon as possible to arrange for a duplicate season ticket application form to be issued.

This is not currently available to report this online.

A non-refundable administration fee of £20 is payable for each duplicate application. This needs to be paid at the ticket office when the request for a duplicate ticket is made. The ticket office will provide a payment receipt for the administration fee and issue a duplicate application form.

If your photocard has also been lost/stolen this will need replacing prior to submitting a duplicate season ticket request. A passport style photo will be required to enable the ticket office to issue a replacement photocard. Details of the new photocard number should be included in the application.

You will be required to complete the duplicate season ticket application form and send it along with the payment receipt to the ‘FREEPOST’ address on the form within 7 days of receiving the application form.

You should also report any theft to the police.

We will refund (with no administration charge) the cost of tickets purchased that match the journey details of the season ticket being replaced while you were waiting for the duplicate ticket to be issued. A letter confirming the dates you are eligible to receive a refund for will be sent to you along with the duplicate ticket. You should take the letter along with the tickets to a Great Northern, Southern or Thameslink staffed ticket office and arrangements will be made for you to receive your refund.

Please note we do not issue duplicates for weekly season tickets.

Damaged paper tickets

If your paper ticket is faded or damaged, or doesn't work in automatic ticket barriers, you can return it to any Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern or Thameslink ticket office where we'll happily replace it free of charge.

Key Smartcard

Flexi Season tickets

The best way to do this is by logging into your account to request this yourself. Log in to your account to cancel and replace your existing Smartcard.

You can also report the loss or theft of a Key Smartcard by calling our team to arrange a replacement:

• 03451 27 29 20 (for Southern Website issued Smartcards)
• 03450 26 47 00 (for Thameslink or Great Northern Website issued Smartcards)

You can apply for up to two replacement Smartcards free of charge; further requests may incur a fee.

You will receive your replacement smartcard with any unused day passes for you to use within the original validity 28-day period. If you are close to the end of the validity period and think you might not have time to use the passes, you may want to apply for a refund.

If the lost/stolen season ticket or Smartcard was not purchased from a Great Northern, Southern or Thameslink website or ticket office you must contact the original retailer.

Please note our Ticket Offices cannot issue replacement smartcards.

Season tickets

Please note this does not apply to Flexi Season tickets, please see above for Flexi Season tickets.

The best way to do this is by logging into your account to request this yourself. Log in to your account to cancel and replace your existing Smartcard.

You can also report the loss or theft of a season ticket held on a Key Smartcard by calling our team to arrange a replacement:

• 03451 27 29 20 (for Southern Website issued Smartcards)
• 03450 26 47 00 (for Thameslink or Great Northern Website issued Smartcards)

You can apply for up to two replacement Smartcards free of charge; further requests may incur a fee.

Whilst waiting for your new card to arrive you will need to buy paper tickets to travel. Please keep these tickets as you will be able to claim a refund for them on receipt of your replacement Smartcard.

Refunds will be processed at any Great Northern, Southern or Thameslink ticket office providing the season ticket is active at the time of loss. A £10 admin fee will be applied to all tickets as per our Smartcard refund policy.

When requesting a duplicate season ticket you are agreeing to return the lost season ticket to the Duplicate Office immediately if it is subsequently found.

If the lost/stolen season ticket or Smartcard was not purchased from a Great Northern, Southern or Thameslink website or ticket office you must contact the original retailer.

Monthly or annual season tickets

If you're buying a new ticket starting on a Monday or Sunday, you can buy it any time from noon on the previous Friday. If the start date falls on any another day, you can buy the ticket after noon the day before.

If you're renewing your monthly or annual season ticket you can do this up to seven days before the printed expiry date on your ticket.

Weekly season tickets

Weekly season tickets can normally only be issued on the first day of travel.

See more about your season ticket options

Yes, as long as your Season ticket is monthly or longer and valid for at least another seven days. You can change the origin and/or destination station(s) without needing to pay an administration fee. We'll keep the expiry date the same and we'll give you a pro-rata refund or charge the difference if it costs extra.

You need to ask promptly as we can't change a ticket retrospectively - so if there is a refund payable it won't be backdated.

Check with the ticket office staff before you apply.

The National Rail Conditions of Travel are the contract between us and you that's created when you buy a ticket.

All about our Conditions of Travel

No. This has now been replaced by the key. This card works in a similar way to London's Oyster card.

How the key smartcard works

Using the key on Great Northern

If you are travelling in London Zones 1-6 you can also use contactless payment.

You can also buy tickets up to two hours before you travel using our On Track app.

Our Carnet tickets offer extremely good value to customers who make regular journeys but don’t travel frequently enough to benefit from a season ticket. Unfortunately these tickets have been subject to misuse, something which over time results in increased cost of travel for all. To better control the use of these tickets, our barriers are sometimes programmed not to accept Carnet tickets and customers will need to present their ticket to a member of staff at the gates. We regret any inconvenience this causes and our staff will continue to help you on your way as quickly as possible.

The way in which Carnet works where peak and off peak tickets may be used interchangeably and the tickets are valid for use flexibly for a 3 month period means that the ticket itself is set up in a very specific way. Our plan ultimately is to move Carnet to the Key Smartcard but this is not possible in the short term.