?buy tickets on the train

[mphill1022]

I plan to travel from ashford to dover and only have a few minutes from my paris to ashford leg to get on the train---- can one buy tickets for local trips on the train or do you need to buy them in advance---- can you pay for the trip with credit cards or euros or do you need pounds

thanks

malcolm

[Nickwolf]

You can buy tickets on the train but normally you would not get any cut price ticket available. I suspect for such a short local journey this would not make too much difference (if any at all).

 

 

Euros would not be acceptable to buy a ticket and I don't know regarding credit cards.

 

You can buy tickets in advance at QJUMP.

 

NCL Star March 2004

[Globaliser]

You are better off buying your tickets at the station, because you are bound to be able to use a credit card there. You can buy a ticket on board on many trains, but there are a number of train companies which impose a penalty fare of (typically) £10 on top of the fare that you have to pay - this is intended to discourage people from getting on without a valid ticket because there are too many fare dodgers who rely on the hit-and-miss appearance of ticket inspectors to save money. While you would probably be able to talk your way out of the penalty fare if you've just arrived from Paris and don't know the system etc. etc., you might find it embarrassing to have to do so in front of everyone else. I can't say for sure that South Eastern Trains (who run the service that links Ashford International with Dover Priory) has penalty fares but because it's a London commuter service I'd put a small wager that they do.

 

There's no real need to stress about missing the train, though, because as far as I can see there's a train to Dover about every half an hour. It certainly won't take you half an hour to buy a ticket at the station ticket office.

 

Alternatively, if there is a tame UK address that you can have tickets posted to for forwarding to you, you could try buying on line at Qjump.