In London, although National Rail and London Underground are separate transport networks, it is possible to buy a ticket for travel for single or return journeys on the other network, including tickets for journeys involving both networks.

If your journey starts at a National Rail station outside the London fare zones 1-6 and ends at an Underground station (or vice versa), it is usually (but not always) cheaper to buy a ticket for the National Rail portion and use Oyster or contactless PAYG to pay separately for the Underground, as TfL wants to discourage the use of paper tickets, but if you have a discount which can be applied onto a through ticket but not on an Oyster card (such as Network Railcard), a through ticket is usually of better value instead. For journeys wholly within zones 1-6, paying by PAYG is already the cheapest unless you have a discount not available on Oyster. PAYG pricing is totally different from traditional ticket pricing and is outside the scope of this article.

However, the tickets sold by National Rail or London Underground are not identical. Under some circumstances, there can be a large price difference for the same journey depending on where you buy the ticket, and the routing options can also be different as well.

Definitions

Throughout this article, the following terms are used with the following meanings:

• Through journey: a journey including one National Rail portion and one Underground or DLR portion, changing at a National Rail / Underground interchange, which can start at any National Rail station and end at any London Underground station (or vice versa).
• Cross-London journey: a journey which starts and ends at a National Rail station which require the use of London Underground or DLR to travel between two National Rail / Underground interchange as part of the journey.
• Underground: apart from the Underground itself, the DLR and Elizabeth line between Paddington and Abbey Wood only are also included in the fare network.
• Underground-only journey: a journey which only involves travel on London Underground, DLR, or the Elizabeth line between Paddington and Abbey Wood, or on interavailable routes.
• National Rail-only journey: a journey which only involves travel on National Rail services or interavailable routes, excluding the Elizabeth line between Paddington and Abbey Wood.
• Interavailable route: a route where a ticket can be used on both Underground / DLR and National Rail services, no matter if the ticket is for travel on Underground / DLR or National Rail. Examples include West Hampstead to Elephant & Castle or London Bridge, Amersham to Baker Street / Marylebone (National Rail), Upminster to Tower Hill / Fenchurch Street.

In addition, this article avoids the terms “London Underground ticket” or “National Rail ticket” as they are ambiguous. It is possible to buy a ticket from London Underground for travel solely on National Rail, or vice versa.

Tickets sold by National Rail

The orange ticket above is sold by National Rail. As London Underground and National Rail are separate networks, under normal circumstances such a ticket cannot be used to travel on the London Underground, unless on interavailable routes.

Tickets are sold from a central system where all train companies and third party retailers are connected to, which use a public fare database. BR Fares is an unofficial website which uses that database to display price information, and the price seem there should match the price seem at National Rail station ticket machines and online train ticket retailers as they use the same data. For example, the National Rail ticket shown above is a Sunday Out Return between London Underground Zone 1-2 and Guildford, routed via Clandon or Woking, for an adult with Network Railcard discount, and priced £16.70. This exactly matches all the details shown on BR Fares.

There are a few different ways a ticket sold by National Rail can provide validity on London Underground outside the interavailable routes:

Tickets for through journeys

These tickets are only available as single or return tickets, which have some Underground zones listed as the origin or destination. The ticket shown above lists London Underground Zone 1-2 as the origin, which indicates that the ticket is valid for one Underground journey from any Underground station to any interchange station between London Underground and National Rail within the zones specified, then a National Rail journey to the listed destination subject to the usual routing rules.

If a season ticket is required, a season Travelcard with the required fare zones must be bought instead. These Travelcards must be issued with a National Rail station as an origin, and the required zones as the destination, which allows unlimited travel within the zones covered, and between the origin and the zones if the origin is outside the zones.

Train companies set the prices of these tickets directly for through journeys with an end at a National Rail station outside  zones 1-6. They are usually priced as a fixed amount on top of the corresponding National Rail ticket price between the National Rail end and the presumed interchange station, which is usually London Terminals for Underground journeys including Zone 1, unless the route into London is an interavailable route where both National Rail and Underground tickets are valid such as West Hampstead Thameslink or Tottenham Hale. In this example, the interchange station is London Terminals as the route into London Waterloo is not an interavailable route, and the corresponding National Rail only ticket is London Terminals to Guildford, with the same route, same ticket type, and same restriction code, priced at £12.05, which means the add-on amount is £4.65 after discount. This is cheaper than paying by Oyster or contactless separately, which is charged £2.90 two times for a return journey, as a Network Railcard can’t be used to discount the fare. Most other tickets from London Underground Zone 1-2 to National Rail destinations also have the same price difference, apart from a possible 5p rounding error due to the discount, compared to a ticket from London Terminals.

Tickets for through journeys wholly within Zones 1-6 are priced centrally by RDG, according to the fare zones used, however they are still sold with a named National Rail station and Underground zones, and subject to the usual routing rules for the National Rail portion.

Tickets for cross-London journeys

If a journey between two National Rail stations requires the use of London Underground to connect between two interchange stations in London (usually between two London Terminals, but can be other interchange stations as appropriate to the journey), a single or return ticket for it will have a dagger (+) symbol printed on it to denote that it can be used on the Underground between interchange stations only.

If a season ticket is required, a season Travelcard must be bought instead. If at least one end is within Zones 1-6, it is sold with a National Rail station as the origin, and the required zones as the destination. If both ends are outside Zones 1-6, it is sold between the stations required, with the required zones through London as the route.

These tickets are priced in the normal way as tickets for National Rail-only journeys, where the primary train operating company is required to set a fare valid for all train companies (“interavailable fare”, where the meaning of interavailable is between train companies, not the meaning used elsewhere in the article between National Rail and London Underground), and other train operating companies with a commercial interest are allowed to set operator-specific fares. However, for journeys which start or end within Zones 1-6, the primary train operator is always the one who operates the portion outside the fare zones (unless the operator outside Zones 1-6 is London Overground or Elizabeth line, and the travel within Zones 1-6 involves non-TfL National Rail routes, in this case the fare setter becomes RDG), and for journeys wholly within Zones 1-6, the price is set centrally by RDG at the same price as through journeys.

London Travelcards

Travelcards sold by National Rail have the word “Travelcard” and a TfL logo on the top left corner, printed on an orange ticket. They are either issued with some zones as the destination, or in case of a cross-London season Travelcard, some zones as the route.

Travelcards are either day Travelcards or season Travelcards. Day Travelcards only allow one journey from the National Rail station listed as the origin to the fare zones and one journey from the fare zones back to the origin, and unlimited travel on all of London Underground, DLR and National Rail services within the fare zones. It also allows unlimited travel on London Buses, which do not have fare zones. If the Travelcard covers any of the zones 3, 4, 5 or 6, it also allows unlimited travel on London Trams as well. Season Travelcard allows unlimited journeys between the origin, destination, and the zones covered by the Travelcard.

Travelcards for travel solely within Zones 1-9 are priced centrally by RDG and TfL, while those for travel from a station outside Zones 1-9 are set by the train company operating the route between that station and London.

Tickets for Underground-only journeys

National Rail can also sell tickets for travel solely on the Underground. These tickets have the route listed as “via Underground / DLR”. They are not valid on National Rail services outside of interavailable routes, despite sold by National Rail on orange tickets.

These tickets must have some Underground zones as one of the origin or destination, and an Underground station as the other. Railcard discounts are not available for these tickets, unlike tickets which offer validity on National Rail services, where the discount is applied on the price as a whole including the validity on the Underground.

These tickets are priced by TfL, who sets an artificially high price to discourage their use. It is much cheaper to pay by Oyster or contactless card instead.

Tickets on an interavailable route

Some journeys are wholly on an interavailable route, where tickets for both London Underground or National Rail travel are both equally valid on both services. The pricing of these tickets vary for each route, some (e.g. Finsbury Park to London) are priced as equivalent to Underground journeys in the same zones, and some (e.g. West Hampstead to London) are priced as equivalent to other National Rail journeys instead.

Tickets sold by London Underground

The white ticket shown above is sold at the London Underground ticket machine. Compared to National Rail, the functionality was much more limited. These machines can only sell tickets to a limited number of National Rail destinations (mainly stations within the Network Railcard area), and can’t be used to buy tickets for a future date or from another station, while all National Rail ticket machines can sell tickets to the whole of National Rail network in the whole Great Britain.

These machines are not connected to the National Rail network and do not use National Rail data, therefore they can’t be used to collect pre-purchased National Rail tickets. Because they do not use the same data, and London Underground does not sell tickets online or for the future, the offering at these machines is usually a mystery until you actually operate the machine. National Rail sends the fare data to TfL at predetermined dates in order for TfL to adjust fares.

Tickets sold by London Underground for travel on its own network have the zones printed on the ticket. These tickets are not valid on National Rail services outside interavailable routes, regardless of zonal coverage. As of March 2025, a single ticket for any Underground journey within Zone 1-6 costs £7, which is always much more expensive than PAYG with Oyster or contactless.

Tickets for journeys on National Rail, including through journeys, have the origin, destination and routing printed on the ticket, as shown in the photo above.

Where the tickets are sold

If you are buying a ticket online, the ticket must be from National Rail because London Underground does not sell ticket online. Such ticket must be collected at a National Rail ticket machine or ticket office, explained below.

If you are buying from a ticket machine at an interchange station, the situation depends on who operates the station.

Interchange stations where National Rail and London Underground have separate facilities

Most of these stations are actually separate properties for the National Rail and London Underground stations. Both have their own ticket machines and ticket gates. These stations are mainly located in Central London as London Terminals. They have separate Underground stations which have a direct connection into the National Rail station. Exceptions include Moorgate and Old Street (where National Rail services run inside an Underground-operated station), and City Thameslink (which doesn’t have an Underground connection).

Elizabeth line is a National Rail operator. The ticket machines at Paddington and Liverpool Street Elizabeth line stations are National Rail facilities, where you can collect pre-paid National Rail tickets. However, these stations share the paid area of the corresponding Underground station, hence accessible from the Underground concourse, where Underground ticket machines are available.

However, the central “core” stations of Elizabeth line, including Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road (Farringdon is explained below as it is also served by Thameslink), are treated as an Underground station for ticketing purposes. The ticket machines there only have London Underground facilities and not connected to the National Rail network, therefore they can’t be used to collect pre-paid tickets.

Elephant & Castle is the only interchange station in Zone 1 outside London Terminals. The Underground and National Rail stations are completely separate.

Stations outside Central London where National Rail and London Underground or DLR have the same name but are separate properties include:

• East London: Shadwell, Limehouse, Canary Wharf, Custom House
• North London: West Hampstead
• West London: Shepherd’s Bush
• South London: Brixton, Balham, Lewisham, Greenwich, Woolwich Arsenal

There are also a few stations where both London Underground and National Rail ticket facilities exist in the same station building, including Finsbury Park, Tottenham Hale and Stratford. (TBC)

At these stations, ticket machines can only sell tickets for journeys which start on its own network, unlike the shared stations in the subsequent paragraphs. For example, at Waterloo mainline station, tickets are not available to places such as Milton Keynes because such journeys must start on the Underground, while at Waterloo Underground station, tickets are not available to places such as Weybridge, which must start on National Rail.

This normally prevents confusion by visitors from using the wrong network. However, a particular anomaly exists at Farringdon. It is managed by London Underground but as part of Crossrail, a new southern concourse was built for Elizabeth line and Thameslink services, while the original northern concourse opened in 1863 was repurposed solely for Underground access. Ticket facilities in the new concourse are provided by Thameslink, which are full-featured National Rail facilities, while across the street to the other side, the machines are Underground machines. It is a rare case where National Rail ticket facilities are available in a station operated by London Underground. However, despite the access for Elizabeth line is from the southern concourse, the ticket machine (operated by Thameslink) there behaves the same as those at London Terminals – it cannot sell  tickets for journeys starting with an Underground portion. As the Elizabeth line is treated as an Underground line in Central London, it means that these machines also can’t sell tickets for journeys starting with (or wholly on) Elizabeth line.

For example, in order to travel from Farringdon to Laindon, a possible route is to use the Elizabeth line to Stratford, and c2c from Stratford to Laindon which uses the same platform as the Elizabeth line at Stratford. However, it is not possible to buy a ticket in the Thameslink and Elizabeth line concourse, instead, the only way to buy a ticket there is to use an Underground ticket machine on the other side of the road. However, if you have bought a ticket online beforehand, you have to collect it at a machine in the Thameslink and Elizabeth line concourse, instead of an Underground machine on the other side.

Finsbury Park is also another anomaly. It has both London Underground and Great Northern ticket machines, the same as Farringdon, but both the Underground and the National Rail stations are designated as shared stations, which are designated to sell tickets for journeys on the other network from that station as well, which means no matter your journey starts on the Underground or National Rail, you can buy your ticket from any of the machines at that station. Moreover, the paid area is shared between Underground and National Rail as well, so you can use any of the ticket barriers to access any of the services there. It is a truly integrated experience at that station, unlike at Farringdon.

Stations operated by National Rail with London Underground services

Some interchange stations have both National Rail and London Underground services, and operated by a National Rail operator. These are usually mainline stations where London Underground uses a former conventional railway track.

At these stations, only National Rail ticket facilities are available, which use National Rail fare data and can sell tickets to the whole of National Rail network. Ticket collection is also possible. As the National Rail fare data contains the Underground-only zonal fares, it is also possible to buy tickets solely for travel on London Underground as well, but these are National Rail orange tickets, instead of Underground white tickets.

The list of such stations are below:

• East London: Barking, Upminster
• North London: Seven Sisters, Walthamstow Central
• West London: Kensington (Olympia), Ealing Broadway, Richmond, Wimbledon

In addition, stations on the shared section of Bakerloo line and Lioness line between Queen’s Park and Harrow & Wealdstone (except Willesden Junction), and on the shared section of District line and Mildmay line between Gunnersbury and Richmond (except Richmond) are National Rail stations operated by London Underground on behalf of London Overground. These stations have full National Rail ticket facilities.

Stations operated by London Underground with National Rail services

These stations are the opposite of the above. These station are operated by London Overground, not National Rail, but they have National Rail services. These are the notorious stations where it isn’t possible to collect National Rail tickets, causing trouble to passengers if they have bought the tickets before (especially Advance tickets) or if they are travelling to outside the Network Railcard area. They are also vulnerable to be overcharged, even if they only travel on National Rail, as only a limited range of tickets can be sold at these London Underground ticket machines.

These stations include:

• Central London: Old Street, Moorgate
• East London: Canada Water, Whitechapel, West Ham
• North London: Blackhorse Road, Highbury & Islington, Kentish Town,  Harrow-on-the-Hill, Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Chalfont & Latimer, Amersham
• West London: West Brompton, Greenford, South Ruislip, West Ruislip

South Ruislip and West Ruislip stations are operated by London Underground, however there are Chiltern Railways ticket machines. At South Ruislip, the Chiltern Railways machine is located within the paid area therefore National Rail passengers having to collect tickets will need to ask a member of London Underground staff to open the ticket gates.

Farringdon and Stratford were in this category in the past, but as part of the Crossrail project, National Rail ticket facilities have been added into these stations.

Huge differences between the two tickets

The London Underground ticket priced £19.30 above is bought on Saturday morning. If a ticket for the same journey is bought from National Rail, it would cost £19.40 for an Off-Peak Day Return between London Underground Zone 1-2 and Guildford, via Clandon or Woking, so a London Underground ticket was cheaper. However, in the afternoon of the same Saturday, the London Underground ticket machine was still selling the same £19.30 ticket but National Rail would sell the cheaper Evening Out ticket instead, which would only cost £16.70.

If the same is done on a Sunday instead, a Sunday Out ticket can be bought from National Rail for £16.70, however, an Underground machine will still sell the same £19.30 ticket, as shown below.

The ticket sold by Underground also prints both the London Underground station and the National Rail station as the origin and destination, so the above ticket is a return ticket between Willesden Green and Guildford. However, the ticket sold by National Rail lists the Underground zones as the origin or destination instead of a specific Underground station, so it is undoubtedly valid to use the above ticket to travel to another Underground station in the same zone as well. For example, I can travel from Willesden Green and return to Canary Wharf using the ticket sold by National Rail, as the origin / destination is listed as London Underground Zone 1-2 instead of a particular Underground station.

The route descriptor is also different as well. When I bought the ticket from the Underground ticket machine, it offered me two options, via Slough and Reading and via Surbiton. However, the route options at a National Rail machine are via Reading and via Clandon or Woking instead, which means some of the possible routes on tickets sold by National Rail aren’t on paper available from the Underground ticket machine, for example, changing from the Underground to National Rail at Vauxhall for a train via Epsom and Clandon to Guildford.

The discount indicator is also different. A ticket from London Underground just says that the ticket is discounted, and the ticket itself does not distinguish the kind of railcard input into the ticket machine, but a ticket sold by National Rail lists the actual kind of railcard used, and if a non-matching railcard is used, the ticket is not valid anyway regardless of the discount given.

Dispute on price difference

As the tickets are priced differently from London Underground and National Rail, it caused complaints from customers. In 2009, there was a case referred to London Travelwatch for the price difference for a through journey between Laindon and King’s Cross, where c2c sold the journey for £11.30 and London Underground sold the journey for £8.50. TfL assumed that the interchange between London Underground and National Rail was the station which gave the best value to the customers, in this case, an Underground fare from King’s Cross to Upminster, and a National Rail fare from Upminster to Laindon provided the best value, so the ticket was priced as the sum changing at Upminster. However, c2c assumed that the interchange was at a London Terminal for an Underground journey including Zone 1, similar to the example shown for Willesden Green to Guildford, which the sum was more expensive.

London Travelwatch thought that TfL was correct, and c2c was overcharging the customer, because the National Fares Manual stated that:

Tickets for journeys from Zone U1 to c2c, First Capital Connect (services from Kings Cross/Moorgate to Stevenage, Peterborough, Cambridge and Kings Lynn) and National Express East Anglia (West Anglia) stations:

c2c, First Capital Connect ^TL and National Express East Anglia ^LE have interchange points outside Zone 1. Prices for through tickets from Zone U1 may be obtained by adding the LU zonal price shown in Table 3 to the price from the interchange point. For example Zone U1 to Stevenage via Finsbury Park, add the U12 fare from Table 3 to the fare from Finsbury Park to Stevenage.

^TL now called Thameslink
^LE now called Greater Anglia

The above routes are the interavailable routes into Central London mentioned earlier. Therefore, such a through ticket may be used to interchange at any of the interchange stations along the interavailable route. Using Luton to an Underground station in Central London as an example, the Thameslink route has interchange points to the Underground outside Central London, which are West Hampstead and Kentish Town in the order coming from outside London, and tickets are interavailable on London Underground and National Rail between these interchange points and Central London, therefore the price should be obtained by adding the price from Luton to the first interchange point, which is West Hampstead, and the Underground zonal fare onwards (in this case, Zones 1-2, as West Hampstead is in Zone 2). London Travelwatch confirmed this practice was in use by FCC in line with the National Fare Manual, which was the same as how TfL priced through tickets.

On the c2c route, there are multiple interchange points for the Underground or DLR, which are in order, coming from Laindon, Upminster (Zone 6), Barking (Zone 4), West Ham (Zone 2/3), Limehouse (Zone 2) and Fenchurch Street (Zone 1), and the whole route between Upminster and Fenchurch Street was interavailable for both National Rail and London Underground tickets. Therefore, the provisions in the National Fares Manual was applicable and the fare between Laindon and Underground Zone 1 should be obtained as the sum between Laindon and Upminster, the first interchange station, and the Underground zonal price for the zones beyond, which were Zones 1-6, in line with TfL’s practice.

The practice of obtaining a price for National Rail-issued through tickets by adding an Underground zonal add-on to a National Rail ticket price has been abolished in recent years, which means National Rail retailers can no longer construct a through ticket by summing prices if the fare does not already exist in the database. However, the provision for Underground zonal fares on interavailable routes still exist in the manual, and a through ticket on these routes into an Underground station in Central London still requires a destination of all the Underground zones included on the interavailable route between the first interchange point into Central London. This is still the case on Thameslink and Greater Anglia.

Notwithstanding the above provision, through fare where the U-zone portion does not include Zone 6 (where the interavailability starts) are still available on the c2c route. For example, you can buy an Off-Peak Day Single from Underground Zone 1 only to Laindon which costs £11.20, and the corresponding ticket from Underground Zones 1-6 to Laindon costs £14, which is more expensive than the sum of an Underground ticket for Zones 1-6 (£7) and a ticket from Upminster to Laindon (£5.40).

I have checked the ticket machine at Tooting Bec for a journey to Tilbury, which is also on the c2c route where Upminster is a possible change point. If tickets are bought separately for the Underground (£7) and National Rail portions (£3.30), the total is £10.30. However, the Underground ticket machine is selling a ticket at £10.50 for this journey, which is the same as the price of a ticket sold by National Rail, which indicates that TfL also no longer follows the correct practice mentioned by London Travelwatch now and overcharges customers compared to buying two tickets.

Further reading

Whose station are you?
A survey of joint Underground/National Rail stations in London (London Travelwatch, June 2004)