london national rail stations

Here's a link that shows the location of the various stations. If you click "Station Information"underneath the station name, it will give you additional info, including a station map and ticket office hours where you purchase the Travelcard: http://goo.gl/9vghc If you click "more" in the white information pop-up box you can click through to Google Streetview for many of the stations (You may have to rotate it to see the station).

To name a few common ones - -- Paddington, Victoria, Waterloo, Kings Cross, Euston are all National Rail stations. You need to go to the ticket window in the train station (not the window in the connected tube station) to buy your ticket. Below is a more extensive list. www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/crossing_london.html#terminals

Unfortunately National Rail have replaced the once excellent London Connections map. They have replaced it with the still-pretty-good http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/passenger_services/maps/London_Rail_Tube_map.pdf . The dotted lines are all national rail lines which have stations which can offer the rail issued Travelcards needed for the 2-for-1 deals. The orange solid line is London Overground rail line which also can. The other solid lines are all Underground lines which cannot. When there is apparently a connection between the two, such as at the main stations you MUST buy the Travelcard from the train station not the Underground station. If you make a mistake and get it from the Underground ticket window it will have a London Transport (TfL - Transport for London) roundel on it and not a National Rail double arrows icon, and will not be accepted for the 2-for-1 deals.

Nigel, I want to be sure I understand the map. There don't appear to be any overground rail stations in Zone 1. So in Zone 1 you can only buy the 2for 1 discount cards at the underground rail stations. You can, however, buy them at South Hampton or South Acton in Zones 2 &3 for example, which are overground stations. Is that correct? Also, I have always thought that the Travelcards purchased online at the TfL website are ineligible for the 2for 1 vouchers even though they have the NR logo. However, on another forum a poster said she contacted TfL and was told definitively that the cards ordered online are eligible for the 2for 1's. Is that true? Thank you.

Margaret, I think you are reading the map wrong. There are multiple rail stations in zone 1. Look at the map ... Paddington, Victoria, Kings Cross, etc. Notice the dotted lines connect there. You can only buy the 2 for 1 at the window in the rail station and NOT at the window in the connected tube station.

I know there are several National Rail stations in Zone 1...Paddington, Victoria, etc, and I have caught trains there. I can also clearly see the dotted lines leading to them. However, if I read Nigel's post correctly, he isn't referring to these as Overground rail stations. He used Overground to refer to the stations represented by the orange solid lines on the map, and my question is that none of these appear to be in Zone 1. Correct? I do see Overground stations in other zones though, e.g. South Hampstead and South Acton in Zones 2 &3 respectively. I used the word "underground rail station" to distinguish the NR stations like Paddington & Victoria from the Overground stations, but that was a poor choice of words because I know Underground refers to the tube and that you can't buy NR cards at tube stations. Sorry for the confusion, but thank you for your response. It's a reminder that I should be more clear when I post. And that I shouldn't post after staying up all night studying. :)

The "London Overground" is a specific commuter rail line as opposed to the National rail lines.

Laura has it... The Underground is solid line except orange. The Overground is orange and is commuter trains which nearly form a loop around central London, go to Kew, and go up to Watford. If you found yourself at one of their stations you COULD buy a National Rail Travelcard there. The dashed or dotted or whatever ones are the mainline (and secondary) national rail liles which sell Travelcards with the NR logo too. Its a little confusing because Overground is a real railway but they put the orange as a solid line. They will probably do that with CrossRail when it gets built too. Sorry for the confusion...