London Bridge ticket machine charges £10,000 fare to Gatwick Airport

A typical single fare costs £11

A London Bridge ticket machine tried to charge a passenger £10,000 for a single to Gatwick Airport, a day after rail fares across Britain jumped 3.1 per cent.

Traveller Lucy Watson was on her way to Sussex from the London terminal when she spotted the sky-high fare, advertised for travel on Southern only.

When faced with the £10,000 fare, she tweeted: “Might go for Thameslink then, cheers.”

A typical single fare from London Bridge to Gatwick Airport is £11, almost 1,000 per cent cheaper than the advertised fare. Thameslink also runs services from London Bridge to Gatwick Airport.

The error comes as rail fares across the UK went up by an average of 3.1 per cent, pushing the cost of some intercity train travel to more than £1 a mile.

There is good news for millennials, though – the new 26-30 Railcard went on general sale on 2 January, but many hoping to snag one third off most rail fares were left waiting for hours to get one.

“Ironically, I’m still in the online queue for the 26-30 Railcard,” Watson told MyLondon.

The discount card offers one third off most rail fares for more than four million people across the UK. National Rail says that it can save cardholders an average of £152 each.

National Rail said that as there isn't a limited number of railcards available, millennials should come back another day to buy one.

The Independent has contacted National Rail for comment.