Train Prices

[Mr_Kipling]

That's interesting, but it's not really much in the way of evidence. The way barriers react and the validity of a ticket are not always synchronised. I won't bore you with stories of barriers refusing valid tickets, just trust me it happens.

People can be and have been prosecuted for terminating journeys short. And it's pretty clear in the conditions of carriage, or whatever they call it these days, that it's not allowed. You got lucky, that the operator didn't want or was unable to enforce the terms that you agreed to when you bought the ticket.


Indeedy.

I've Been working on the railways 13 years and I work on ticket gates about twice a week.
We can change the settings on the computer and set the gates to accept any ticket at all. Its a setting called "accept all" we use it sometimes when it is busy and any hold up on the Gateline could cause overcrowding. Many passengers will insert their receipt or seat reservation into the gates and hold everyone up while they insert it again another 15 times, or they put their valid ticket near something magnetic (mobile phone case is a classic) which will damage magnetic strip on the back of the ticket and the valid ticket will fail to open the gates. Because of this we set the gates to "accept all" at busy times so even a ticket from 10 years ago will open the gate as long as it has a magnetic strip on the back of the ticket.

Likewise we can also set the gates to reject specific tickets which are valid, an example would be to have the gates reject all tickets that are discounted with a student railcard discount and then check the ticket and railcard manually.

Oh and as for prosecuting people who end their journey early on an advance ticket? Never known this to happen by the company I work for. We only report people for prosecution if we have evidence of intent to avoid payment we don't prosecute for just not having a valid ticket. Countless times people want to leave through the ticket gates that I am working at with an advance ticket mid journey. I either accept the ticket and open the gate or I charge the difference up to the price of a walk up fare single ticket for that journey.
Most the time we are reasonable people.

 

[tyreon]

I guess the best(railway ticket) deals are garnered by being techno-gizmo literate...and which,as a codger,I'm not. A bit of a shame,and discriminatory IMO: discriminatory practice against the slow and techno challenged people(those who cant use mobile phones or have access to them or whatever). Arguing against myself, I guess this is so with water and gas companies and wotnot: the less able get shafted. Itsa sorta Darwinian ethnic cleansing of the least savvy against those better technically endowed. Altho not in favour of the growing disparities in GB you have to admire the silent implementation of getting rid of folk who can't quite keep up. Old and feeble: screw 'em. Inner city and on benefits: implement ethnic cleansing and get 'em outta London. Disabled: introduce anti discriminatory rules and regs which by tortured (HMG) legal-speak logic says there's no one who is/can be disabled.
But the trains are full!!! We welcome old folk and the disabled. Look around! there wont be too many disabled passengers or elderly on the trains: they're all locked indoors, access to travel reduced or denied 'em.
Grannies steps or mission creep is best practice to get rid of those you don't want or need to profit. You eliminate the untermenschen by silent practice.
The railways pricing structures are so hidden with double enigmas that you'd best do a Masters to understand what ticket to buy.
Must be high fives wherein there's no ticketing staff but a machine to offer you a decent price on a railway journey. Does anyone here think the machine would offer you the best deal!! Richard Branson and the Chief Execs just smile for the cameras! And if they ever make a loss....we pick up the tab. LOL

 

[tyreon]

Continuing....
I wonder if I could help myself by buying that Alexa gizmo thingamabob: you know that gizmo you speak to and it gives you an answer. Would that help me buy the cheapest ticket on our multi fragmented railways system. Or,on asking..........would it just blow up!!!

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I guess the best(railway ticket) deals are garnered by being techno-gizmo literate..

If you can find your way to this forum you can use https://splitmyfare.trainsplit.com/ put in a start point, put in a end point, Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your aunt, job done.

 

[tyreon]

With thanks Phaeton.

 

[mustang1]

I wish British train companies thought about having enough rolling stock to handle demand. Took my new Brompton on its first train trip to Manchester on Friday afternoon. I stood all the way in the doorway crammed in with all the other mouth breathers up in my face. Really unpleasant. I haven't been on my bike since Sunday because I now have a stinking cold.

This makes me realize I would rather sit in traffic but her in my own storage in a car.

 

[mjr]

I guess the best(railway ticket) deals are garnered by being techno-gizmo literate...and which,as a codger,I'm not. A bit of a shame,and discriminatory IMO: discriminatory practice against the slow and techno challenged people(those who cant use mobile phones or have access to them or whatever).

There's always been discrimination against what you call "the slow". As of earlier this year, one ticket seller at the nearest staffed station will flat-out deny that a specific cheap London ticket exists and insist on selling you one set by his employer that's about three times the price. Not just inform you he can't sell that ticket but claim it no longer exists at all!

At least it's better than motoring, where prices vary by time and geography of station stops, with no way to be sure of the price in advance!

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I have to say I do like the train but only use it occasionally which may explain it, Friday's journey was walk 3/4 mile from office, collect tickets, walk to platform wait 10 minutes, get on train there were plenty of seats, it pulled off the platform 30 seconds late, nice quiet relaxing journey just watching the scenery go by, apart from an ignorant bleep who answered his phone & then spoke so loud everybody could hear, thought I was in a Dom Jolly sketch. Through one station & onto the next, off the train, up & over to another platform another 10 minute wait but this time the train was already on the platform so it was a bit warmer. This one pulled off the platform 10 seconds late, 3 stops later at my destination, total time 1.5 hours. Picked up the car & came back, it took 3.25 hours to drive back, roadworks, accidents & just shear volume of traffic on a Friday afternoon.

Have to add that the commuter trains around Birmingham are a lot nicer than the ones around Sheffield

 

[mjr]

Just looked at prices for a train trip from Rotterdam to Hamburg in June. €42.90 standard class or €52.60 first class.

Cool story(!)

Has anyone seen https://trainsCanBeCheaper.info and https://new.trainsplit.com before? OK, I know their fee (a fraction of the saving) will mean that hardened splitters won't use it, but they look like interesting approaches at making ticket-splitting more user-friendly. It sucks that they don't sell bike reservations, but some train companies don't sell them online either.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I had to go to London week last Wednesday, I got to the station, collected the pre-paid tickets from the machine & went out onto the platform. There was no information about the train I was waiting for, but there was information about the next one to arrive, I waited expecting the board to change to my train. After about 5 minutes in which I paid for my parking the board hadn't changed, so I went back into the ticket office to see the board in there was showing the train was cancelled. On asking in there the staff claimed that the train company were putting a coach on to go part way, it would take 2 hours for that part of the journey then we would have to wait for another train to finish the journey, the original journey time was 1 hour 40 minutes. The coach was already 20 minutes late.

I declined to go on the coach/train as I would miss my meeting, I then contacted the train company as their online system to reclaim the fare kept giving me an error eventually after speaking to 3 different people on 3 occasions it became apparent I couldn't claim the money back from them as I had bought the tickets via thetrainline.com I had to contact them direct who although knew the train had been cancelled & it was an online order could not refund the fare & I would have to sent them the physical tickets to Edinburgh via recorded delivery before anything could be processed.

Another one, I went to London on Tuesday this week, I had to get from King's Cross to London Bridge, if I used my Debit Card it would cost £2.40 each way but I would not get a receipt, if I wanted a receipt I would have to use the ticket machine which meant each ticket would cost £4.95 each, so £2.55 to provide a receipt.

 

[snorri]

I would have to sent them the physical tickets to Edinburgh via recorded delivery before anything could be processed.

Which dastardly company is requiring recorded delivery?
I've just had a refund processed for a journey that took 75 more minutes than planned, the tickets were posted second class along with the Claim Form.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Which dastardly company is requiring recorded delivery?

thetrainline.com

East Coast I just uploaded a photo of the ticket and seat reservation.

The actual train company was Hull Trains, which as you say @User you can just send them a picture of the tickets, but as they were bought via thetrainline.com they refused to refund.

What is also annoying they already knew the train was being cancelled before they issued the physical ticket, if I had known 2 minutes earlier it would have saved me £9.75 in parking.

 

[Will Spin]

Another one, I went to London on Tuesday this week, I had to get from King's Cross to London Bridge, if I used my Debit Card it would cost £2.40 each way but I would not get a receipt, if I wanted a receipt I would have to use the ticket machine which meant each ticket would cost £4.95 each, so £2.55 to provide a receipt.

I don't know if this helps in your situation, but if you go to the TFL webpage and set up an account, you can link debit/credit cards used for contactless payments and download a journey and payment history statement.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I don't know if this helps in your situation, but if you go to the TFL webpage and set up an account, you can link debit/credit cards used for contactless payments and download a journey and payment history statement.

I'm impressed with that, created an account, added the same card as I used last week & they immediately linked the card with the journey & provided an invoice/receipt for it. Thank you.

 

[theclaud]

Look at this shower of bastards.


View: https://twitter.com/VirginTrains/status/973616119209750529