Using rail travel voucher to buy tickets and Oyster credit

[sleepymonster]

I received a £42 rail travel voucher as compensation after a long delay in January. I'd now like to use it to buy a Gold Card discounted return from London to Didcot Parkway, a return from Didcot to Swindon, and put the balance of the voucher on to my Oyster card.

Would I need to do this in a single transaction, or can I get change issued in the form of a voucher? And if so, can you recommend a ticket office that would do this, as I think most National Rail ticket offices do not credit Oyster cards?

Many thanks.

 

[najaB]

Would I need to do this in a single transaction, or can I get change issued in the form of a voucher? And if so, can you recommend a ticket office that would do this, as I think most National Rail ticket offices do not credit Oyster cards?

As I understand it, there is no change given from RTVs so you would need to do it in one transaction. I don't know if the POS system will allow it though.

 

[Urban Gateline]

It may be possible to get smaller denominations of RTV's if you contact the TOC who issued them to you in the first place, however you might be able to get all the tickets and Oyster topup from one London ticket office if it's convenient, such as Marylebone!

 

[sleepymonster]

Thanks. I'm travelling in less than two weeks, so probably don't have time to post off the vouchers to get them exchanged.

But I work in central London, so if anyone has experience of a ticket office that has been helpful in the past with selling national rail tickets and Oyster top ups at the same time, that would be great.

 

[island]

Another vote for London Marylebone. Victoria is also an option but the queues tend to be horrible.

 

[maniacmartin]

Marylebone would also be the first place I would try for this transaction

 

[bb21]

Thanks. I'm travelling in less than two weeks, so probably don't have time to post off the vouchers to get them exchanged.

But I work in central London, so if anyone has experience of a ticket office that has been helpful in the past with selling national rail tickets and Oyster top ups at the same time, that would be great.

You wouldn't be able to do it at an LU station so you will need a National Rail ticket office which can handle Oyster transactions, of which there aren't many.

Marylebone is your best bet. Victoria is also an option but I normally shun the place due to the massive queues that seem to be there at all times.

 

[sleepymonster]

Thanks. Does Marylebone definitely sell Oyster top up at the manned ticket windows? The station info here suggests it might only be available at the machine (where I don't think I can use the voucher as payment)... http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations_destinations/MYB.aspx

 

[bb21]

They process Oyster transactions at the windows, yes. There is a member of Chiltern Railway employee on the forum who has confirmed this.

 

[sleepymonster]

Many thanks.

 

[Dent]

Another vote for London Marylebone. Victoria is also an option but the queues tend to be horrible.

I don't know the setup is at Marylebone, but the Oyster windows at Victoria have an NR ticket machine for NR tickets and a completely separate LU ticket office machine for Oyster (complete with two separate credit card terminals). I don't know if there is any facility to process a single transaction involving both systems, but it's unlikely to be easy.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Marylebone (and Northolt Park for that matter) use Cubic FasTIS+ as their ticket issuing system, which will quite happily issue Oyster and magstripe products as part of the same transaction.