Why I prefer to use a ticket office and obtain a physical ticket

[Bread & cheese]

And would any machine sell you a PlusBus for both your origin and destinatins for a journey?

SWR's TVMs will only sell a PlusBus for a destination station, not an origin.

If my arrival station only had machines and no ticket office I'd be lumbered.

There is an (unsatisfactory) way round this. If you arrive by train at eg Wokingham and want a PlusBus for Wokingham, then a TVM can sell you a single from Winnersh (a short local journey, but Winnersh is outside the Wokingham PlusBus area so a PlusBus can be added) together with a PlusBus for Wokingham.
Obviously this involves extra expense, and even if the additional train ticket and PlusBus are railcard-discounted it might just be cheaper to pay on the bus.

 

[Bungle965]

How? Do they have a separate CCST printer for those tickets?

TOD and ITSO are fulfillment methods available should TOC's wish to switch them on.

 

[Bletchleyite]

TOD and ITSO are fulfillment methods available should TOC's wish to switch them on.

So you're given a TOD code to pick up your cross London ticket at Euston? Interesting workaround though not much use once TOD goes away.

 

[Haywain]

So you're given a TOD code to pick up your cross London ticket at Euston? Interesting workaround though not much use once TOD goes away.

At which point the CCST ticket won't be needed. The two go hand in hand at the moment.

 

[Bungle965]

So you're given a TOD code to pick up your cross London ticket at Euston? Interesting workaround though not much use once TOD goes away.

@Wallsendmag
Might be the best person to explain this as I believe LNER uses it, we don't currently.

 

[Bletchleyite]

At which point the CCST ticket won't be needed. The two go hand in hand at the moment.

As in there's a solution to the cross London e-ticket issue in hand, and ToD won't be switched off until it is in place? Forgive me for not having that much confidence in the railway...

 

[Wallsendmag]

@Wallsendmag
Might be the best person to explain this as I believe LNER uses it, we don't currently.

Haywain and I have the same role at the same TOC, and from a meeting I attended last week I believe that Cross London eTickets are starting to gain momentum

 

[Bletchleyite]

Haywain and I have the same role at the same TOC, and from a meeting I attended last week I believe that Cross London eTickets are starting to gain momentum

I do hope so. It would only require scanners at a relatively small number of stations. Travelcards, if they remain a thing, could be issued on ITSO only.

 

[bleeder4]

There are also the Euro Open/Euro Saver tickets to London International CIV, which can only be bought in ticket offices. The Man in Seat 61 tweeted about them this morning, which is what brought them to my attention. Flexible through tickets to international Eurostar destinations from most UK stations.

 

[Hadders]

There are also the Euro Open/Euro Saver tickets to London International CIV, which can only be bought in ticket offices. The Man in Seat 61 tweeted about them this morning, which is what brought them to my attention. Flexible through tickets to international Eurostar destinations from most UK stations.

These are only valid with a Eurostar ticket. They really ought to be sold by the Eurostar website, selling them on a normal ticket website is inviting fraudulent travel.

I do find it rather inconvenient buying a Eurostar ticket online and then having to make a separate journey to the station ticket office to get a CIV ticket. I know I could leave the purchase until the day of travel because it is a walk on ticket but I really wouldn't want to do that under normal circumstances due to the risk of a problem at the ticket office (e.g. it's unexpectedly closed, unknowledgable member of staff etc)

 

[Alex365Dash]

There is an (unsatisfactory) way round this. If you arrive by train at eg Wokingham and want a PlusBus for Wokingham, then a TVM can sell you a single from Winnersh (a short local journey, but Winnersh is outside the Wokingham PlusBus area so a PlusBus can be added) together with a PlusBus for Wokingham.
Obviously this involves extra expense, and even if the additional train ticket and PlusBus are railcard-discounted it might just be cheaper to pay on the bus.

Or you could buy from the guard.
At least, on services where there are one anyway…

 

[Cdd89]

These are only valid with a Eurostar ticket. They really ought to be sold by the Eurostar website, selling them on a normal ticket website is inviting fraudulent travel.

In the same way that selling railcard tickets online is?

Generally the railway has moved away from verifying entitlements at the time of purchase and that’s a good thing.

 

[Wallsendmag]

In the same way that selling railcard tickets online is?

Generally the railway has moved away from verifying entitlements at the time of purchase and that’s a good thing.

Has it ? There are some plans to bring in online verification for various products.

 

[Hadders]

In the same way that selling railcard tickets online is?

Generally the railway has moved away from verifying entitlements at the time of purchase and that’s a good thing.

The problem is a Eurostar CIV ticket is a very niche product. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be sold online, simply that it should only be sold by Eurostar (or anyone else selling Eurostar tickets) at the time of booking.

Railcards, on the other hand, are common products where there is far less risk of confusion about what the actually are.

 

[yorkie]

Or you could buy from the guard.
At least, on services where there are one anyway…

All trains from Wokingham have Guards but some SWR Guards are non commercial, so do not check or issue tickets.

(On other routes which are driver only operated, other staff may issue tickets, such as travelling ticket inspectors on ScotRail, on board supervisors on GTR, on board managers on Southeastern etc...)

 

[AlbertBeale]

All

All trains from Wokingham have Guards but some SWR Guards are non commercial, so do not check or issue tickets.

(On other routes which are driver only operated, other staff may issue tickets, such as travelling ticket inspectors on ScotRail, on board supervisors on GTR, on board managers on Southeastern etc...)

I wonder whether on-train ticket-issuing staff are generally as knowledgeable as (good) ticket office staff? (Not a leading question - I have no idea, since I've rarely bought a ticket on board a (UK) train in recent years.) And are there major limitations as to the range they can sell?

 

[yorkie]

I wonder whether on-train ticket-issuing staff are generally as knowledgeable as (good) ticket office staff? (Not a leading question - I have no idea, since I've rarely bought a ticket on board a (UK) train in recent years.) And are there major limitations as to the range they can sell?

For complex things like excess fares, on board staff tend to be far better in my experience.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been told an excess cannot be issued or the staff simply don't understand what I am asking for it how to issue it, only for the on board staff to do it without hassle; I have experienced this multiple times.

The potential limitations for on board staff may be advance fares/reservations (for which online is best in my opinion) and in some cases they are unable to issue cross London fares.

 

[Runningaround]

I wonder whether on-train ticket-issuing staff are generally as knowledgeable as (good) ticket office staff? (Not a leading question - I have no idea, since I've rarely bought a ticket on board a (UK) train in recent years.) And are there major limitations as to the range they can sell?

From experience on-train staff are far better with enquiries and selling tickets. And I find google is far more helpful and finding out what ticket restrictions mean than booking office staff, even some members of this site seems to understand them better. (Which you have logged on to, registered and connected to the internet, to read this forum with). I can also read them within my own time and don't have to ask the booking office with a queue behind and 10 minutes before the train leaves.

 

[Deafdoggie]

I wonder whether on-train ticket-issuing staff are generally as knowledgeable as (good) ticket office staff? (Not a leading question - I have no idea, since I've rarely bought a ticket on board a (UK) train in recent years.) And are there major limitations as to the range they can sell?

Generally I've found onboard staff to be much better. For obvious reasons I've only bought tickets off onboard staff for immediate travel, but they've never struggled, they always know the ticket and how to issue it.

 

[Spamcan81]

I have sent pdf's to people who use iphones and ipads and they have not been able to open them. Also other standard file formats that apple seem not to want to support. .png has cause issues, I seem to remember.
Just get a samsung....

How odd. I never have any problems with .pdf files on either my iPhone or iPad.

 

[Bletchleyite]

How odd. I never have any problems with .pdf files on either my iPhone or iPad.

People on here seem to have a quite astonishing number of problems with mobile devices that people in the real world seem not to be having, as thousands upon thousands travel successfully using e-tickets every day.

 

[Haywain]

People on here seem to have a quite astonishing number of problems with mobile devices that people in the real world seem not to be having, as thousands upon thousands travel successfully using e-tickets every day.

Similarly the fear of “what might happen if… “ is not reflected in the D&P section where hardly any cases have arisen as a result of a phone running out of battery life or other perceived difficulties.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Similarly the fear of “what might happen if… “ is not reflected in the D&P section where hardly any cases have arisen as a result of a phone running out of battery life or other perceived difficulties.

One thing that seems to be the case with young people (and it is mostly young people) is that the same "laid back" personality traits that result in them not really caring if their phone runs out of battery despite their ticket being on it is the same sort of trait that'd mean they'd quite happily ask round the train if someone could lend them a cable or power bank for a second. Plus a fair few staff will be carrying cables and/or power banks themselves for their own phone. Thus this probably gets solved fairly easily when it happens, and so those who find they've run out at the point when their ticket is inspected and decline any help with that, or don't proactively say they have a problem and ask for help, are very likely trying it on anyway.

I think if I was an RPI I'd probably make sure I had a reputable brand power bank (so as to avoid accusations of breaking phones) with both common cables (Apple and USB C) in my pocket so as to differentiate between tryers-on and genuine people who have accidentally allowed their phone to run out. And if pulling that out resulted in a change of mood by the "accused" because they've just been caught out, MG11 or PF time.

 

[Sm5]

I think if I was an RPI I'd probably make sure I had a reputable brand power bank (so as to avoid accusations of breaking phones) with both common cables (Apple and USB C) in my pocket so as to differentiate between tryers-on and genuine people who have accidentally allowed their phone to run out. And if pulling that out resulted in a change of mood by the "accused" because they've just been caught out, MG11 or PF time.

surely if the railway is forcing people to a particular mode, they have some responsibility to supporting it, as well as enforcing it…

rather than putting the monkey on the rpi’s back, they should just privide stock with chargers.

 

[tomuk]

Interesting workaround though not much use once TOD goes away.

If there are still to be TVMs why are they going to remove TOD? The TVM is there so why nt allow customers to collect tickets from it? Till Roll or CCST.

 

[Hadders]

If there are still to be TVMs why are they going to remove TOD? The TVM is there so why nt allow customers to collect tickets from it? Till Roll or CCST.

You probably will be able to but I suspect you'd need to log into your account and print the ticket, and you probably wouldn't be able to do this at every TVM.

If ToD as we know it today is removed anyone booking a ticket online will get it sent to the via a PDF attached to an email (as happens with airlines). That will satisfy almost everyone's needs. Just look at how airlines have changed, your boarding pass is electronic, you either print it at home or show it on your phone. You can print it at the airport but practically no-one does. People cope.

There will of course be a requirement for all tickets to be eticket enabled (e.g. cross London) but that appears to be being sorted.

 

[Haywain]

If there are still to be TVMs why are they going to remove TOD? The TVM is there so why nt allow customers to collect tickets from it? Till Roll or CCST.

Why would anyone want to keep ToD? It’s hugely expensive go to needing a nationwide network of hardware to support it. And smaller retailers find it results in them losing money on many smaller value transactions.

 

[tomuk]

You probably will be able to but I suspect you'd need to log into your account and print the ticket, and you probably wouldn't be able to do this at every TVM.

If ToD as we know it today is removed anyone booking a ticket online will get it sent to the via a PDF attached to an email (as happens with airlines). That will satisfy almost everyone's needs. Just look at how airlines have changed, your boarding pass is electronic, you either print it at home or show it on your phone. You can print it at the airport but practically no-one does. People cope.

There will of course be a requirement for all tickets to be eticket enabled (e.g. cross London) but that appears to be being sorted.

Ok, but why is TOD being removed? The TVMs are still there, the website and even app is still there to order the ticket. What benefit is the railway getting from removing the ToD option?
Not sure what relevance airlines have and why should the level of ambition be passengers coping.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Why would anyone want to keep ToD? It’s hugely expensive go to needing a nationwide network of hardware to support it. And smaller retailers find it results in them losing money on many smaller value transactions.

There certainly is a case for "son of ToD", i.e. printing of etickets at stations. But that needn't have a "nationwide network of hardware" to support it, just a suitable printer driver on the TVM and a browser which allows access to any accredited retailer so you can log into your account and print the e-ticket.

 

[tomuk]

Why would anyone want to keep ToD? It’s hugely expensive go to needing a nationwide network of hardware to support it. And smaller retailers find it results in them losing money on many smaller value transactions.

What network of hugely expensive equipment? TVMs and ticket gates?