Merseyrail mandates that Trainline tickets must be printed out

[modernrail]

Sooooo confused on this one. Don’t personally mind Merseyrail. Have had much more success with their services over the years than any other operator in terms of on time and get a seat. Not always and not perfect but not bad. This though!

So if I buy an off-peak Avanti ticket London to Southport via Trainline what happens. My understanding is that it is valid to travel via Wigan or via Liverpool. I am sure (although now questioning) that I always receive a digital ticket. If I end up going via Liverpool do I need to go and get it printed out 4/5 of the way through my journey at Liverpool Central?

If I don’t, then isn’t their post just wrong, legally? If I do, should all tickets that might have a route that might possibly touch Merseyrail be print out only?

Also - surely Merseyrail are going to receive a cease and desist letter from Trainline for ripping off their branding!?

 

[gray1404]

Sooooo confused on this one. Don’t personally mind Merseyrail. Have had much more success with their services over the years than any other operator in terms of on time and get a seat. Not always and not perfect but not bad. This though!

So if I buy an off-peak Avanti ticket London to Southport via Trainline what happens. My understanding is that it is valid to travel via Wigan or via Liverpool. I am sure (although now questioning) that I always receive a digital ticket. If I end up going via Liverpool do I need to go and get it printed out 4/5 of the way through my journey at Liverpool Central?

If I don’t, then isn’t their post just wrong, legally? If I do, should all tickets that might have a route that might possibly touch Merseyrail be print out only?

Also - surely Merseyrail are going to receive a cease and desist letter from Trainline for ripping off their branding!?

If when booking your ticket you select an itinerary that does not involve a leg on Merseyrail you should have the option of having it issued as an e-ticket. However if it is a flexible ticket and you subsequently choose to travel on Merseyrail then they have to accept the ticket.

Once a ticket for fulfilment method is selected as e-ticket it is not possible for a booking office to then print it out on normal ticket stock.

If when booking you select an itinerary that does involve a leg on Merseyrail then you will need to either have the ticket posted to you or collected using a collection code before travel.

Likewise even if you did select a lag on merseyrail and the system did force every reason allow it to be fulfilled as an e ticket Merseyrail have to accept this too.

 

[Bletchleyite]

This is not about any of that, it's about collecting ToDs before travel. It's just cack-handedly explained.

 

[gray1404]

In the process of researching for my last reply I have just discovered an online retailer that is offering m tickets involving itineraries on Merseyrail.

In other words for non Merseyrail selected itinerary it offers e-ticket and TOD. But then for the same journey if I select a leg on Merseyrail if then offers TOD and m-ticket. (Talk about bringing something new into the equation)

 

[swt_passenger]

Once a ticket for filament method is selected as e-ticket it is not possible for a booking office to then print it out on normal ticket stock.

I think you’ve been autocorrected there, should be “fulfilment“

 

[infobleep]

Formerly? :P

It's all well and good them removing the tweet, but they've done nothing to solve the underlying problem here

Thanks for the correction. I've updated my post. I did indeed mean formerly. I refuse to use X without mentioning Twitter and I refuse to mention posts without reference to tweets.

As for the problem, being cynical, I imagine that doesn't matter to them as much as their image in public.

Thus they probably thought, it best to remove the post, formerly known as a tweet and pretend nothing ever happened. No need to fix the problem, just ensure there isn't large-scale public awareness of it where people can correct them.

Hence stations are OK because you can't comment. I guess someone could stick a copy of the conditions to the screen in protest but they would soon be removed and destroyed, aka perhaps recycled.

Of course, if someone working for MerseyRail wants to correct my cynicism then please do.

In the process of researching for my last reply I have just discovered an online retailer that is offering m tickets involving itineraries on Merseyrail.

In other words for non Merseyrail selected itinerary it offers e-ticket and TOD. But then for the same journey if I select a leg on Merseyrail if then offers TOD and m-ticket. (Talk about bringing something new into the equation)

Which retailer is it?

 

[L401CJF]

Interestingly, related, I scanned a mobile ticket yesterday which was Liverpool Stations to Cardiff Central, AP TFW Advance, and the reservations listed on the machine when scanned stated ME2321 which is a Merseyrail service. So wasn't even booked using the TFW LIV-CTR service!

I did take a photo of the scan/ticket info screen for reference but I'm not going to share it here for obvious reasons!

 

[Lucy1501]

I’ve just read a RailAdvent article which states

Those who are coming to the races from further afield, and who are intending to travel on Merseyrail services as their last journey en-route to Aintree must have their tickets as hardcopy in a printed format, this includes e-tickets bought from other train companies and Trainline.com.

Which seems to contradict some arguments here that this doesn’t apply to e-tickets!

 

[infobleep]

I’ve just read a RailAdvent article which states



Which seems to contradict some arguments here that this doesn’t apply to e-tickets!

Are they just reprinting a MerseyRail press release?

 

[TUC]

Are they just reprinting a MerseyRail press release?

If so, that way lies madness....

 

[scrapy]

Preston to Liverpool stations tickets Anytime and Off Peak tickets are available as e-tickets. These are valid via Hunts Cross, Ormskirk or Kirkby on Merseyrail.

 

[Bletchleyite]

What utter rubbish.

Aintree Races

Travel with Merseyrail to The Randox Grand National Festival as it returns to Aintree Racecourse on Thursday 11 - Saturday 13 April.

www.merseyrail.org

Any tickets bought via Trainline.com or any other train operating companies’ websites must be printed at a Merseyrail ticket office before travel.

 

[modernrail]

What utter rubbish.

My mind is literally blown. Has somebody been on the juice in Merseyrail towers.

I have always found their Grand National operation to be pretty bloody good. Puts other UK events to shame.

Now somebody somewhere has decided to introduce a reason for mass confusion that will ruin the whole operation.

I reckon it is a free case of special brew or kestrel super strength at the root of all this.

 

[Skie]

I think they're doing a cack-handed attempt to avoid making them/rotheram/liverpool look bad when the inevitable once a year rail travellers are fined for not printing a ToD out.

Do Merseyrail actually have any Comms. staff who check that information is accurate and clear before it is published? There's little sense of any checking being done.

No. Not even sure their twitter team have a spellchecker or access to Grammarly.

 

[sheff1]

So next time next time I go to Liverpool with a break at Aigburth I must present my eticket at South Parkway and ask them to print it - should be interesting.

 

[OscarH]

What utter rubbish.

I see we've moved from "Trainline and other third party retailers" on the tweet/advert board, so it's okay to not print ToD for bookings from TOCs, to "Trainline or TOC retailers", so you don't need to print tickets from TrainSplit etc!

Just an awful campaign all round

 

[Haywain]

I see we've moved from "Trainline and other third party retailers" on the tweet/advert board, so it's okay to not print ToD for bookings from TOCs, to "Trainline or TOC retailers", so you don't need to print tickets from TrainSplit etc!

Just an awful campaign all round

A third party retailer can be anybody other than Merseyrail.

 

[OscarH]

A third party retailer can be anybody other than Merseyrail.

I suppose you're right that term may encompass a wider range of retailers to normal people

 

[Haywain]

I suppose you're right that term may encompass a wider range of retailers to normal people

I think to normals ‘third party’ means more than ‘TOC retailers’ would.

 

[modernrail]

I think to normals ‘third party’ means more than ‘TOC retailers’ would.

The fact that it is impossible to craft an accurate and understandable message (and I note nobody on here has really managed that much better, I certainly cannot) speaks not just to the nonsense of this situation, but the state of ticketing in general.

 

[Wallsendmag]

If you have bought a ticket online to collect at a Merseyrail station please ensure you have collected your ticket before boarding a train.

 

[sansyy]

The fact that it is impossible to craft an accurate and understandable message (and I note nobody on here has really managed that much better, I certainly cannot) speaks not just to the nonsense of this situation, but the state of ticketing in general.

Not exactly, they easily could've mentioned that a booking reference is not valid and needs to be collected from a station. No reason to use the language "e-tickets" since that's not what they were referring to and really they obfuscated it more than was necessary and then failed to inform their social media team what it meant as well causing further confusion with the reply.

 

[negone]

I wonder if they have the gaul to be issuing £100 fines to racegoers over the three day Aintree festival period

 

[Haywain]

they easily could've mentioned that a booking reference is not valid and needs to be collected from a station.

So, eTickets have to be collected because they are issued alongside a booking reference?

 

[sansyy]

So, eTickets have to be collected because they are issued alongside a booking reference?

Collection reference might be better terminology, though I am not too sure what the universal term is for ToD tickets.

 

[Merseysider]

Arrived back at Liverpool airport this afternoon, got to South Parkway.

Prerecorded (I assume) announcement in the station that “Merseyrail do not accept digital tickets from 3rd party retailers and they must be printed” … played precisely whilst the Merseyrail member of staff let me through the barrier with an e-ticket bought from XC. I was even on autopilot and first tried scanning it at the gate only to realise there was no reader Clearly, the staff have common sense.

Out of interest, anyone know the cost of one of those handheld scan device thingies that some Northern guards and the Northern P13/P14 staff at Piccadilly have? Merseyrail outta buy a few and give them to guards/whatever they’re called now, or staff at major stations, so e-tickets can be checked, and so that TOD tickets can be printed if the boarding station’s ticket office is closed.

 

[_toommm_]

Out of interest, anyone know the cost of one of those handheld scan device thingies that some Northern guards and the Northern P13/P14 staff at Piccadilly have

If it's the same ones I use at work, which I think it is, £351, with an extra £15.99 for a bumper case. They're often Zebra TC51 handsets.

Zebra TC51 Mobile Touch Computer

Today’s workers want a device that is every bit as contemporary and easy to use as the smartphone they use every day. You need a device that will last for years, built for all-day every day enterprise use, with all the features you need to enable your workers to achieve peak productivity and keep yo

pacsupplies.co.uk

(The link above is to a website supplying the Zebra TC51 Android device)

 

[OscarH]

If it's the same ones I use at work, which I think it is, £351, with an extra £15.99 for a bumper case. They're often Zebra TC51 handsets.

Zebra TC51 Mobile Touch Computer

Today’s workers want a device that is every bit as contemporary and easy to use as the smartphone they use every day. You need a device that will last for years, built for all-day every day enterprise use, with all the features you need to enable your workers to achieve peak productivity and keep yo

pacsupplies.co.uk

(The link above is to a website supplying the Zebra TC51 Android device)

Worth noting of course there would be costs to also get a license from one of the scanning software providers (not that that is an excuse not to do it, when eTickets are blatantly here to stay)

 

[Skie]

Out of interest, anyone know the cost of one of those handheld scan device thingies that some Northern guards and the Northern P13/P14 staff at Piccadilly have? Merseyrail outta buy a few and give them to guards/whatever they’re called now, or staff at major stations, so e-tickets can be checked, and so that TOD tickets can be printed if the boarding station’s ticket office is closed.

I've seen their RPIs with similar looking devices they were using to dish out tickets at Moorfields to people arriving from stations with closed ticket offices.

 

[alistairlees]

There would be no costs for merseyrail to get handheld scanners or have scanners installed on gates. Zero. Zilch. Retailers have been offering to pay for these for years, via the very well established barcode cost recovery programme which is run by RDG on behalf of TOCs and retailers. Surely nobody thinks that the other TOCs paid 100% of the costs for scanners at their stations, or for their handheld devices? Nope, third party retailers paid for the vast majority of the costs, with a tax on every barcode issued levied by RDG to pay for them. As merseyrail don’t issue barcode tickets, they’d never have to pay a penny. Imagine that - something for free! They still don’t want barcode acceptance on their network though…