New Chiltern Railways website and booking engine

Class172 · 13 Nov 2017

XCTurbostar said:
Chiltern Railways has introduced their new website with the new logo this morning:
https://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/

It appears that Chiltern have moved away from the WebTIS-based booking system, although you can still access it using the direct URL. I suspect this will only be until 29th December, since that's the latest their website states you'll be able to login to your old account.

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Bletchleyite · 13 Nov 2017

Class172 said:
It appears that Chiltern have moved away from the WebTIS-based booking system, although you can still access it using the direct URL. I suspect this will only be until 29th December, since that's the latest their website states you'll be able to login to your old account.

What have they moved to?

Class172 · 13 Nov 2017

Bletchleyite said:
What have they moved to?

To be honest I'm not sure. It's not a design I've come across before (reminds me of Virgin's however), but I am not fond of it, given the fact you have to scroll a long way to see all the ticket bands. I moved from LM to Chiltern when they changed their booking engine a year or so ago; it looks like I might be about to do the same, in order to keep using the Mixing Deck which is personally my favourite. Attached is a before and after comparison for identical searches.

Bletchleyite · 13 Nov 2017

Ta. Looks Trainline based to me?

takno · 13 Nov 2017

"A fuss-free journey from the very first click (Got a Chiltern account? You'll need to re-register)"
Nothing says fuss-free like needing to re-register...

markydh · 13 Nov 2017

VTEC have moved away from the mixing desk and TPE will be doing so in the near future. It’s a shame because I’ve always found the mixing desk to be far easier to use.

Class172 · 13 Nov 2017

markydh said:
VTEC have moved away from the mixing desk and TPE will be doing so in the near future. It’s a shame because I’ve always found the mixing desk to be far easier to use.

Agreed - are there any other companies that use it and aren't planning to move away from it soon? They can gladly have my business if so!

Bletchleyite · 14 Nov 2017

markydh said:
VTEC have moved away from the mixing desk and TPE will be doing so in the near future. It’s a shame because I’ve always found the mixing desk to be far easier to use.

TBH the mixing deck suits expert users (that you'll find on here) very well, I guess it is in some ways similar to a booking office TIS. Doesn't suit most people, though.

Perhaps ATOS/RSH could be convinced to keep it open for expert users if it could be done profitably.

alistairlees · 14 Nov 2017

The new Chiltern Railways website and booking engine launched today:

https://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/

What do people think? I have not yet had much time to look at it.

Starmill · 15 Nov 2017

I would love to have a preliminary evaluation of it, sadly I cannot:

[Image shows: Error We're sorry, we're experiencing technical problems with our online booking system.
Please try again, and if you still have problems call our team on 03456 005 165, lines open from 7am to 10pm every day.]

So I will briefly evaluate the only thing I can, the journey input page.

When I travel on Chiltern Railways, my usual origin is Birmingham. So I type in 'bir' and I'm offered:

- Birchgrove
- Birchington-on-Sea
- Birchwood
- Birkbeck
- Birkdale
- Birkenhead (all stations)

I wonder how many people who go to the Chiltern Railways website are travelling from these stations?

It's not as if Chiltern haven't thought about this at all, because when you click in the origin box, before you type anything, you are offered:

- Banbury
- Bicester Village
- High Wycombe
- Leamington Spa
- London Marylebone
- Oxford

SickyNicky · 15 Nov 2017

Hmmm. Something wrong here: the 10.33 from BHM to BAN gives an itinerary for the 09.33

alistairlees · 15 Nov 2017

Starmill said:
I would love to have a preliminary evaluation of it, sadly I cannot:

I had the same problem, though eventually got it working. I don't know how.

Dunnyrail · 15 Nov 2017

Oh dear when this Forum said Booking Engine I naively thought that it would be showing what Engine was booked to what Train a little like some Steam Preserved lines feature. So I guess that TOPS gen is still rquired for this!
JonD

Class172 · 15 Nov 2017

You may well have already seen, but if you haven't, there is a discussion regarding the new branding and website here.

alistairlees · 15 Nov 2017

Class172 said:
You may well have already seen, but if you haven't, there is a discussion regarding the new branding and website here.

Indeed, I am aware of it, but it was entirely about branding when I last looked (as the new booking engine had not launched then). I see some questions about ticket retailing have now appeared in that thread.

In my view it makes much more sense to have a separate thread about the new ticket retailing engine here, and to keep the two separate. That will lead to a more focused and meaningful discussion. Perhaps the mods can help?

Tthe booking engine is SilverRail.

MarlowDonkey · 15 Nov 2017

Chiltern have revamped their ticketing website. Perhaps I'm missing something, but where is the option to buy a one day travelcard for a return to London?

Ok it's there if you select a terminal, Paddington in my case- you have to scroll down a way.

yorkie · 15 Nov 2017

alistairlees said:
In my view it makes much more sense to have a separate thread about the new ticket retailing engine here, and to keep the two separate. That will lead to a more focused and meaningful discussion. Perhaps the mods can help?

Agreed, it's good to have a thread for each. I have therefore moved the booking engine posts into this thread.

MarlowDonkey · 15 Nov 2017

The booking engine doesn't seem to work terribly well, being extremely slow. It's very similar to GWR which isn't working properly either, rejecting a credit card before it even asked which one I wanted to use. The GWR one also objected to the 8th journey input, saying that the limit was 8.

In the end I used Hull Trains, which still uses the older mixing desk design.

If you are a desktop or laptop user, there's no advantage to these new mobile or tablet friendly sites and they are hazardous when they don't work.

For some reason the national rail enquiries site isn't working either, not being able to link to ticketing sites.

Kite159 · 15 Nov 2017

Another website losing the Mixing Desk, which is so much easier when you know which tickets you want to buy without having to jump via the hoops when buying from the GWR website.

Great for mobile users, rubbish for those using proper PCs

fishquinn · 15 Nov 2017

Having used the Chiltern website until now I can safely say that I won't be re-registering. I'm also going to stick with Mixing desk so are Hull Trains intending to continue using it?

Paul Kelly · 15 Nov 2017

Are there any sites are left that use the mixing deck *and* support all stations? As far as I can make out, after London Midland moved to OrTIS, Chiltern was the last mixing deck site left that supported Whitechapel as a station. GWR, SWR, TPE, Hull Trains and c2c all have it mysteriously missing.

centraltrains · 15 Nov 2017

Class172 said:
It appears that Chiltern have moved away from the WebTIS-based booking system, although you can still access it using the direct URL. I suspect this will only be until 29th December, since that's the latest their website states you'll be able to login to your old account.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo! I love WebTIS and Chiltern was my go-to one! Who is there left on WebTIS now? I hope they don't all go

Starmill · 15 Nov 2017

First Group switched to it when they took over SWR, so they appear serious about using it for now.

Kite159 · 15 Nov 2017

Starmill said:
First Group switched to it when they took over SWR, so they appear serious about using it for now.

Hull Trains to be next?

Paul Kelly · 15 Nov 2017

There is still c2c:
http://tickets.c2c-online.co.uk/c2c/en/JourneyPlanning/MixingDeck
(But it doesn't support Whitechapel as a station, nor many recently opened stations, e.g. no Borders line stations, Lea Bridge, Apperley Bridge, Bermuda Park etc., not even Energlyn & Churchill Park which has been open for nearly 4 years now.)

alistairlees · 15 Nov 2017

Indigo2 said:
There is still c2c:
http://tickets.c2c-online.co.uk/c2c/en/JourneyPlanning/MixingDeck
(But it doesn't support Whitechapel as a station, nor many recently opened stations, e.g. no Borders line stations, Lea Bridge, Apperley Bridge, Bermuda Park etc., not even Energlyn & Churchill Park which has been open for nearly 4 years now.)

It's astonishing it's allowed to get away with bundles of National Rail stations missing.

Lad Brookes · 15 Nov 2017

Indigo2 said:
There is still c2c:
http://tickets.c2c-online.co.uk/c2c/en/JourneyPlanning/MixingDeck
(But it doesn't support Whitechapel as a station, nor many recently opened stations, e.g. no Borders line stations, Lea Bridge, Apperley Bridge, Bermuda Park etc., not even Energlyn & Churchill Park which has been open for nearly 4 years now.)

The problem with Mixing Deck is that most admin tasks are done by each TOC, rather than by a central support team. That leads to inconsistency between TOCs as they vary in terms of how pro-active they are at keeping on top of any new stations, routes descriptions and ticket types that are created.

Adsy125 · 15 Nov 2017

I tweeted GWR about the Whitechapel issue and they said it will be looked at by their team 'ASAP', hopefully it can be sorted.

Hadders · 15 Nov 2017

Something isn't right. I know this isn't a Chiltern operated route but I've tried booking a Northampton - Manchester journey via Long Buckby departing after 0730. It's possible to depart Northampton at 0745 and arrive Manchester Piccadilly at 0959, changing at Stafford. NRE offers this route as does Webtis.

Chiltern's new booking engine doesn't offer this itinerary, instead it suggests departing at 0737 arriving at 1026, with a change at Birmingham International.

Not good.

CyrusWuff · 16 Nov 2017

Hadders said:
Something isn't right. I know this isn't a Chiltern operated route but I've tried booking a Northampton - Manchester journey via Long Buckby departing after 0730. It's possible to depart Northampton at 0745 and arrive Manchester Piccadilly at 0959, changing at Stafford. NRE offers this route as does Webtis.

Chiltern's new booking engine doesn't offer this itinerary, instead it suggests departing at 0737 arriving at 1026, with a change at Birmingham International.

It will offer the journey with the change at Stafford without specifying a via point, or if you specify Stafford as the via point. At a guess, it doesn't offer it if you specify Long Buckby because the train doesn't stop there.

New Chiltern Railways website and booking engine

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