Scotrail TVM still selling peak tickets at 0956

Was buying a ticket at Mt Florida earlier , a railcard single to Lanark . Came up with the £12 min fare at 0956 , surely its after 0915. I bought my ticket on the app and collected it .

The minimum fare, assuming it's a 16-25, applies before 1000.

Bletchleyite said:

The minimum fare, assuming it's a 16-25, applies before 1000.

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Heck , i thought it was 915. Well the service i caught was at 1003

route101 said:

Was buying a ticket at Mt Florida earlier , a railcard single to Lanark . Came up with the £12 min fare at 0956 , surely its after 0915. I bought my ticket on the app and collected it .

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0930 and after for the peak normally Mon-Fri, but 1000 for certain railcards.

route101 said:

Heck , i thought it was 915. Well the service i caught was at 1003

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It shouldn't have applied it to a ticket purchased for travel at 1003, did you purchase on a journey planner based app selecting that train?

Bletchleyite said:

It shouldn't have applied it to a ticket purchased for travel at 1003, did you purchase on a journey planner based app selecting that train?

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I was at TVM at 0956 but then bought ticket on app , train was at 1003

The machine may have a strict time cut off programmed into it that would mean it would sell at peak price until 09.59 and the off peak price from 10.00?

I don't think machines can be programmed, at least not easily, to recognise when the last peak departure from the station has left?

I've often wondered about this. Northern TVMs seem to start offering off-peak tickets around 09.20. You need to be able to buy a ticket and get to the right platform if you're train is at 0931! (or whenever the cut-off time is).

I am sure Scotrail conductors would sell a ticket with railcard discount if the issue was explained to them, and many will apply a railcard discount regardless of whether it was possible to buy a ticket before boarding.

The TTIs on these trains are always very helpful and friendly in my experience; I doubt any explanation would even be needed, but if they were in any doubt just explain the ticket machine was charging the higher price. I've never seen any TTI who was anything less than professional and polite out of numerous journeys on these lines.

(I just wish the on train experience was consistently this good in Northern-land, where the experience can be very different and inconsistent indeed)

Peter Mugridge said:

The machine may have a strict time cut off programmed into it that would mean it would sell at peak price until 09.59 and the off peak price from 10.00?

I don't think machines can be programmed, at least not easily, to recognise when the last peak departure from the station has left?

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It's not peak vs off peak; it's a question of whether you get the Railcard discount or not. The correct fare should be £4.75 from 1000 or £7.20 until 0959. There should be a warning message displaying any limitations of the TVM.

If no (or inadequate) warning messages are present and/or £12 fares are being charged, the machine is probably non compliant with consumer legislation. If this is widespread across Scotrail and people are overpaying as a result, then it's potentially yet another case which is ripe for a class action lawsuit.

The rail industry needs to be very, VERY careful and I would urge them to seek proper legal advise in the area of contract and consumer laws if they have not recently done so, and carry out a full review to gauge compliance.