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Problem buying ticket at Glasgow Central today

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Samuel88

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I tried to purchase a single from Edinburgh to London for Wednesday being as the ticket in question with a railcard is £50 vs £99 from Glasgow to London, however they refused to sell me the ticket saying they have been told to only sell the more expensive ticket to ‘prevent fraud’! Is this correct?
 
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Hadders

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I assume you’re trying to purchase an LNER priced Super Off Peak single.

The ticket office should sell you exactly what you ask for however in the circumstances I’d buy it online and collect from a TVM to prevent incidents such as this.

If I did purchase it from a ticket office I certainly wouldn’t get into any discussion about why I wanted this particular ticket, that I would be starting short because it undercuts the price from Glasgow etc. I’m not saying that you did do this, but I most definitely would not as it just has the potential to wind up the staff, which often leads to a refusal to sell what you want.
 

Samuel88

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I assume you’re trying to purchase an LNER priced Super Off Peak single.

The ticket office should sell you exactly what you ask for however in the circumstances I’d buy it online and collect from a TVM to prevent incidents such as this.

If I did purchase it from a ticket office I certainly wouldn’t get into any discussion about why I wanted this particular ticket, that I would be starting short because it undercuts the price from Glasgow etc. I’m not saying that you did do this, but I most definitely would not as it just has the potential to wind up the staff, which often leads to a refusal to sell what you want.
I didn’t even mention I was starting short, I just walked up to the Avanti ticket counter, asked for the ticket and was denied. I just shrugged my shoulders, went outside to the Scotrail counter and they sold it to me with no quibbles...
 

Qwerty133

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I have absolutely no idea why staff who are dealing with one of the most disrupted days in years on the network might not be providing the best possible customer service to someone who isn't even travelling today and who could quite easily do what they want online...
 

Samuel88

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I have absolutely no idea why staff at a station that has had to be closed due to overcrowding for much of the day might not be providing the best possible customer service to someone who isn't even travelling today and who could quite easily do what they want online...

When I went Glasgow Central was completely empty, i counted at most a dozen others on the concourse when I went to purchase a ticket
 

AlbertBeale

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Do I understand from this that a ticket from Edinburgh to London is valid via Glasgow?
 

yorkie

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I tried to purchase a single from Edinburgh to London for Wednesday being as the ticket in question with a railcard is £50 vs £99 from Glasgow to London, however they refused to sell me the ticket saying they have been told to only sell the more expensive ticket to ‘prevent fraud’! Is this correct?
It's not fraudulent for them to sell the ticket, nor to use it (either starting short and travelling via Preston or by travelling to Edinburgh and then going to London via York)

Refusal to sell the ticket is a breach of the Ticketing Settlement Agreement, and therefore a breach of both consumer law (reportable to ORR) and also the franchise terms (reportable to DfT).

If you have evidence of this breach, such as an audio recording or written statement, this would be excellent.

Was this the Avanti Travel Centre who committed the breach?
 

paddington

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went outside to the Scotrail counter and they sold it to me with no quibbles...

In the past the Scotrail counter has refused to sell me any ticket that is not entirely for travel in Scotland - has this changed?

At a different time, the Scotrail counter also said they couldn't accept any RTVs from TOCs other than Scotrail; the then VTWC counter had no problem accepting a GA RTV.
 

Samuel88

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It's not fraudulent for them to sell the ticket, nor to use it (either starting short and travelling via Preston or by travelling to Edinburgh and then going to London via York)

Refusal to sell the ticket is a breach of the Ticketing Settlement Agreement, and therefore a breach of both consumer law (reportable to ORR) and also the franchise terms (reportable to DfT).

If you have evidence of this breach, such as an audio recording or written statement, this would be excellent.

Was this the Avanti Travel Centre who committed the breach?
Yes, it was the Avanti Ticket office who refused to sell me the ticket but no, I don’t have any type of written statement or recording...
In the past the Scotrail counter has refused to sell me any ticket that is not entirely for travel in Scotland - has this changed?

At a different time, the Scotrail counter also said they couldn't accept any RTVs from TOCs other than Scotrail; the then VTWC counter had no problem accepting a GA RTV.
Yes, they sold me an Edinburgh to London ticket no problem, although to be fair, the station was empty...
 

gray1404

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The AWC ticket office should be selling exactly what they are asked for in this case. They are not entitled to have a policy on this to prevent such sales or
Clearly they do not want to sell the tickets priced by LNER from Edinburgh as they can be cheaper then the fares they set from Glasgow and AWC are refusing to sell tickets for which they will get a less in share of the fare in revenue. As stated above, this is unlawful. Very much so! I would complain to AWC, take the case to the Rail Ombudsman and make the ORR and DfT aware of this. A good MP/SMP would be willing to write to the relevant Minister about such concerns if reported to them.

Remember, AWC (being part of First Group) is already being closely watched at this time due to them now setting all the prices (First Group that is as also runs TPE) on the West Coast Main Line from the North West to Scotland.

I shall be up in Glasgow shortly so I shall attempt to buy such tickets and record the video covertly on my phone. I won't need the actual tickets but I can get the transaction to a point whereby I am asked for payment or told no.

Likewise, refusal to accept RTVs issued by other TOCs is not acceptable (solely on that basis) and that too need to be reported to Scotrail.
 

gray1404

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In fact if I am refused at Glasgow Central I shall then push for a seat reservation for a couple of days time on a Edinburgh to Kings Cross service to take away any doubt that I'm not starting at Edinburgh. If they then, having first refused, relent and sell the ticket that would be very useful evidence to have.
 

geoffk

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I didn’t even mention I was starting short, I just walked up to the Avanti ticket counter, asked for the ticket and was denied. I just shrugged my shoulders, went outside to the Scotrail counter and they sold it to me with no quibbles...
I'd no idea they now had separate ticket counters for different operators. Aren't we supposed to have an integrated railway? Let's hope Williams puts a stop to all this.
 
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In fact if I am refused at Glasgow Central I shall then push for a seat reservation for a couple of days time on a Edinburgh to Kings Cross service to take away any doubt that I'm not starting at Edinburgh. If they then, having first refused, relent and sell the ticket that would be very useful evidence to have.

Or even better - an Edinburgh to Euston service...
 

Wallsendmag

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I'd no idea they now had separate ticket counters for different operators. Aren't we supposed to have an integrated railway? Let's hope Williams puts a stop to all this.
Been like that forever in BR days it was Scottish tickets in one and International tickets in the other. I take it you've never been to Leeds or Stevenage?
 

Bletchleyite

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Been like that forever in BR days it was Scottish tickets in one and International tickets in the other. I take it you've never been to Leeds or Stevenage?

Euston has two as well and always did have (even in NSE days it was an NSE office and an IC one) - but both will sell for either TOC, as will the TVMs which belong to both.

Scotland was always different and had separate "domestic" and "international" ticketing.
 

AlbertBeale

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Euston has two as well and always did have (even in NSE days it was an NSE office and an IC one) - but both will sell for either TOC, as will the TVMs which belong to both.

Scotland was always different and had separate "domestic" and "international" ticketing.

St Pancras has 3 - the 2 "domestic" ones both seem happy to sell anything; a bit silly to have separate ones side by side really... good old "competition" (="fragmentation").

When I last bought a ticket at Gatwick station, some years ago now, there were 3 separate ticket queues, to 3 sets of windows, and people were being told they had to be in the right queue according to whether they wanted to travel on GE, Southern, or T/L trains. So does that imply that whichever one you went to would try to refuse to sell the full range of tickets (and I guess arrivals from abroad wouldn't know any better)? But what an absurd introduction to British public transport for foreign visitors...

I didn't know Euston had 2 ticket places. When I tried to get a ticket to Milton Keynes there one afternoon a few years back, I went to the only obvious place, got to the head of the queue, and was asked - in effect - which colour train I wanted to go on. Same price, much the same journey time! I said whichever colour went next, and he faffed around and said, well, you might just make train X, if not you can't use the next one, train Y, and will have to wait an hour (or whatever it was) for the next X. So no problem with the ticket office selling everything, but the more major problem of the absurdity of not being able to just get the next train and not worry about the colour... I think that was the point when I really started to hate privatised/competitive transport systems... I ended up late for my meeting in MK.
 

Hadders

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St Pancras has 3 - the 2 "domestic" ones both seem happy to sell anything; a bit silly to have separate ones side by side really... good old "competition" (="fragmentation").

When I last bought a ticket at Gatwick station, some years ago now, there were 3 separate ticket queues, to 3 sets of windows, and people were being told they had to be in the right queue according to whether they wanted to travel on GE, Southern, or T/L trains. So does that imply that whichever one you went to would try to refuse to sell the full range of tickets (and I guess arrivals from abroad wouldn't know any better)? But what an absurd introduction to British public transport for foreign visitors...

I didn't know Euston had 2 ticket places. When I tried to get a ticket to Milton Keynes there one afternoon a few years back, I went to the only obvious place, got to the head of the queue, and was asked - in effect - which colour train I wanted to go on. Same price, much the same journey time! I said whichever colour went next, and he faffed around and said, well, you might just make train X, if not you can't use the next one, train Y, and will have to wait an hour (or whatever it was) for the next X. So no problem with the ticket office selling everything, but the more major problem of the absurdity of not being able to just get the next train and not worry about the colour... I think that was the point when I really started to hate privatised/competitive transport systems... I ended up late for my meeting in MK.

Multiple ticket offices at a station isn't the result of privatisation but of British Rail. My local station is Stevenage which has two ticket offices, one operated by GTR the other by LNER. As it happens they both sell a full range of tickets and effectively compete with each other. In British Rail days what is now the LNER ticket office was the Travel Centre and would be used for future long distance travel, season tickets etc with what is now the GTR ticket office used for tickets for immediate travel.

As for operator specific tickets to Milton Keynes be careful what you wish for. It could be simplified by removing the cheaper operator only tickets meaning passengers would pay more. As @Bletchleyite says you can get a slightly more expensive 'Any Permitted' ticket that can be used on any train operator.
 

sheff1

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Multiple ticket offices at a station isn't the result of privatisation but of British Rail.

At Birmingham New St there were three booking offices. The main one for immediate travel, the Travel Centre for future travel and the International one for - guess what. On top of that, the windows at the main booking office were split between different destinations - window 1 might be for stations A-E (plus London); window 2 F-M; and so on. Additionally from around May there was another location which dealt solely with bookings for the compulsory reservation Summer Saturday (and overnight Friday) trains to/from the West Country.
 

47271

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This doesn’t surprise me.

I’ve had bother with the Glasgow Central office in Virgin days refusing to change an Advance for one of their own trains.

I went across to Queen Street and Scotrail did it for me in jiffy. When I told her what had happened 15 minutes earlier she rolled her eyes in a way that suggested it happens all the time.

I think that they might make up their own rules as it suits them.
 

Mag_seven

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Been like that forever in BR days it was Scottish tickets in one and International tickets in the other.

Not quite -certainly in the 80's at GC there was the main office for tickets to "All Stations In Scotland", an office for travel to English and Welsh (and possibly Irish?) destinations and a completely separate "Continental" booking office.
 

route101

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This doesn’t surprise me.

I’ve had bother with the Glasgow Central office in Virgin days refusing to change an Advance for one of their own trains.

I went across to Queen Street and Scotrail did it for me in jiffy. When I told her what had happened 15 minutes earlier she rolled her eyes in a way that suggested it happens all the time.

I think that they might make up their own rules as it suits them.

I had bother the other way around . Glasgow Central Virgin office , changed my advance no bother , call centre had no clue , just read off a script. Once i asked for an advance down the WCML at Queen St and told to go to Central.
The two scotrail offices at Central , also had problems getting plusbus at them. Have seen a few people get local tickets in the virgin office.
 

liam456

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Maybe best not to complain? I would hate for the new money-saving opportunities afforded by LNER's single leg pricing trial to impact on my newly-found opportunity to save money! (GLC-EUS)
 

route101

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What times is this super off peak ticket valid? Is a break of journey allowed too
 

yorkie

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What times is this super off peak ticket valid? Is a break of journey allowed too
It is valid to start or finish short; Glasgow Central ticket office are obliged to sell this fare under the terms of the Ticketing Settlement Agreement and their franchise commitments.

http://www.brfares.com/#faredetail?orig=EDB&dest=1072&tkt=SSS

Not valid on trains timed to arrive:
  • London Terminals (except as shown below) after 04:29 and before 11:17;
  • London Liverpool Street after 04:29 and before 10:00;
  • London St Pancras International after 04:29 and before 11:26;
  • London Euston after 04:29 and before 10:05, except on Caledonian Sleepers (with supplement);
  • Stevenage after 03:59 and before 10:55;
  • Luton or Luton Airport Parkway after 04:29 and before 11:26;
  • Bedford after 04:29 and before 10:30;
  • Watford Junction after 04:29 and before 10:20, except on Caledonian Sleepers (with supplement);
  • Milton Keynes Central after 04:29 and before 10:20, except on Caledonian Sleepers (with supplement).
Valid for arrivals into Euston from 10:05 onwards
 
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