Adult ONE, Child NIL

[danm14]

Are train tickets ever issued for more than one adult, more than one child, or a combination of adults and children?

I've never seen a train ticket that covers more than one person, so I'm confused why they specify Adult ONE, Child NIL and don't simply say Adult or Child.

Is this a historical thing that was never changed, or are there some tickets issued today that cover more than one person?

 

[tsr]

Yes. Some ticket issuing systems can issue single ticket coupons for combinations of adults and/or children. Train operators often allow staff the option to choose this, for a few different reasons - for example, to make sure people travel as a group if a substantial group discount was offered. It can also substantially reduce printer use!

There are some areas of the country - the south-east being a notable one - where these tickets are very rare. They are more common on longer-distance routes.

As an example, on the older Avantix systems (the ugly grey machines you will probably have seen used by staff to sell tickets on trains and at barriers), there is a button marked "Passengers per ticket" which sets up this function. However, the function is yet to be present on some of the newer replacements of this system which are currently being phased in.

 

[benk1342]

I've had a ticket issued for more than one person exactly once, issued by the conductor on an Island Line train for two adults and one child with a Family and Friends Railcard discount.

 

[RJ]

I can do it from the TIS I use - it asks if I want all tickets printed on the same coupon. Never actually done it though, though I suppose I would at passenger request.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Are train tickets ever issued for more than one adult, more than one child, or a combination of adults and children?....

Yes, I've done them many times, however, in more recent years TOCs have started to frown upon them as they create issues at ticket barriers

....I've never seen a train ticket that covers more than one person, so I'm confused why they specify Adult ONE, Child NIL and don't simply say Adult or Child.

Is this a historical thing that was never changed, or are there some tickets issued today that cover more than one person?

Sort of both, the most recent example I can think of was when Northern launched it's 'Duo' tickets and some machines were "correctly" programmed to issue a ticket each, while others were "wrongly" programmed to issue one ticket for both people.

With APTIS and SPORTIS it was very easy to issue tickets for multiple people, very handy for large groups of school children and such, but these days they get a deck of cards because the machines tend to be programmed against such a practice.

 

[embers25]

Yes, I've done them many times, however, in more recent years TOCs have started to frown upon them as they create issues at ticket barriers.

Was issued 3 adult plus 1 child last weekend by GWR roaming staff placed on Sunday at Polsloe Bridge. As travelling to unbarriered Teignmouth this wasn't an issue but breaking journey at Exeter would have been, particularly when leaving from the unmanned end of Exeter Central which would've involved using the camera link which often takes several minutes. My issue was that I wasn't asked if I wanted all tickets on one and we could have been returning different times.

 

[Deafdoggie]

I have had me and the children all on one ticket several times, although-thinking about it-all were in GWR territory. We were on a Family and Friends Railcard, so all had to travel together.

 

[Ianno87]

I've had it exactly once, Two adults and Two children on a return from Arnside to Barrow-in-Furness in about 1993, issued on a SPORTIS. Never known it since.

 

[danm14]

If I were to order tickets online for postal delivery to the same address in the same booking (Virgin Trains West Coast) is it certain that two people will receive separate tickets for the same journey - we will be using SailRail and arriving separately at the port in Dublin and would both like to be able to check in on arrival instead of waiting for the other (and more importantly if the person holding the ticket was delayed and missed the ferry we would need to purchase two new tickets and not one, if they were on one coupon)

 

[PermitToTravel]

You'll definitely get separate coupons

 

[GW43125]

If I were to order tickets online for postal delivery to the same address in the same booking (Virgin Trains West Coast) is it certain that two people will receive separate tickets for the same journey - we will be using SailRail and arriving separately at the port in Dublin and would both like to be able to check in on arrival instead of waiting for the other (and more importantly if the person holding the ticket was delayed and missed the ferry we would need to purchase two new tickets and not one, if they were on one coupon)

Yes. Two adults London to Glasgow and back was eleven(!) pieces of card!

 

[Paul Kelly]

A Scotrail "Kids Go Free" ticket will be issued with all passengers on the same paper ticket.

 

[bolli]

Yes. Two adults London to Glasgow and back was eleven(!) pieces of card!

Not the worst.

Seen a group of two go from Newport S. Wales to Inverness, with bicycles, splitting the tickets at Shrewsbury, Manchester, Preston, Windermere, Carlisle, Glasgow and Perth. All were advance tickets.
2x cycle reservation + 1x seat reservation + 1x travel ticket for each leg, 8 legs each way, each.

Worked out at nearly 130 bits of card!

 

[Sprinter153]

My TOC instructs Avantix operators to print Groupsave using the 'Multiple' function to prevent passengers splitting up and travelling at a discount (which is rife).

 

[LowLevel]

Some of my colleagues could do it on Avantix but it was always disabled on mine. It's not a function on Envoy/Whatever it's called this week officially.

 

[Tim R-T-C]

The new machines on Northern obviously lack this facility. Photo on twitter of a scout group getting a 5 metre long ticket for their group.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

The new machines on Northern obviously lack this facility. Photo on twitter of a scout group getting a 5 metre long ticket for their group.

I've seen longer than that.

 

[Joe Paxton]

My TOC instructs Avantix operators to print Groupsave using the 'Multiple' function to prevent passengers splitting up and travelling at a discount (which is rife).

Makes sense, though woouldn't work so well in an area that has lots of stations with ticket gates.

 

[Sprinter153]

According to the STAR Mobile inter-TOC fault log, the reason new generation ticket issuing systems won't permit multiple passengers per ticket is because RDG's latest retail standards update insists each passenger requires their own ticket.