Advance purchase A after date appearing on tickets bought on day of travel

[jnjkerbin]

Sorry for the obtuse title of this thread but a little hard to succinctly describe this.

I was always under the impression that an 'A' at the end of a ticket's validity date indicated that the ticket had been purchased in advance of the date of validity, presumeably to flag the ticket to inspectors that the date should be checked.

However, in the last week or so, I have purchased tickets from various Southeastern TVMs which have the 'A' at the end of the validity date, despite being for travel the same day.

Anyone able to shed light on this?

 

[mmh]

Sounds far more likely to be a character encoding issue than a secret way of saying when a ticket was bought - what would the reason to do that be?

It happens all over the place.

 

[jnjkerbin]

Sounds far more likely to be a character encoding issue than a secret way of saying when a ticket was bought - what would the reason to do that be?

It happens all over the place.

I'm only going by what wikipedia says

APTIS ticket features - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

If an A is present next to the date, the ticket was bought before the date of travel. Standard travel tickets can be bought up to one year in advance.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Doesn’t sound correct to me

 

[stuartl]

I may have misunderstod, but all my advance tickets say 'ADVANCE SINGLE' in large letters at the top LH corner, so can't see why an inspector would need another indication.

 

[alistairlees]

It used to be in the spec but I can’t remember if it still is. Articles about APTIS are obviously historical now.

 

[Wallsendmag]

I may have misunderstod, but all my advance tickets say 'ADVANCE SINGLE' in large letters at the top LH corner, so can't see why an inspector would need another indication.

The “A” indicates the ticket was purchased in advance , not that it’s an Advance ticket. A small but significant difference

 

[ainsworth74]

I'm only going by what wikipedia says

APTIS ticket features - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

APTIS isn't the current standard though and I don't think it has been for some time? My understanding was that a ticket bought in advance of travel would have the date printed as 'white' on a black background.

 

[Typhoon]

I buy most of my tickets in advance - certainly these ones would have been). Attachment: ticket dated 20 Apr 2016 in the style described by @ainsworth74 so that style has been in use over 6 years ago. The other one, May this year - there is an 'A' next to the number in the bottom right hand corner (just about visible). I notice that they all have the black dot next to 'Outward' (or 'Return' or nothing for singles) - I'm no expert but could that mean advanced purchase?

I tend to keep tickets for key journeys (I can't remember why I went to Dartford in 2016 so that will be binned) and none look like that in #3. I suspect it is a wikipedia entry that no-one has bothered to update.

 

[ainsworth74]

Attachment: ticket dated 20 Apr 2016 in the style described by @ainsworth74 so that style has been in use over 6 years ago.

Oh good, I'm not losing my marbles just yet!

I notice that they all have the black dot next to 'Outward' (or 'Return' or nothing for singles) - I'm no expert but could that mean advanced purchase?

That's used to denote whether a discount has (such as a railcard) has been applied or not if I recall correctly. Though some implementations use a 'D' rather than the black dot (as an aside, how mad that RDG have allowed so many variations of what should be a rigidly standardised system to develop).

 

[Typhoon]

That's used to denote whether a discount has (such as a railcard) has been applied or not if I recall correctly. Though some implementations use a 'D' rather than the black dot (as an aside, how mad that RDG have allowed so many variations of what should be a rigidly standardised system to develop).

Thanks for that - I also have one with a 'D', others with dates in different places. No wonder the conductors I come across do no more than skim read the ticket if the layout changes regularly. At least in the new version 'from', 'to' and 'Date of travel' are fairly easy to find.

EDIT: The 2016 ticket may have been purchased on-line and picked up from the station machine, which might account for the difference.

 

[ainsworth74]

Thanks for that - I also have one with a 'D', others with dates in different places. No wonder the conductors I come across do no more than skim read the ticket if the layout changes regularly. At least in the new version 'from', 'to' and 'Date of travel' are fairly easy to find.

Absolutely. It's always struck me as mad that the situation was allowed to develop in the way it has with variations across different ticket machines in how they print out tickets.

 

[trover]

Absolutely. It's always struck me as mad that the situation was allowed to develop in the way it has with variations across different ticket machines in how they print out tickets.

There’re at least 6 types of fonts for tickets in the new layout in my hand, the new VT TVM small and bold font, new NT TVM larger font, SR with a more classic font, old VT machine after being updated, one type printed by ticket office, and one type printed and posted to me. Some have black dot for railcard tickets some have “D”

The orange stock also varies, RSP 9599 and RSP 9399 are not the only difference, some 9399 are flimsier while other are tougher.

Some of them looks counterfeit ngl

 

[furlong]

A GWR TVM did the same thing to me a couple of weeks ago on a one-day travelcard - I did a double-take when it came out of the machine thinking I'd got the wrong ticket but soon assured myself the dates were all correct and it must just be yet another new software bug.

Amongst a litany of unfixed problems, other GWR machines have been printing their own location code in place of the selling location when collecting tickets for a long time now so I really wouldn't hold my breath waiting for anyone to fix this type of problem.

 

[skyhigh]

Amongst a litany of unfixed problems, other GWR machines have been printing their own location code in place of the selling location when collecting tickets for a long time now so I really wouldn't hold my breath waiting for anyone to fix this type of problem.

I thought that was deliberate?

 

[Haywain]

GWR machines have been printing their own location code in place of the selling location when collecting tickets

I'm not sure what you mean. The selling location should only be shown alongside the collection reference details on the ticket, in the small print at the bottom. The issuing location should be more obvious.

 

[furlong]

The selling location should only be shown alongside the collection reference details on the ticket, in the small print at the bottom.

Indeed, but these tickets show the machine's own location instead (duplicated - it's already printed elsewhere), so the selling location is not printed anywhere on the ticket.