Buying new season tickets

[mp01]

Minor rant #1 of 3 for today - season tickets.

"New" (ie not renewal) season tickets are only purchaseable from noon the day before they start, "to avoid misuse of season tickets, they can only be purchased a short period of time beforehand."

Howso? I don't know the ins and outs but I assume that gates are programmed only to accept tickets that are in date, and the relevant railway staff are presumably trained to identify visually whether a ticket is in date or not. In what other ways can they be misused such that I can't buy one whenever I like?

Thanks for listening!

 

[MikeWh]

Minor rant #1 of 3 for today - season tickets.

"New" (ie not renewal) season tickets are only purchaseable from noon the day before they start, "to avoid misuse of season tickets, they can only be purchased a short period of time beforehand."

Howso? I don't know the ins and outs but I assume that gates are programmed only to accept tickets that are in date, and the relevant railway staff are presumably trained to identify visually whether a ticket is in date or not. In what other ways can they be misused such that I can't buy one whenever I like?

Thanks for listening!

The large date on the ticket is the expiry date and because you can have any period between a month and a year it isn't always obvious to staff checking. There is no start date encoded on the strip so the gate wouldn't stop you. Renewals can be issued early to replace the remaining validity of the previous ticket, which is why the start date isn't encoded.

If you travel in London then you can buy travelcard seasons on Oyster in advance as the Oyster system does use both start and end dates.

 

[mp01]

Thanks. The start date is printed on the ticket - is it really not possible to encode that on the mag strip?

 

[bb21]

Thanks. The start date is printed on the ticket - is it really not possible to encode that on the mag strip?

There is not enough room on the magstrip to include any more information.

The magstrip is a product of the 20th century.

 

[87 027]

And the paper ticket is the product of the 19th century! I was amused by this recent piece on mobile ticketing (or general lack thereof)

http://www.mobileindustryreview.com...inder-why-mobile-is-still-in-its-infancy.html

 

[Timster83]

Interestingly, I renewed my annual season ticket last December with it due to start from 8th Dec (the original one ended on 7th Dec) and right up until the 8th, the renewed ticket would not work in the gates at Glasgow Central (only the original would). On the 8th, it started to work.

 

[maniacmartin]

Interesting. You bought an annual, which is the longest you can buy a season for. So, I suspect that the gateline read the expiry date, subtracted the longest possible season (365 days) and saw that it was in the future, so didn't open.

The gateline would be unable to do this for a shorter period season.

 

[LexyBoy]

I have used an annual in the barriers at Reading a couple of days before its start date, so it must be dependent on the barrier type (and programming).

Also, not all Seasons have a start date, though of course it can be calculated from the "valid until" and the number of months and days paid.

 

[mfc3024]

And the paper ticket is the product of the 19th century! I was amused by this recent piece on mobile ticketing (or general lack thereof)

http://www.mobileindustryreview.com...inder-why-mobile-is-still-in-its-infancy.html

Very interesting article here and the author is completely correct in saying that it is ridiculous that in the days of smart phones that people can't use these to purchase tickets then to travel on trains.

However, smart phones don't go through ticket barriers and volume of train passengers is much greater, and less controlled, than air passengers.

It would be great if you could buy tickets remotely via a smart phone and scan through barriers etc but with multiple TOCs having to agree on technology, costs involved and the splitting of revenue, I think this will be a long time away. I don't think there is a desire to remove rail tickets - smart cards (eg oyster) are great and certainly a step in the right direction - but I think the paper ticket will still be here for many years to come.

 

[Matt Taylor]

However, smart phones don't go through ticket barriers

But I can check in for my flight on my phone, download the boarding card and show it to the machine at the UK border exit and it lets me go airside. If I can zip around Europe on British Airways just using my iPhone then it is not unreasonable to expect the same principles to apply on domestic train travel.

 

[bangor-toad]

Smartphone ticketing is available and seems to be used reasonably widely in Northern Ireland.

Have a look at: Translink Website for some details.

It seems to offer a slightly wider range of ticket options than the paper based alternatives.
Cheers,
Jason

 

[hairyhandedfool]

There are m-tickets available from some rail companies (VT, XC and GA I think), but only Advance tickets for travel on those companies. In all cases though, the m-ticket must be shown when requested, so a dead battery means a new ticket.

I can see how they might work for season tickets and Rangers/Rovers, but I do not realistically see how m-ticket could work for Anytime and Off-Peak tickets.

 

[mp01]

Interesting lack of technology to blame all round then.

But it causes a bit of difficulty. The season tickets in question are for my son and we buy them each half term - that's cheapest. In the past we'd buy the new one the Saturday before school started, but it seems that we won't be able to do that under the new system, only from noon on Sunday. But there isn't a station for miles around that has an open ticket office on a Sunday. I guess we're a minority kind of purchaser, but is this some kind of oversight?

 

[Flamingo]

Digressing slightly, we've just had a briefing about Smartphone tickets now being in use. I first saw one about two months before the briefing, but I suppose we can't have everything!

 

[brompton rail]

Weekly Seasons cannot be purchased more than 24 hours in advance, but monthly or longer can. Monday's ticket can be purchased on Friday.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/season_tickets.aspx links to National Rail Enquiries.

 

[Deerfold]

Weekly Seasons cannot be purchased more than 24 hours in advance, but monthly or longer can. Monday's ticket can be purchased on Friday.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/season_tickets.aspx links to National Rail Enquiries.

Or indeed Saturday. That appears to be what the OP wants to do.

Though that page is written by someone who does not know the difference between "maybe" and "may be".

 

[mp01]

Yes, that is helpful to know. Pity that some ticket sellers that I've come across over the last couple of days haven't said that.

Thanks!

 

[snail]

not all Seasons have a start date, though of course it can be calculated from the "valid until" and the number of months and days paid.

My current season ticket was bought last Thursday, 29 August and is valid until 4 October. The period is shown as 'Renewal' for 1 month 00 days. The 'missing' 7 days are void days added to the proper expiry date of 28 September.

 

[kieron]

Weekly Seasons cannot be purchased more than 24 hours in advance, but monthly or longer can. Monday's ticket can be purchased on Friday.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/season_tickets.aspx links to National Rail Enquiries.

You can buy season tickets further in advance if you buy online (or, I suppose, with telesales). You can buy a weekly ticket (at least from Southern) two weeks in advance, and collect it from a ticket machine the same day. Longer period tickets are sent by post.

There are advantages to buying from a company with a ticket office near you, though.