Excesses

[clagmonster]

Am I correct in thinking that the fare to excess one portion of a return ticket from a restricted route to any permitted is half of the difference between the two fares? Also, on that basis, I believe I recall reading on here that some ticket machines incorrectly charge the full difference. Could someone please tell me which machines charge the correct half, and which charge the full difference. Many thanks in advance.

 

[me123]

I can't answer your second question, but you are correct. An excess for one portion of a return costs half the difference of the two return tickets.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

I can't remember what Shere's "Smart" machine does (its been four years since I've used it and even then I rarely did excesses on it), but Cubic's "Fastis" is set to excess tickets correctly.

 

[clagmonster]

Thanks very much to the pair of you. Does anyone know which operators use the Cubic machine (I assume operators have standard machines). For this case, I would be likely to use Northern/TPE booking offices or guards/TTIs, but it would be useful to know about others for future referance of both others and myself, I'm sure.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Northern ticket offices use Cubic's Fastis, can't say about any other TOCs though.

 

[metrocammel]

TPE use Fujitsu Star.

 

[janb]

TPE use Fujitsu Star.

Which as long as the operator selects the right things, ie return leg only, will give the correct excess fare automatically. It is also possible to do manual excess fares anyway, again if the operator knows what they are doing/excess rules.

 

[clagmonster]

Just a bit of feedback from today. I had a cheap day return from Leeds-Littleborough, route Hebden Bridge, price £5.30 with a YP railcard. I wanted to excess the return portion to route any permitted, so that I could travel via Manchester. The price of the any permitted ticket is £11.15, so I make the difference to be £5.85, which halved is £2.93.
The booking clerk at Hebden Bridge couldn't get his machine to come up with the correct fare of £2.90, instead it came up with £5.85, although he agreed with me that the correct fare should be £2.90, and was very friendly.
The guard on a Hebden-Manc Vic train got a similar result, as did the booking clerk at Deansgate. Both claimed that both portions would have to be excessed, and in the case of the guard it was a special case because cheap day returns are so cheap.
The booking clerk at Manc Picc successfully came up with a fare of £2.90.
Just to clarify, am I right in thinking that the correct fare is indeed £2.90? In all cases, I clearly stated that I only wanted the return portion excessing. Would it be a good idea for me to write to Northern, due to the over-quoting of there staff?

Many thanks for all of your help and your time.

 

[glynn80]

Just a bit of feedback from today. I had a cheap day return from Leeds-Littleborough, route Hebden Bridge, price £5.30 with a YP railcard. I wanted to excess the return portion to route any permitted, so that I could travel via Manchester. The price of the any permitted ticket is £11.15, so I make the difference to be £5.85, which halved is £2.93.

The booking clerk at Manc Picc successfully came up with a fare of £2.90.
Just to clarify, am I right in thinking that the correct fare is indeed £2.90? In all cases, I clearly stated that I only wanted the return portion excessing. Would it be a good idea for me to write to Northern, due to the over-quoting of there staff?

Many thanks for all of your help and your time.

Is it actually £2.90 though, I was always under the impression that if a division (i.e. divided by two to obtain a 50% discount), was to occur and the amount did not fall direction to a multiple of £0.05, then it is rounded up, not down.

The Fare Discount Tables seem to agree with me, certainly with a 50% discount on £5.85 coming to £2.95.

But it might be an idea to write into Northern about the issue with regard to them being unable to excess a single portion.

I have recently been impressed by the service I received when complaining about a training issue with a South Eastern guard and received great feedback about their measures for rectifying these sorts of issues and what future training initiatives they were implementing. Also worth noting that South Eastern's Customer Service centre is open 24 hours a day and was a surprise to me when trying to find an email address to write into complain on a Sunday evening, that I could instead, call and outline my issue and have them write it up for me.

 

[yorkie]

Both claimed that both portions would have to be excessed, and in the case of the guard it was a special case because cheap day returns are so cheap.

They're wrong.

Now, I'd like a system where Northern treat their customers with respect bujt this is not the case currently sadly. If they're going to pursue people through the courts (see other topics) over honest mistakes, then blatant untruths by people whose JOB it is to know better than to give a false price, should be given at least a similar threat of going through the courts!

If a passenger can be in court over 30p, then a guard should be in court over £2.90.

In any other customer-serving industry we'd not be having these sort of discussions. But the railways are, sadly, a special case

 

[clagmonster]

Thanks to both Glynn and Yorkie. I will be writing in, but before I do is there a publicly available reference I can use to back up my letter? Obviously I will have the ticket which I did eventually obtain.
Glynn, I was surprised to be charged £2.90, I though the price would be rounded up to £2.93 or £2.95.

 

[glynn80]

Thanks to both Glynn and Yorkie. I will be writing in, but before I do is there a publicly available reference I can use to back up my letter? Obviously I will have the ticket which I did eventually obtain.
Glynn, I was surprised to be charged £2.90, I though the price would be rounded up to £2.93 or £2.95.

There is nothing relating to excesses in the public domain unfortunately and even within the working railway world, there is very little awareness of the exact excessing conditions.

The best advice I can give is to go to your local station and ask them to print the relevant FRPP page for you and then station stamp those documents, you could then send those in with your complaint to Northern.

If you want to know which pages to ask for when you arrive at your local station, I'll look them up for you, just PM me with the details of what exactly you want proof of.