Indeed you will! I have moved the discussions of the intricacies of 16-25 railcards and mature student eligibility to this thread, where you can discuss it to your heart's content!
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GWR will not do zero fare excess
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Indeed you will! I have moved the discussions of the intricacies of 16-25 railcards and mature student eligibility to this thread, where you can discuss it to your heart's content!
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This crossed my mind too. Purchasing tickets via GWR's phone app is pretty much instant and collecting the ticket from the TVM is no more arduous than buying a ticket on spec. I also appreciate many people are not permitted to take mobile devices "on site", but such sites invariably have a process for booking in and out that overcomes this problem.
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The National Rail Conditions of Carriage cover these circumstances as follows:
Carry a copy of these conditions with you in case you need to refer to them while travelling.
That is generally taken as the correct thing to do to avoid getting into trouble unless you need to use an accepted payment method that the machines do not take. (For example, some machines do not accept cash.)
Yes - they will replace the ticket you bought with the one you wanted to buy but were unable to purchase if you explain this (and remind them of the relevant conditions if need be). On some occasions they might just endorse your ticket as a quicker alternative. If anyone refuses, then you should make a note of the circumstances and raise a complaint later, then try again at the next opportunity with someone else or at a ticket office.
There is no technical reason preventing ticket machines from selling tickets with a different origin and plenty of machines across the country do this. If this facility is not offered somewhere it's purely a business decision made by the train company concerned to prefer the use of the Condition 3 method quoted above.
Carry a copy of these conditions with you in case you need to refer to them while travelling.
That is generally taken as the correct thing to do to avoid getting into trouble unless you need to use an accepted payment method that the machines do not take. (For example, some machines do not accept cash.)
Yes - they will replace the ticket you bought with the one you wanted to buy but were unable to purchase if you explain this (and remind them of the relevant conditions if need be). On some occasions they might just endorse your ticket as a quicker alternative. If anyone refuses, then you should make a note of the circumstances and raise a complaint later, then try again at the next opportunity with someone else or at a ticket office.
There is no technical reason preventing ticket machines from selling tickets with a different origin and plenty of machines across the country do this. If this facility is not offered somewhere it's purely a business decision made by the train company concerned to prefer the use of the Condition 3 method quoted above.
It sounds to me that the OP is not wanting to excess the fare. They want to do an exchange of a cheaper ticket purchased as directed under section 3 of the NRCoC, as the ticket they want to buy was not available for sale at their origin station. Whether the TOC choose to do that by means of an excess fare, withdrawing the original ticket and issuing a whole new ticket or some other solution is up to the TOC. However the OP should not end up out of pocket and should not end up loaning the TOC the price of one of the tickets for a period of time whilst a ticket is submitted to a central facility to be refunded.
There is no requirement to buy online in advance, and I would advise against it. What if their place of employment called back at 3am to say they weren't needed after all? What if the TVMs were down or out of ticket stock when they went to collect? That just sounds like unnecessary hassle to me.
I would echo furlong's advice to carry a copy of the relevant pages of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage. It's available online.
There is no requirement to buy online in advance, and I would advise against it. What if their place of employment called back at 3am to say they weren't needed after all? What if the TVMs were down or out of ticket stock when they went to collect? That just sounds like unnecessary hassle to me.
I would echo furlong's advice to carry a copy of the relevant pages of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage. It's available online.
I do not use smartphones or tablets. And I prefer to pay cash.
I have now got the return excessed, but not at Paddington.
When I did my first zero excess it was 10+ years ago, at Paddington. I arrived, went to the ticket office and they issued it. They said it wasn't a problem and told me it was a zero excess.
Over the years it has become more difficult, with the experienced, older members of staff becoming replaced.
I now have a couple of solutions.
I have now got the return excessed, but not at Paddington.
When I did my first zero excess it was 10+ years ago, at Paddington. I arrived, went to the ticket office and they issued it. They said it wasn't a problem and told me it was a zero excess.
Over the years it has become more difficult, with the experienced, older members of staff becoming replaced.
I now have a couple of solutions.
ji459
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I had the same problem at Paddington almost two years ago - I wanted to excess my off-peak return from Ashford to Swansea to an off-peak return from Ashford to Carmarthen, which is the same price. I was told it wasn't possible but because it was a zero fare excess. In the end I got them to sell me an excess to Whitland (the next station beyond Carmarthen) for £7. I then wrote to FGW to complain. They refunded me the £7, but did say that the NRCoC were ambiguous about zero fare excesses.
When you get that call at 11pm at night, you go to whichever train ticket selling website site has the best cashback/loyalty system for your particular situation and order your ticket, to be printed on demand at the TVM of your choice on your arrival - even if the origin is difffernet to the one you're collecting it from
They refused an excess for my friend yesterday at Paddington for a chargeable excess. Super off peak single held London to Plymouth he'd purchased online a few weeks before to get a seat reservation. Last minute his plans changed and he decided to travel to Truro. Paddington refused to excess which would of been £8.40 I think, and insisted he must buy a Plymouth to Truro single at £10.00
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