New Chiltern Railways website and booking engine

[causton]

It seems 'via' on the Chiltern site means 'stopping at', as opposed to some other sites that mean 'pass through'.

As an example, tomorrow from London Euston to Birmingham New Street, 'via' Watford Junction, we should see Virgin services at 03, 23*, and 43 past the hour, and London Midland at 49* and 13.

However only the two with asterisks (*) next to them stop at Watford Junction, and that is therefore all that is shown...


Edit - I have totally confused myself using the new site. Arrows I thought meant change time change the date, if you click the details of a service then change the time/date it still shows the old details that don't match up with the current services displayed... ugh...!



Edit 2 - even if you choose an entirely different journey...!



Final edit I'm going to bed - if your journey is too long it gives up showing you it...

 

[Starmill]

I've had the problem where you click and it shows you a different journey to the one you just clicked on too. I guess that means it's just broken.

Seems like a bit of a disaster to me.

 

[alistairlees]

I've had the problem where you click and it shows you a different journey to the one you just clicked on too. I guess that means it's just broken.

Seems like a bit of a disaster to me.

Had the same thing too.

Also I can't stand the way the arrival time is in a smaller font size, with an arrow before it. It all merges into one unreadable mess on smaller screens.

 

[Mojo]

Are there any sites are left that use the mixing deck *and* support all stations? As far as I can make out, after London Midland moved to OrTIS, Chiltern was the last mixing deck site left that supported Whitechapel as a station. GWR, SWR, TPE, Hull Trains and c2c all have it mysteriously missing.

I haven’t seen the “Mixing deck” on the FGW/GWR website for well over a year now.

 

[CyrusWuff]

I haven’t seen the “Mixing deck” on the FGW/GWR website for well over a year now.

Doesn't appear if you follow the "Buy tickets" link from the homepage, but going directly to tickets.gwr.com still defaults to the "Mixing deck" view, at least for me.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Trying to visit tickets.chilternrailways.co.uk (i.e. the WebTIS site) now unceremoniously dumps you back to the main Chiltern homepage.

So much for "You can still access bookings made on the old site until the end of December"!

 

[SaveECRewards]

Trying to visit tickets.chilternrailways.co.uk (i.e. the WebTIS site) now unceremoniously dumps you back to the main Chiltern homepage.

So much for "You can still access bookings made on the old site until the end of December"!

They've removed all the booking functionality, you need to visit this link to access old bookings: https://tickets.chilternrailways.co.uk/ch/en/account/OrderHistory

At least it's better than the solution VTEC came up with to access old bookings.

 

[Dunnyrail]

The booking engine doesn't seem to work terribly well, being extremely slow. It's very similar to GWR which isn't working properly either, rejecting a credit card before it even asked which one I wanted to use. The GWR one also objected to the 8th journey input, saying that the limit was 8.

In the end I used Hull Trains, which still uses the older mixing desk design.

If you are a desktop or laptop user, there's no advantage to these new mobile or tablet friendly sites and they are hazardous when they don't work.

For some reason the national rail enquiries site isn't working either, not being able to link to ticketing sites.

I wonder if this is the reason why TOC's are reporting a reduction in Train Footfall?
JonD

 

[Bletchleyite]

I very much doubt it.

 

[Adsy125]

Are there any sites are left that use the mixing deck *and* support all stations? As far as I can make out, after London Midland moved to OrTIS, Chiltern was the last mixing deck site left that supported Whitechapel as a station. GWR, SWR, TPE, Hull Trains and c2c all have it mysteriously missing.

After being pestered about it on Twitter SWR now sell tickets to Whitechapel!

 

[Paul Kelly]

After being pestered about it on Twitter SWR now sell tickets to Whitechapel!

Great news! And in case anybody else hasn't found it, the following URL:
http://tickets.southwesternrailway.com/sw/en/JourneyPlanning/MixingDeck
will take you straight to an SWR-branded mixing deck interface.

 

[centraltrains]

Great news! And in case anybody else hasn't found it, the following URL:
http://tickets.southwesternrailway.com/sw/en/JourneyPlanning/MixingDeck
will take you straight to an SWR-branded mixing deck interface.

Lovely!!! Thanks!!!

 

[centraltrains]

Woah!!! Who did their 404 page?! Too American!!

https://gyazo.com/dc32c4b456be8e059b30f059cc2e250d

 

[Paul Kelly]

Woah!!! Who did their 404 page?! Too American!!

It was noted upthread that the new Chiltern booking engine is from Silverrail, which is (originally at least) an American company, so that might explain it?

 

[Dunnyrail]

Woah!!! Who did their 404 page?! Too American!!

https://gyazo.com/dc32c4b456be8e059b30f059cc2e250d

The world is being Americanised (oh dear is that one?) in conversation. Just listen to the amount of people who use the irritating "Train Station" description. We have just had a Transport Policy created for St.Neots Town Council by a bunch of Consultants. Irritatingly they cannot make their minds up whether it is a Railway Station (1 mention) or Train Station (2 mwntions) in their Document.
JonD

 

[Bantamzen]

To be honest I'm not sure. It's not a design I've come across before (reminds me of Virgin's however), but I am not fond of it, given the fact you have to scroll a long way to see all the ticket bands. I moved from LM to Chiltern when they changed their booking engine a year or so ago; it looks like I might be about to do the same, in order to keep using the Mixing Deck which is personally my favourite. Attached is a before and after comparison for identical searches.

I see what you mean about having to scroll a long way for all the options! But I suppose given the complexity of ticketing & the criticism that TOCs don't always offer all the options, then I guess this might be the compromise. I am a fan of the mixing desk style myself, this has more of a feel of an airline / holiday site where you do have to do a bit of searching for the best options but this is what many people will be more acquainted to. At least the options & restrictions are clearer so would hopefully at least reduce confusion, or at least once you had got used to looking at each.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The "mixing deck" is fine for people who know the system (i.e. people on here) - it's sort of like getting access to a ticket office TIS. But it doesn't make a lot of sense for "end users" - the Trainline style makes more sense to someone who doesn't know railway ticketing.