New Virgin East Coast Website

[westv]

Anybody know when this new system will be live and whether we'll still be able to use the old system from then (I assume not)?

 

[Wallsendmag]

Yes and no


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[Hadders]

Yes and no

It's a shame Webtis is going especially as GNER we're the pioneers of it.

I used to use East Coast for all my ticket purchases. With the demise of Rewards and now this change there is little point. All I will use VTEC for now is special offers that can't be booked elsewhere.

 

[Joe Paxton]

It's a shame Webtis is going especially as GNER we're the pioneers of it.

Still using WebTIS are all the First Group TOCs (GWR, TPX, Hull Trains) plus c2c and Chiltern (unlike the other Arriva TOCs that use Trainline). And Atos's own redspottedhanky.

With redspottedhanky and GWR you can force use of the original 'mixing deck' interface by using the prefix 'tickets' in the URL, so for example: http://tickets.redspottedhanky.com

 

[Wallsendmag]

It's a shame Webtis is going especially as GNER we're the pioneers of it.



I used to use East Coast for all my ticket purchases. With the demise of Rewards and now this change there is little point. All I will use VTEC for now is special offers that can't be booked elsewhere.

It's starting to show its age there are quite a few things it struggles to handle and some it just can't.


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[Joe Paxton]

It's starting to show its age there are quite a few things it struggles to handle and some it just can't.

Out of curiosity what are these limitations to WebTIS? (I appreciate Wallsendmag might not be able to answer directly, so others feel free to chip in!)

One limitation from a user point-of-view of WebTIS is that it's easy to miss when there are First class Advance tickets that are cheaper than Standard class tickets (i.e. where the cheaper Std class ticket allocations have sold out), that and when First class might only be a little more expensive than Standard.

Also, thinking of the main competition, to me the basic Trainline interface could also be said to be showing its age, though I appreciate there are various 'skins' for it and that underneath it has (well it must have been) updated over the years.

I have to say that nowadays I'm finding booking with Crosscountry an attracive prospect, not for any aesthetic user interface rationale but simply because of their new 'no admin fee' policy for Advance ticket date/time changes.

 

[yorkie]

Is there a way to obtain cycle reservations on this system? I can't see any.

 

[tspaul26]

Website crashed - not a promising start!

 

[Haywain]

Website crashed - not a promising start!

Err, what happened?

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[tspaul26]

Err, what happened?

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Interface wasn't loading correctly (no enriched typefaces, &c.) and journey planner fields kept resetting. Then the whole thing froze and redirected to the standard website.

Maybe next time...

 

[yorkie]

I've encountered a difference in interpretation for a rule involving the 'Network Area' between the two sites; the new site is charging a lower fare for some journeys than the old site.

I'll send details to people I know who work for VTEC (in a fares capacity) in case they are interested. If either of the suppliers of these systems are interested, they are more than welcome to contact me and I'll be happy to provide the details.

 

[Haywain]

Is there a way to obtain cycle reservations on this system? I can't see any.

Not at present, and no firm future plans to include that functionality.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Interface wasn't loading correctly (no enriched typefaces, &c.) and journey planner fields kept resetting. Then the whole thing froze and redirected to the standard website.

Maybe next time...

Which browser were you using?

 

[tspaul26]

Which browser were you using?

Tried Chrome on a PC and Safari on both Mac and iPhone. Same issues encountered.

 

[SaveECRewards]

Not at present, and no firm future plans to include that functionality.

That's a bit annoying as making it difficult for cyclists when a new site should be making things easier.

The main drawback of WebTIS is you had to go through the full reservation stage just to see if bike spaces were available, then if there weren't any available you then had to click back to the list and try another service, but at least it was possible.

Ideally a new booking engine could indicate services where cycle reservations are possible but are not available (maybe if you set a cycling preference in your profile so it doesn't cause visual clutter for non-cyclists) then make it easy to reserve a space.

The new website is missing two features for me:
- Cycle reservations (I'd consider this is major regression if the existing site is closed without this implemented)
- Catering vouchers (not sure how popular they are but I use them)

At least with cycle reservations we can still use GWR to book the VTEC tickets (and GWR gives Nectar points on all rail tickets!) but then we lose the seatmap (but that often disappeared with a cycle res for some reason), the catering vouchers can't be booked anywhere else (they could on the now discontinued Southern instance of WebTIS for some reason but none of the others)

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

I have an account with Virgin East Coast and a few days had an email supposedly from them asking me to re register my account. I was not sure if it was a spam/fraud etc so I ignored it, however when I tried to log-on today, it did seem to indicate that I should register again, although I did eventually get into my original account.

Has anyone else had a similar occurrence?

Thank you.

 

[47271]

You have to reregister with them to use their new website, an inconvenience that's barely worth the effort in my view, so maybe that's the background to the email you received from them.

I did this a week or so ago when the new site was a beta version, so haven't had any emails off them.

 

[Norther Monkey]

I've had the same email, it all looks legit but, like you, I had a level of suspicion. I've no idea why they need to do this. I seem to remember that when VTEC took over from East Coast the accounts were transferred pretty seamlessly.

 

[ld0595]

I got an email but oddly I managed to log on without creating a new account. Here's a screenshot of the email I got. Perhaps it's because I logged into the mobile rather than desktop site?

I wonder why they had to make everyone do that? Seems a bit odd.

 

[47271]

'for the awesome' - oh please. The Virgin guff really does wear you down eventually.

When you complete a booking on the new site it announces it with a cheery 'Wahey!' No, all I've done is booked a tiny seat on an overcrowded morning train from York to Kings Cross.

 

[Joe Paxton]

When the Southern, Southeastern and London Midland sites changed from Atos WebTIS to their new Govia booking engine the same thing happened, i.e. a requirement to re-register in order to use the new site.

I dare say maintaining an account with VTEC might prove useful for when a sale comes along.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Yes it's legit , but once you resister your booking history is shown on the new site.


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[Paul Kelly]

It's quite possible that the new site is actually run by a different legal entity from the old one and there would be data protection implications were they just to share all the user account information?

 

[ashworth]

'for the awesome' - oh please. The Virgin guff really does wear you down eventually.

When you complete a booking on the new site it announces it with a cheery 'Wahey!' No, all I've done is booked a tiny seat on an overcrowded morning train from York to Kings Cross.

I know exactly what you mean! During the week between booking my ticket and travelling I almost received daily emails from them with them arriving at even more frequent intervals during the 24 hours before travelling and again before my return journey.

Each email reminded me that I will get free Wifi and that I must remember my Wifi Code which I will find printed on my Booking Comfirmation. Only problem was there were no Wifi codes on my Booking Confirmation. I showed these emails and my booking confirmation to the man at the Information desk, at Grantham on my outward journey, he couldn't understand why I hadn't received a Wifi code and suggested that all I could do was to send VTEC an email about this. Now, of course I am waiting the up to 30 days before my email may be responded to. I wonder if I will get any useful compensation?

 

[tspaul26]

Each email reminded me that I will get free Wifi and that I must remember my Wifi Code which I will find printed on my Booking Comfirmation. Only problem was there were no Wifi codes on my Booking Confirmation. I showed these emails and my booking confirmation to the man at the Information desk, at Grantham on my outward journey, he couldn't understand why I hadn't received a Wifi code and suggested that all I could do was to send VTEC an email about this. Now, of course I am waiting the up to 30 days before my email may be responded to. I wonder if I will get any useful compensation?

And with our amazing free onboard wifi, you can do just that!

It's so easy even a woman could do it.* All you have to do is log in using the code included with your bo..ah...

*Added for those following some of Philip Hammond's recent travails in another thread.

 

[Wallsendmag]

It's quite possible that the new site is actually run by a different legal entity from the old one and there would be data protection implications were they just to share all the user account information?

No it's the same people


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[Hadders]

No it's the same people

Blimey. If it's still ATOS then from a customer point of view it's as bad as when they tried to change to the Fares View version that was quickly binned.

Still don't understand why a new account is needed if it's the same people running it.

 

[stuart100100]

I got the same email on Friday and asked them on twitter if it was genuine. I was told to ignore it!

 

[alistairlees]

Blimey. If it's still ATOS then from a customer point of view it's as bad as when they tried to change to the Fares View version that was quickly binned.

Still don't understand why a new account is needed if it's the same people running it.

The new booking engine is (I believe) Vix / SilverRail (I am happy to be corrected!). The old booking engine was Worldline (Atos spun off Worldline as a separate entity some years ago).

Which TIS supplier provides it has no bearing on the legal entity that you are entering into a contract with. In both cases it's Virgin Trains East Coast (or whatever their correct legal name is).

As to why your login details cannot be transferred, the answer is probably that they are hashed (they should be anyway). Hashing is a one way process - in other words you can't reverse it. So it isn't possible to pass on your logon (well, password) details from one technology system to another; the user has to re-enter them.

As to whether your order history (and any other historical data) are transferred from one TIS system to another, that's more a matter for how the databases are structured in each, and whether these are compatible / it's worth the effort.

When the East Coast franchise / directly operated service was replaced by the Virgin Trains East Coast Service, that was of course a change of legal entity that you, as a customer, were contracting with, and permission should have been sought to transfer your data from one to the other.

 

[westv]

It will be bad news for me if my orders can't be transferred over. I have loads I need to keep.
I've heard nothing yet from VTEC.