New Virgin East Coast Website

[SaveECRewards]

So... are we going live on Monday?

BTW anyone know why www.eastcoast.co.uk and www.gner.co.uk have been deliberately broken when they used to redirect?

 

[SpacePhoenix]

So... are we going live on Monday?

BTW anyone know why www.eastcoast.co.uk and www.gner.co.uk have been deliberately broken when they used to redirect?

Looking both up on a whois search, the GNER domain expires 3rd October this year and the East Coast domain expires 21st September next year. Both have "Registered until expiry date" so maybe they've decided not to renew either. I'm surprised that they bothered redirecting the GNER one this long considering that GNER ceased to exist in 2007. What domain did the National Express East Coast use?

 

[rmt4ever]

So... are we going live on Monday?

BTW anyone know why www.eastcoast.co.uk and www.gner.co.uk have been deliberately broken when they used to redirect?

Very annoying. I still type gner.co.uk because much shorter easier and quicker

 

[SaveECRewards]

Looking both up on a whois search, the GNER domain expires 3rd October this year and the East Coast domain expires 21st September next year. Both have "Registered until expiry date" so maybe they've decided not to renew either. I'm surprised that they bothered redirecting the GNER one this long considering that GNER ceased to exist in 2007. What domain did the National Express East Coast use?

NXEC was nationalexpresseastcoast.com

GNER was nice and easy to type

East Coast should be kept around as the generic name of the franchise.

Perhaps as VTEC don't own the GNER trademark they have to pass the domain to someone who has. But if they're not renewing the East Coast domain that just seems a bit cheap.

All the links to eastcoast.co.uk quietly redirected to the VTEC domain meaning links from other websites to things like the EC menus, delay repay, customer relations, etc all worked

 

[Deerfold]

eastcoast.co.uk stopped working a few months ago.

nationalexpress.co.uk seems to be owned by National Express, but with only a couple of months until expiry.

 

[Joe Paxton]

eastcoast.co.uk stopped working a few months ago.

eastcoast.co.uk without the 'www' prefix didn't redirect to anything, you just got a blank screen - with 'www' it redirected to the VTEC site.

...
All the links to eastcoast.co.uk quietly redirected to the VTEC domain meaning links from other websites to things like the EC menus, delay repay, customer relations, etc all worked

I hadn't appreciated that. But I don't think such 'deep web links' have been maintained when other franchises have changed hands, so for VTEC this was unusual (presuably it happened because Stagecoach/Virgin actually took over ownership of the EC Main Line Co Ltd, unlike what normally happens at franchise changeovers).

I am pretty sure the eastcoast.co.uk domain will be kept and renewed.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

I am pretty sure the eastcoast.co.uk domain will be kept and renewed.

Does VTEC own the East Coast trademark?

 

[Darandio]

Very annoying. I still type gner.co.uk because much shorter easier and quicker

Bookmark? It's a radical thought, I know.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Does VTEC own the East Coast trademark?

I don't think that's necessarily a deciding factor when it comes to domain registation if the name is uncontested.

From a legal point of view, VTEC is East Coast - East Coast was, and VTEC is the East Coast Main Line Co Ltd.

I did just have a quick search on the IPO website and was interested to find that ECML Co Ltd's two applications for trademarks in 2013 - one for the name, one for a logo - were actually refused. Perhaps "East Coast" is too generic a phrase?

 

[Deerfold]

Perhaps "East Coast" is too generic a phrase?

I suspect it's too broad for all transport as there's already an East Coast Buses registered. If it had been East Coast Trains it'd probably have been fine.

 

[SaveECRewards]

eastcoast.co.uk without the 'www' prefix didn't redirect to anything, you just got a blank screen - with 'www' it redirected to the VTEC site.



I hadn't appreciated that. But I don't think such 'deep web links' have been maintained when other franchises have changed hands, so for VTEC this was unusual (presuably it happened because Stagecoach/Virgin actually took over ownership of the EC Main Line Co Ltd, unlike what normally happens at franchise changeovers).

I am pretty sure the eastcoast.co.uk domain will be kept and renewed.

The final GNER website was taken over by NXEC and was restyled. All the links still worked. Then East Coast took over the same site and restyled it again.

When East Coast redone the website in a responsive style they made sure the paths on the old site mapped to the paths on the new one. The current website (not the booking engine) is based on the East Coast responsive site so they mapped the URLs from the old EC site to the new one, meaning in theory a GNER URL about catering should have still ended up in the correct spot!

 

[SaveECRewards]

Bookmark? It's a radical thought, I know.

Bookmarks? Rarely use them. The browser history is good though, type vir and up it pops.

But if I'm on a device or a machine that's not mine, typing gner.co.uk is so handy, virgintrainseastcoast.com is too long to be convenient.

East Coast did briefly redirect gner.co.uk requests to an update your bookmarks landing page - see here: http://web.archive.org/web/20110129112839/http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/about-us/bookmarking/

I'm not sure whether or not it was just to get people out of the habit of typing nationalexpresseastcoast.com but it wasn't too long before gner.co.uk went back to the main website.

 

[SaveECRewards]

^MS mentioned on Twitter this site is going live tomorrow. An email I just received points out that this indeed won't go live without cycle reservations and suggests phoning to book.

So they're suggesting we wind back the clock almost 10 years.

Of course, most of us know GWR, Chiltern, etc still use WebTIS and people can book their VTEC ticket on there (and they get the commission) but if people ask VTEC customer relations or on Twitter then their Twitter team will not tell them of the other online options but will suggest the phone.

On the same email underneath the bit about the cycle reservations there's a reminder that I can still collect sweet, sweet Nectar! I'm registered with Flying Club on my VTEC account, so poor targeting there.

In this blog post there's a screenshot of WebTIS from 2007 in GNER colours: http://saveecrewards.co.uk/blog/webtis-last-gift-gner

 

[Joe Paxton]

...
In this blog post there's a screenshot of WebTIS from 2007 in GNER colours: http://saveecrewards.co.uk/blog/webtis-last-gift-gner

In that blog post you list all the other TOCs which still use Worldline (Atos) WebTIS... except for c2c!

(Though I really have found XC's no-fee for amending Advance tickets very useful of late... but XC are of course a Trainline-powered site.)

 

[SaveECRewards]

In that blog post you list all the other TOCs which still use Worldline (Atos) WebTIS... except for c2c!

(Though I really have found XC's no-fee for amending Advance tickets very useful of late... but XC are of course a Trainline-powered site.)

I didn't think of c2c, for some reason I thought they used a Trainline powered site.

Are XC's fee free changes for any TOC? I thought it would just be their own?

This article is aimed at cyclists, but if you can change VTEC tickets booked on the XC site free of charge that's worthy of a mention in another article.

Personally I'd rather have free changes than free WiFi, I normally just give my WiFi codes away to people on Twitter who've been unfortunate enough to book on the Virgin Trains website thinking it'll get them free WiFi on the completely separate VTEC just to be dismissed on social as 'we're separate companies'!

 

[Hadders]

Looks like Webtis has gone as the direct address www.tickets.virgintrainseastcoast.com/ec/en/JourneyPlanning/MixingDeck is now diverting to the new site :cry:

Searching for a journey from Stevenage to Edinburgh it's only offering 1st Class walk on fares - no Standard Class and no Advance tickets of any class!!!

 

[Romilly]

The new site is clearly struggling.

I wanted to change the date of travel on some Advance tickets booked on the old site. I know that an earlier post said it might not be possible to do that on the new site, but I thought I would check to see whether that had been sorted following the switch-off of the old site. I have previously registered on the new site, and on the new site have seen all my bookings (for dates up to and including December) under the tab "Past bookings". But now it can't find my past bookings! My only hope is that the link to them is simply temporarily suspended for the purpose of adding the functionality to view and amend them on the new site.

 

[Hadders]

Looks like Webtis has gone as the direct address www.tickets.virgintrainseastcoast.com/ec/en/JourneyPlanning/MixingDeck is now diverting to the new site :cry:

Searching for a journey from Stevenage to Edinburgh it's only offering 1st Class walk on fares - no Standard Class and no Advance tickets of any class!!!

Still not fixed. How the hell does someone book anything other than a First Class walk on ticket?

I used to put all of my (reasonably substantial) rail travel through East Coast, then VTEC. I haven't bothered since Rewards were scrapped unless I need to use the seat selector.

 

[Silver Cobra]

Looks like Webtis has gone as the direct address www.tickets.virgintrainseastcoast.com/ec/en/JourneyPlanning/MixingDeck is now diverting to the new site :cry:

Searching for a journey from Stevenage to Edinburgh it's only offering 1st Class walk on fares - no Standard Class and no Advance tickets of any class!!!

Seems any searches using Stevenage as the starting station bring about the same or similar "results". I tested Stevenage to Newcastle, which only gives 1st Class walk-on fares is the same way as your Stevenage-Edinburgh search, whereas Stevenage to Leeds causes an error.

**Edit: I tested trying to purchase a Stevenage-Edinburgh advance by selecting it on NRE first and being redirected to buy it from the VTEC website. When the redirect page came up, it listed the ticket status as 'FareNotFound'.
**Edit 2: Decided to test using my local station (Arlesey) to test purchasing advances to Newcastle for October 9th, and that causes the same error as searching Stevenage-Leeds. I also tested nearby stations (Biggleswade, Hitchin and Baldock), and those returned the same error.

 

[Wallsendmag]

We're looking into it now


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[rmt4ever]

Does anyone remember when GNER introduced the webtis booking and gave away free first class tickets to the first customers to try it out?

Which National Express then had to honour lol

That was surely the best special offer on railway ever

 

[Joe Paxton]

I didn't think of c2c, for some reason I thought they used a Trainline powered site.

Are XC's fee free changes for any TOC? I thought it would just be their own?

I suspect c2c is used to being forgotten about!

XC's fee-free changes do indeed apply to Advances for any TOC, and work for on-the-day Advances (where available) too.

As far as I can see XC just have the standard Trainline process for amending tickets, which could perhaps be a bit smoother but it does the job.

 

[Max]

I was very disappointed to see that the new site is now the only site, as of yesterday. Seemingly the 'trains calling at feature' is gone - subsequently I have taken my business elsewhere.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

I was very disappointed to see that the new site is now the only site, as of yesterday. Seemingly the 'trains calling at feature' is gone - subsequently I have taken my business elsewhere.

VTEC have also removed the facility to reserve a cycle space online from their website. I've fired off a complaint but I suspect I too will be booking through other rail websites from now on.

Does anyone know any other rail booking website that allows you to book a cycle space?

 

[yorkie]

TPE and Chiltern for a start.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Still not fixed. How the hell does someone book anything other than a First Class walk on ticket?

I used to put all of my (reasonably substantial) rail travel through East Coast, then VTEC. I haven't bothered since Rewards were scrapped unless I need to use the seat selector.

try again now

 

[rg177]

Well TPE now has all of my business as of today.

Like many here, I used to use East Coast for everything but VTEC have gradually given me less and less reasons to do so.

Sent from my F3111 using Tapatalk

 

[yorkie]

Is there any way to purchase a 1st class Advance in one direction, and a Super Off Peak single (at half the price of a return) in the other direction?

If not, this is a massive step backwards, and the customer will purchase a Super Off Peak Return instead, as they are not prepared to be ripped off by paying for a single that only costs about a quid less than a return.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Is there any way to purchase a 1st class Advance in one direction, and a Super Off Peak single (at half the price of a return) in the other direction?

If not, this is a massive step backwards, and the customer will purchase a Super Off Peak Return instead, as they are not prepared to be ripped off by paying for a single that only costs about a quid less than a return.

SaveECRewards raised this issue in this recent blog post.

It's a surprising omission... unless VTEC didn't have much love for this ticket and the changeover to a new booking engine was seen as an opportune moment to ditch it?

(VTEC imposed the requirement it could only be bought as part of a return journey... beforehand it was available as a straightforward single, albeit one that had to be purchased online by midnight the day before travel.)

 

[Wallsendmag]

SaveECRewards raised this issue in this recent blog post.

It's a surprising omission... unless VTEC didn't have much love for this ticket and the changeover to a new booking engine was seen as an opportune moment to ditch it?

(VTEC imposed the requirement it could only be bought as part of a return journey... beforehand it was available as a straightforward single, albeit one that had to be purchased online by midnight the day before travel.)

it'll be back soon