Newton-Le-Willows to Chester

[joke2711]

Hi

Had an interesting scenario yesterday.
Arrived at Newton-Le-Willows to travel to Chester with 5 minutes until departure.
There was a queue at the ticket office so headed for a ticket machine and on the main display (most common journeys) there was a box for Chester Off Peak Return.
Selected and paid for tickets and boarded the Transport for Wales train.
There was no ticket check on the outbound.
On returning there was a ticket check where I was told my tickets were not valid. On inspection of said tickets it says Northern Trains only.
Train Manager was fine and fortunately didn't take the matter any further when I explained what I had selected.
Whilst I accept responsibility for not reading the T&Cs properly .. its worth noting that a Northern Ticket machine will sell you an Off Peak Day return, Valid on Northern Trains only, on the one day that Northern don't operate any services on the route ....

I have attached the tickets below ..

 

[Djgr]

Everything Northern touch....

 

[JBuchananGB]

Presumably you should have bought this ticket
http://www.brfares.com/#faredetail?orig=NLW&dest=CTR&rte=329&tkt=CDR
but how were you to know?

 

[30907]

I assume the button didn't say "Northern Only" and it didn't invite you to choose outward and return trains?
In which case adding your complaint to the pile Northern are dealing with would be worth it. The "most popular fares" screen is a good idea in theory but often works badly.

 

[joke2711]

I assume the button didn't say "Northern Only" and it didn't invite you to choose outward and return trains?
In which case adding your complaint to the pile Northern are dealing with would be worth it. The "most popular fares" screen is a good idea in theory but often works badly.

If it did .. it didn't jump out at me ... but selling you a ticket for a service that doesn't exist is beyond comprehension.

 

[Rail Ranger]

Always best to check the fares on www.brfares.com beforehand. You would then have known the price of the inter-available off-peak day return (I know you shouldn't have to do this).

 

[JBuchananGB]

I looked at the train running times today, and noticed that for 50 minutes in every hour, the next train to arrive will be the Transport for Wales service. So if that TVM is prominently selling the Northern Only ticket, it will be the wrong one most of the time!

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I looked at the train running times today, and noticed that for 50 minutes in every hour, the next train to arrive will be the Transport for Wales service. So if that TVM is prominently selling the Northern Only ticket, it will be the wrong one most of the time!

Yes, they do rather chase each other westbound from Ordsall Lane.
Better spaced eastbound from Chester.

 

[SteveM70]

Everything Northern touch....

Exactly

There are also dozens of instances I’m aware of where they offer anytime day returns for walk up tickets at weekends.

 

[Llandudno]

I assume the button didn't say "Northern Only" and it didn't invite you to choose outward and return trains?
In which case adding your complaint to the pile Northern are dealing with would be worth it. The "most popular fares" screen is a good idea in theory but often works badly.

What hope of 90% of the population got, most people still don’t know the difference between the various operators and understandably for mundane, local journeys just buy the first ticket they see on the screen.

 

[miami]

What hope of 90% of the population got, most people still don’t know the difference between the various operators and understandably for mundane, local journeys just buy the first ticket they see on the screen.

Only solution would seem to be to remove the "X Toc only" tickets and only have the more expensive "any toc" tickets. If you hide the "X toc only" tickets, then you're hiding the cheaper tickets. If you put them all equally prominent you're confusing people.

 

[joke2711]

Only solution would seem to be to remove the "X Toc only" tickets and only have the more expensive "any toc" tickets. If you hide the "X toc only" tickets, then you're hiding the cheaper tickets. If you put them all equally prominent you're confusing people.

However on the day in question there was only one operator running, so having prominent tickets displayed for services that you cannot catch seems stupid beyond belief.