I will be travelling from Redbridge (Hants) which is unstaffed and has no ticket buying facilities.
Is it best to order the ticket online and show a printout of the order, or to simply buy the ticket after boarding the train?
The latter, assuming you want a walk-up ticket. Simply take a seat and be ready to pay when the Guard walks through doing tickets. If the Guard is unable to sell you a ticket, buy at destination (or interchange station, if appropriate/applicable).I will be travelling from Redbridge (Hants) which is unstaffed and has no ticket buying facilities.
Is it best to order the ticket online and show a printout of the order, or to simply buy the ticket after boarding the train?
Yes.One last question, I'll only be going to Winchester, which is two trains of fairly short duration. If the guard does not pass by, can I pay on arrival at Winchester
No.or am I supposed to have actively sought out the guard?
I suppose I was thinking the guard would be able to print out the ticket from the booking confirmation, but it seems not.
That's an interesting and sophisticated idea, which could also be implemented by having a ticket machine on board the train. No such solutions appear to have any likelihood of implementation in the near future or perhaps ever.
With no ticket facilities at my local station, I have the same problem. Provided I'm buying more than a week before I travel, I get tickets posted. Most of TOC websites do it for no additional cost.
Indeed, a ticket machine on the train would stop the bad treatment and suspicion of passengers who board at stations without ticket issuing facilities. It would also free up the guard to conduct safety critical (eg. door operation) duties without the hindrance of selling tickets.
I'm not disagreeing with you as I know you know the fares and ticketing system much better than I do, but a few times on the North Devon Line I have seen guards accept a printed booking confirmation for travel from one of the unmanned stations, with the aim of the ticket being collected on arrival at Exeter. (When I traveled the line regularly, I did so from an unmanned station, and often had a ticket for collection, but I was in Barnstaple enough to pop to the station there to collect rather than risk it!)There is no requirement to buy in advance, but if you do, the actual ticket must be shown. The booking confirmation cannot be used to travel in these circumstances (if the station was advertised as having collection facilities, but these were out of order, then the booking confirmation email would suffice)
There's nothing saying a guard can't accept the booking confirmation, but equally there is nothing saying that they must do so. In effect you would be playing Russian Roulette with respect to the reception that you would get from the guard.I'm not disagreeing with you as I know you know the fares and ticketing system much better than I do, but a few times on the North Devon Line I have seen guards accept a printed booking confirmation for travel from one of the unmanned stations, with the aim of the ticket being collected on arrival at Exeter.
No, but in any case this is not an advance fare - the usual feature of apps and print at home surely? Does any TOC do mobile or print at home walk up fares?I'm not familiar with the particular TOCs you will be using, but do they have mobile ticketing apps or print at home options for tickets bought online?
Northern, CrossCountry, VTEC certainly do walkup M-tickets, on all routes I think, and quite probably other TOCs too. It's really starting to get quite common.Does any TOC do mobile or print at home walk up fares?
Northern, CrossCountry, VTEC certainly do walkup M-tickets, on all routes I think, and quite probably other TOCs too. It's really starting to get quite common.
You still have to pay at the earliest practicable opportunity. If you've got oodles of time at the interchange station then you should pay there.Am I right in saying that once you have a permit to travel, you would be fine passing an interchange station and paying on the next train or must you still pay ASAP?
National Rail Conditions of Travel said:6.3 You must have in your possession a valid Ticket before you board a train unless one of the following circumstances applies:
(a) At the station where you start your journey, there is no means of purchasing a Ticket, either because there is no Ticket office open or self-service Ticket machine in working order
and, where notices indicate that you are in a Penalty Fares area
you purchase a Permit to Travel if there is a working Permit to Travel issuing machine at the station where you start your journey – see section 10 for more information about Penalty Fares...
In these cases, you must, as soon as you are reasonably able, buy an appropriate Ticket to complete your journey. The price of the Ticket you purchase will be the same as if you had bought a Ticket at the station from which you first departed.
I wouldn't recommend using m-tickets as they carry considerably more restrictions than the identically-priced corresponding paper tickets.On a separate note, are there any apps that can be downloaded for windows phone that will enable me to make use of etickets?
I wouldn't recommend using m-tickets as they carry considerably more restrictions than the identically-priced corresponding paper tickets.