Not the TOC you thought you were buying from.

[leytongabriel]

It won't be news to most readers, but I was surprised to discover this week that buying tickets from Greater Anglia actually means you are buying from Trainline.

This might not seem important but if a customer has a problem with an apparently faulty ticket machine or their tickets won't print for some reason, Greater Anglia booking office staff have to ring Trainline to get permission to reissue tickets. Which only works M-F 8am to sometime before 8pm and if it's outside those times and you need to travel you are pretty shafted.

I couldn't get my inbound ticket from the machine at my local unstaffed station (Lea Bridge) so travelled into London where I met the above scenario at Liverpool St and was given Trainline's number to ring another day. First they insisted I could only get my ticket by going into central London again ( why ?) and then that I had to post back the original outbound ticket to them at my own expense. Marvellous!

Are there any other TOCs like Greater Anglia who don't do their own ticketing and might be best avoided when buying online?

 

[yorkie]

It won't be news to most readers, but I was surprised to discover this week that buying tickets from Greater Anglia actually means you are buying from Trainline.

That's right; I don't think any TOC has developed its own booking engine in-house.

This might not seem important but if a customer has a problem with an apparently faulty ticket machine or their tickets won't print for some reason, Greater Anglia booking office staff have to ring Trainline to get permission to reissue tickets. Which only works M-F 8am to sometime before 8pm and if it's outside those times and you need to travel you are pretty shafted.

The customer would be allowed to travel with the booking reference in this case.

I couldn't get my inbound ticket from the machine at my local unstaffed station (Lea Bridge) so travelled into London where I met the above scenario at Liverpool St and was given Trainline's number to ring another day. First they insisted I could only get my ticket by going into central London again ( why ?) and then that I had to post back the original outbound ticket to them at my own expense. Marvellous!

Raise a complaint and let us know what Greater Anglia say

Are there any other TOCs like Greater Anglia who don't do their own ticketing and might be best avoided when buying online?

All TOCs contract out their booking engines, as far as I know.

Some TOCs owning groups part own some of these providers, for example On Track Retail is part owned by Go Ahead Group (which is the majority owner of Govia, which runs GTR), but that's not the same thing as a TOC doing their own ticketing website.

Is there a particular reason why you'd want to use a booking system that was developed in-house by a TOC? I can't see how it would be any better.

Rather than buying tickets from one of the TOCs I happen to be travelling with on any given journey, I tend to buy mine through Trainsplit, and generally obtain e-tickets. If a problem occurred, the developers and owners of the site are on this forum, so I wouldn't be given the runaround by any TOC or their suppliers.

 

[leytongabriel]

Thanks

I spoke to the duty manager at Liverpool St ( after getting a real 'computer says no' type response from the booking clerk). He seemed to do his best ( despite phones not working etc.) but at no time suggested I could travel with the booking reference. Especially as the booking clerk couldn't find it on the system (only the manager did) so would the person checking tickets on the train or at the gateline have been able to?

Without knowing all the complexities, I was wondering if some TOCs had their own system it would be easier for customers in cases of problems arising outside office hours.

 

[yorkie]

Thanks

I spoke to the duty manager at Liverpool St ( after getting a real 'computer says no' type response from the booking clerk). He seemed to do his best ( despite phones not working etc.) but at no time suggested I could travel with the booking reference. Especially as the booking clerk couldn't find it on the system (only the manager did) so would the person checking tickets on the train or at the gateline have been able to?

Without knowing all the complexities, I was wondering if some TOCs had their own system it would be easier for customers in cases of problems arising outside office hours.

If the ticket cannot be fulfilled the customer can still travel; it is the TOCs problem.

I don't think a TOC would be any more likely to have standby staff to resolve the issues outside office hours than a company like Trainline would.

Are e-tickets available for the journeys you make? e-tickets avoid the problems that can occur with ticket machines.

 

[Wallsendmag]

That's right; I don't think any TOC has developed its own booking engine in-house.

I think we probably as close as it gets to that but I wouldn't want to do it again.

 

[Haywain]

All TOCs contract out their booking engines, as far as I know

Not quite all.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

If the ticket cannot be fulfilled the customer can still travel; it is the TOCs problem.

But how would you get past the gateline, in the first place? Good luck at somewhere like Blackpool North!

 

[island]

Trainline was originally developed by a TOC, unless I am very much mistaken

 

[Haywain]

Trainline was originally developed by a TOC, unless I am very much mistaken

The Worldline booking engine was originally developed for one TOC.

 

[robbeech]

If the ticket cannot be fulfilled the customer can still travel; it is the TOCs problem.

This is all well and good in theory. But what SHOULD happen is not what happens.
When the passenger can’t fulfil their end of the deal they end up with a criminal record.
When the railway can’t fulfil their end of the deal they end up with the ticket price for doing nothing and the passenger can’t travel. Where’s the incentive to fix this?

I’ve never been able to travel on a booking confirmation without having to remind them of their obligation, so any passenger who isn’t aware of this (almost all of them) will just accept what they’re told by the staff and in many cases they won’t be travelling that day. Many of them will not be able to obtain a refund or will be fobbed off with an admin fee etc.
Even when there was a nationwide issue with TOD and every single operator was staring on websites and social media that booking confirmations were accepted there were XC guards selling new anytime singles to dozens of people per train without even so much as a thought about why there was a sudden influx of people in this situation. I guess the commission far outweighs the customer service element. Many of those people wouldn’t have known how to apply for a refund or will have been fobbed off. I am disappointed that I had a paper ticket on that train.

 

[jumble]

It won't be news to most readers, but I was surprised to discover this week that buying tickets from Greater Anglia actually means you are buying from Trainline.

This might not seem important but if a customer has a problem with an apparently faulty ticket machine or their tickets won't print for some reason, Greater Anglia booking office staff have to ring Trainline to get permission to reissue tickets. Which only works M-F 8am to sometime before 8pm and if it's outside those times and you need to travel you are pretty shafted.

I couldn't get my inbound ticket from the machine at my local unstaffed station (Lea Bridge) so travelled into London where I met the above scenario at Liverpool St and was given Trainline's number to ring another day. First they insisted I could only get my ticket by going into central London again ( why ?) and then that I had to post back the original outbound ticket to them at my own expense. Marvellous!

Are there any other TOCs like Greater Anglia who don't do their own ticketing and might be best avoided when buying online?

I am not surprised Greater Anglia ticketing is a mess.
Last December I went to Liverpool street to buy a Day Return from Waterloo to Shanklin using the hovercraft
The Greater Anglia ticket office were unable to find this journey on their system and could only sell via the ferry and denied the ticket I wanted existed .
The next day at Waterloo they easily found and sold the ticket to me