At Leeds station tonight I saw a message next to the notification for the 1640 to Reading, advising that 'Northern train tickets are not valid on this service'. Given that Northern-only tickets would usually not be valid on TPE or VTEC either I'm a little puzzled as to the rationale for this notice. Does anyone know the reason why?
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PIS at Leeds for the 1640 to Reading states "Northern tickets are not valid"
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northwichcat
Veteran Member
Perhaps the TOC has decided too many people are boarding with the wrong tickets so want to make it clear. I'm pretty sure at Milton Keynes passengers are told LM only tickets aren't valid on Virgin and vice versa.
Probably down to there being a 16:40 Northern service to Sheffield, of course the 16:40 Reading also stopping at Sheffield means that passengers are likely to mix up the two.
Indeed I do believe that the Northern service is advertised as 'Meadowhall'.
Indeed I do believe that the Northern service is advertised as 'Meadowhall'.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Does this relate to the mobile tickets perhaps?
Tetchytyke
Veteran Member
It's not uncommon to make it clear, such as with the TOC-specific tickets Wolverhampton-Birmingham-Coventry; XC advertise similar at New Street.
As there isn't a Northern-only walk-up ticket I'm a bit more confused, I'm guessing it's related to there being another 1640 to Sheffield which has Northern AP tickets sold on it.
hairyhandedfool
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I've seen XC, VWC, LM, Southern, Thameslink and Northern services with notices like this over time, though I think the first were LM and VWC.
TOC specific fares, differing Train Companies and T&Cs don't seem to be things that a fair portion of the travelling public care about very much ("I don't know who runs what trains", "you're all the same company", "nobody told me", "I have a ticket to [station] and you go there so what's the problem?", and so on), so any warning that can be given before boarding is seen to be quite useful.
There have been several reports of additional messages to the passenger information screens for the 1640 Northern to Sheffield and 1640 CrossCountry to Reading via Sheffield. Does it still say to change at Sheffield for Leicester & St Pancras?
And does the 1640 to Sheffield have a note underneath it? I believe it used to display a 'false destination' of Meadowhall, but I don't think it does now.
"Your all British Rail" is another one I've heard despite BR having ended years ago.
It didn't tonight but I have seen it recently
If Northern sell advances from Leeds to Sheffield these days, then the false destinatiom could be confusing/misleading to anybody with such an advance.
1D53
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The messages were updated once Northern started selling advance purchase fares on their 1640 which only adds to be confusion, hence the change in message.
hairyhandedfool
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If you're not all British Rail why do you have the British Rail logo on all your stations?
My local stations don't. They do have the National Rail logo on some posters though.
Amused to notice that as soon as I had read the above, the cookies picked it up and the banner advert at the top was for Northern Advance fares to Leeds.
Harpers Tate
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How about advertising one or other of these as departing at 1639?
shredder1
Established Member
If you're not all British Rail why do you have the British Rail logo on all your stations?
I thought Network Rail adopted the old BR logo
National Rail did. Network Rail have a red swirly thing.
The BR symbol should have remained copywrite and put into cold storage to be taken back out when we renationalise.
The BR symbol should have remained copywrite and put into cold storage to be taken back out when we renationalise.
The symbol is state owned and licensed for use by National Rail.
northwichcat
Veteran Member
"Your all British Rail" is another one I've heard despite BR having ended years ago.
TOCs hiding their parent company in the small print doesn't help. Brands like Merseyrail and TransPennine existed before privitisation in the 90s, while a lot of TOCs use a regional name which could belong to anyone e.g. Northern, Southern, Southeastern etc.
Why does it matter whether TOCs use their parent company name? It means very little except to rail enthusists (or potential investors)!
IanD
Established Member
Except when it departs a minute late every day. And maybe makes a load of connectons invalid.
?
WTT is 1640.
Makes no difference at all if it's advertised publicly as 1639, as there are no scheduled arrivals at 1630.
northwichcat
Veteran Member
Having a Stagecoach logo on an EMT train and an Arriva one on a XC train would highlight to passengers that East Midlands and CrossCountry are not just regional brands of a nationalised operator.
northwichcat
Veteran Member
Which is fine now but will it get changed back if the Skipton train gets re-timed to arrive at 16:30.
Wallsendmag
Established Member
But a stagecoach logo on a VTEC train would throw them completely
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northwichcat
Veteran Member
They've licenced the Virgin name which they are using on their train livery, so there's no need to include the Stagecoach one as well.
Gerald Fiennes
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But to return to the question for a moment, given the 'it's the flow, not the train' rule this indication is clearly somewhat misleading. AP Sheffield tickets will be valid on either the fast or the slow train. Dedicated NT fares are clearly not valid on XC trains...
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