Plusbus ticketing questions

[plcd1]

Is it possible to buy a Plusbus day ticket either at a ticket office or a ticket machine *without* buying a rail ticket at the same time? I'm asking as I'd be using a staff free ticket facility for the rail journey but a Plusbus for the destination would be ideal. I have checked the info and videos on the Plusbus website but they don't cover the scenario above.

Furthermore it looks like London Overground ticket offices / TVMs don't retail Plusbus either. Is this correct?

 

[221129]

You should be able to do it at a ticket office.

 

[Haywain]

You can certainly buy them at a ticket office but not many TVMs sell PlusBus on in its own. Your free travel facility is a rail ticket for the purposes of PlusBus, so as long as you are making an appropriate journey (to/from somewhere outside of the PlusBus area) then the purchase is entirely legitimate.

 

[Ianno87]

I do it from ticket office windows all the time. Never had a problem.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Furthermore it looks like London Overground ticket offices / TVMs don't retail Plusbus either. Is this correct?

As has been said, TVMs don't sell PlusBus on its own.

London Overground ticket offices should sell PlusBus like any other ticket office, though I can imagine some might not be that familiar with it. Might be helpful to print out this webpage - www.plusbus.info/how-issue - to offer to any ticket clerks who might be struggling.

Also if you look up a specific PlusBus town on the website, for example Oxford, at the bottom of the page is this...

Destination code:
OXFORD+BUS (J931); OXFORD PWY+BUS (K913).

...which again might be useful information to pass to any struggling ticket clerk. The destination code that should be used is the one where you finish your rail journey - so in this case either Oxford station or Oxford Parkway station.

 

[Hadders]

I've purchased Plusbus tickets from TVMs before without buying a rail ticket at the same time although I don't think all TVMs offer this.

Plusbus tickets aren't available in TfL area although it should be possible to buy them from Overground Stations for areas where they are available. (There will be a handful of Overground stations outside the TfL area where Plusbus is available from the station eg Brentwood, Bushey, Watford High Street).

 

[gray1404]

Which TVMs allow you to purchase Plus Bus on its own?

 

[Hadders]

I've purchased one recently at my local station.

 

[Joe Paxton]

I've purchased Plusbus tickets from TVMs before without buying a rail ticket at the same time although I don't think all TVMs offer this.

I stand corrected.

Like gray1404 says, which TVMs are these?

 

[Haywain]

I've purchased one recently at my local station.

Could you at least help but stating which TOC, if not the station?

 

[Hadders]

Could you at least help but stating which TOC, if not the station?

GTR (need I say more...)

 

[David57]

Wasn't there a problem a couple of years ago when a station was selling PlusBus tickets(without any train ticket involved) that undercut the local bus companies day ticket?
Memory Fading!

 

[d1672]

Hi,

You can also purchase a Plusbus ticket before your rail journey e.g.

Glasgow Plusbus
+
then Glasgow Central to Dumfries (rail)
+
Dumfries Plusbus

That is also OK.

 

[plcd1]

Thanks for all of the answers. Much appreciated.

Can a guard / senior conductor sell Plusbus on a train *provided* you ask to buy the ticket well before the train gets anywhere near the station at which Plusbus is valid. I'm thinking about Exeter and whether GWR would sell a day Plusbus ticket for that city on board or not.

 

[Haywain]

Thanks for all of the answers. Much appreciated.

Can a guard / senior conductor sell Plusbus on a train *provided* you ask to buy the ticket well before the train gets anywhere near the station at which Plusbus is valid. I'm thinking about Exeter and whether GWR would sell a day Plusbus ticket for that city on board or not.

If the product is enabled in the TIS they can issue them.

 

[arb]

Thanks for all of the answers. Much appreciated.

Can a guard / senior conductor sell Plusbus on a train *provided* you ask to buy the ticket well before the train gets anywhere near the station at which Plusbus is valid. I'm thinking about Exeter and whether GWR would sell a day Plusbus ticket for that city on board or not.

I've never done it personally, but a friend of mine with a season ticket to Norwich occasionally buys daily Norwich PlusBus tickets from guards on both Greater Anglia and East Midlands Trains. As far as I know, they've never had a problem trying to buy them on the train.

 

[davetheguard]

Thanks for all of the answers. Much appreciated.

Can a guard / senior conductor sell Plusbus on a train *provided* you ask to buy the ticket well before the train gets anywhere near the station at which Plusbus is valid. I'm thinking about Exeter and whether GWR would sell a day Plusbus ticket for that city on board or not.

I was on a GWR stopper along the coast towards Exeter last week, and the Guard who was selling tickets to two passengers -who had just got on at a station without a ticket machine- proactively asked them if they wanted a (Plusbus) bus ticket add on for Exeter as well.

He made the sale and issued the tickets.

 

[Merseysider]

Thanks for all of the answers. Much appreciated.

Can a guard / senior conductor sell Plusbus on a train *provided* you ask to buy the ticket well before the train gets anywhere near the station at which Plusbus is valid. I'm thinking about Exeter and whether GWR would sell a day Plusbus ticket for that city on board or not.

Yeah, I've bought around a dozen this year, mostly onboard (with railcard discount), and a few at the actual destination station itself. There's no need to buy it in advance.

 

[Deerfold]

Thanks for all of the answers. Much appreciated.

Can a guard / senior conductor sell Plusbus on a train *provided* you ask to buy the ticket well before the train gets anywhere near the station at which Plusbus is valid. I'm thinking about Exeter and whether GWR would sell a day Plusbus ticket for that city on board or not.

If your destination has a ticket office you should be able to buy it there is you've not been able to before. I've bought at Nottingham after encountering 2 Northern staff with new ticket machines which seemed to be incapable of selling PlusBus.