Ticket from/to Another Station at Unstaffed Station

[jacksonbang]

Yesterday I wanted to purchase a Day Return from Maidenhead to Ealing Broadway at Taplow, starting short and returning back to Maidenhead. The ticket office was closed and the machine did not offer an option to purchase tickets from another station. At Ealing Broadway I was told I should have purchased a return from Taplow and another single to allow me to go the extra stop on the return.

Is this correct? What are the rules I this situation?

Thanks

 

[Bletchleyite]

Easiest way to do this is to buy online and collect from the TVM.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Yesterday I wanted to purchase a Day Return from Maidenhead to Ealing Broadway at Taplow, starting short and returning back to Maidenhead. The ticket office was closed and the machine did not offer an option to purchase tickets from another station. At Ealing Broadway I was told I should have purchased a return from Taplow and another single to allow me to go the extra stop on the return.

Is this correct? What are the rules I this situation?

Thanks

The rules for this situation are not entirely clear. The National Rail Conditions of Travel (NRCoT) do not deal with passengers wanting to purchase tickets that are unavailable at the boarding station (but where the boarding station nevertheless still has some ticketing facilities). Previously, the National Rail Conditions of Carriage (NRCoC) did, and it said that you should purchase the nearest ticket that went towards your intended ticket, and then you would be able to pay the excess en-route. It is no longer clear whether there is an entitlement to this excess.

If you want to purchase 'starting late' tickets like this at stations which don't sell tickets from another station, you'll probably have to buy them either in advance at a station that has a TVM with that facility (or a ticket office), or you'll need to buy them online and pick them up at the ticket machine. I've done this before when I was at an unstaffed station which didn't sell the ticket I wanted, but which supported ticket pickup.

What tickets were you sold in your particular case? Did you receive a Penalty Fare?

 

[jacksonbang]

No penalty fare, I was just let through after being "told off" in that disinterested way which made me not quite believe the information I was given.

I bought the ticket at Ealing Broadway.

I didn't lose out in this situation but I feel I did not do anything wrong either.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

No penalty fare, I was just let through after being "told off" in that disinterested way which made me not quite believe the information I was given.

I bought the ticket at Ealing Broadway.

I didn't lose out in this situation but I feel I did not do anything wrong either.

Unfortunately the rights of passengers who board at stations with partial ticketing facilities - which covers a high percentage of all stations across Britain - are, both in theory and in practice, inferior to those of passengers boarding at stations with either no, or full, ticketing facilities. You have to hope there is a ticket machine able to dispense online-purchased tickets. Even then, you will, in most cases, be unable to buy certain tickets such as rovers and rangers.

 

[jacksonbang]

I understand. Thanks.

I had never used Taplow before and I merely took up a friend of an offer of a lift to this station, there was no opportunity to purchase online. I have seen TVMs that allow tickets from other stations to be purchased, so that ability not being present would have made me comfortable enough to object to a PF.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I understand. Thanks.

I had never used Taplow before and I merely took up a friend of an offer of a lift to this station, there was no opportunity to purchase online. I have seen TVMs that allow tickets from other stations to be purchased, so that ability not being present would have made me comfortable enough to object to a PF.

If you have an Internet-enabled smartphone then you could probably have bought tickets online whilst waiting at the station. But obviously this takes longer than just using a TVM.

It's quite disappointing that not all TVMs have the 'purchase from another station' option. Personally, I don't consider a TVM an acceptable ticketing facility if it doesn't have this: if nothing else because sometimes it is physically impossible to buy a through fare to your destination (e.g. where a fare simply does not exist). It's clearly possible so it is purely a question of which TOCs can be 'bothered' enough to do it properly and on all TVMs (in all likelihood, it is an optional extra feature and they are too tight to pay for it).

That puts the passenger in the unenviable and needless position of having to buy a ticket that is either more expensive than they need, or having to buy a ticket that only covers part of their journey and then potentially be issued with a Penalty Fare, be required to pay an undiscounted Anytime (Day) Single for the portion of their journey they don't yet have a ticket for, or some other penalty - for something which is not their fault to begin with. Alternatively they might feel forced to delay their journey to purchase a ticket at an intermediate station.

 

[jacksonbang]

I would of assumed a station like Taplow would be an obvious one for the "other station" purchase option. It seems that there are rarely on train staff visible, trains are very often 8 or 12 carriages, I'm sure if I had travelled into Paddington I may have been punished more absolutely or, at least, had one of those exasperating public disagreements with staff but the fact remains it seems a reasonable ticket purchase.

If I knew the transaction via smartphone would be immediate then that is fair enough but the perception is still a two hour allowance for online purchase collections. I know this is an exception nowadays, but any issue I would have had with an immediate purchase would have delayed, or at very least irritated, me.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I would of assumed a station like Taplow would be an obvious one for the "other station" purchase option. It seems that there are rarely on train staff visible, trains are very often 8 or 12 carriages, I'm sure if I had travelled into Paddington I may have been punished more absolutely or, at least, had one of those exasperating public disagreements with staff but the fact remains it seems a reasonable ticket purchase.

If I knew the transaction via smartphone would be immediate then that is fair enough but the perception is still a two hour allowance for online purchase collections. I know this is an exception nowadays, but any issue I would have had with an immediate purchase would have delayed, or at very least irritated, me.

Some websites will make you wait up to 2 hours - this is primarily Trainline based websites such as CrossCountry, Northern, Virgin Trains, Transport for Wales, West Midlands Trains, Greater Anglia, Scotrail etc.

ATOS Worldline based sites - such as TransPennine Express, GWR or SWR - as well as most independent retailers such as RailEasy based sites - TrainSplit or TrainsCanBeCheaper - will let you pick up tickets instantly. This also applies to sites based on OnTrack Retail - such as Southern, Great Northern, Thameslink or Southeastern. I have previously picked up tickets literally about 10 seconds after purchasing them from any of the sites in this paragraph.

 

[jacksonbang]

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the info.