Ticket machine would not offer Group Save

[Tommy3000]

I was travelling one-way from Lewes to Victoria yesterday (Sunday) on Southern with three friends. I went to the ticket machine, picked the route and changed the number of adult passengers to four.

The cheapest fare available was £17.80 x 4 (the usual cheapest off peak price). I did check the few pages of fare options and looked at the railcards page to see if there was anything relevant, but I could not cajole the machine into offering the group save discount. It is definitely available on the route though, looking at the fare options on the National Rail website.

Did I miss something? Is there any way to have the difference refunded if Southern would not offer the cheapest fare?

 

[richw]

The TVMs down here have a big notice on them of 5 types of tickets they do not sell, groupsave being one of them.
(GWR area)

 

[Paul Kelly]

It was mentioned in the recent feature on rail ticketing in The Times that Southern were not adhering to the code of practice on some of their machines (e.g. at Victoria) regarding having notices on the machines indicating which tickets they don't sell.

 

[Tommy3000]

Ah, that explains it. Is there a reason for this other than to discourage sales of group tickets?

 

[richw]

I understand there is a technical limitation

 

[Mojo]

Different Tocs have different setups. For example at Kings + station, the GTR machines do GroupSave in a different way; the S&B machines require you to select Groupsave from the menu whereas the FASTticket machines offer it without asking you when you select 3/4 adults. When I last checked, the East Coast machines didn't offer it at all.

 

[rs101]

I understand there is a technical limitation

Presumably there's nothing to stop them attaching a sign to the machine which states the ticket types not available?

 

[philthetube]

Presumably there's nothing to stop them attaching a sign to the machine which states the ticket types not available?

If there is no ticket office and groupsave is not available is it ok to board without tickets?

 

[richw]

Presumably there's nothing to stop them attaching a sign to the machine which states the ticket types not available?

Nothing stopping them and such signs are attached in GWR land

 

[SickyNicky]

If there is no ticket office and groupsave is not available is it ok to board without tickets?

You should probably buy a ticket to do part of the journey, as per NRCoC condition 3:

3. Where the full range of tickets is not available
If you cannot buy an appropriate ticket for the journey you want to make because the range of tickets that is available at the station from which you intend to start your journey is restricted, you must buy a ticket or Permit to Travel before you travel that entitles you to make at least part of the journey. You must then, as soon as is reasonably practicable, buy an appropriate ticket to complete your journey. In these circumstances, you only need to pay the fare that you would have paid if you had bought a ticket immediately before your journey. The price you will have to pay will be reduced by the amount paid for the ticket or Permit to Travel.

However, some train companies don't seem to like you doing this, or won't take the original ticket in part payment, in breach of this condition, requiring you to send the original tickets back for a refund. You're probably best asking the individual company what their policy is.

 

[gordonthemoron]

when will British TOCs get their TVMs to front end their online booking engines like DB do in Germany?

 

[talldave]

when will British TOCs get their TVMs to front end their online booking engines like DB do in Germany?

it's pencilled in for the day after hell freezes over

 

[richw]

The sign on GWR TVMs look like this to see what can be done

 

[Sacro]

The sign on GWR TVMs look like this to see what can be done

What if I want a monthly season? (Or anything over 7 days)?

 

[bb21]

What if I want a monthly season? (Or anything over 7 days)?

Buy a single and part-exchange at a manned ticket office.

 

[richw]

What if I want a monthly season? (Or anything over 7 days)?

Go inside to the ticket office open 0615am mon-sat until mid evening, or Sunday 11-5!

 

[Haywain]

What if I want a monthly season? (Or anything over 7 days)?

Very few, if any, TVMs sell monthly seasons due to the need to capture full customer details for season ticket records.
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when will British TOCs get their TVMs to front end their online booking engines like DB do in Germany?

I have no idea about German TVMs, but there are seen to be problems doing that here due to things like limited screen space, and limitations of touch screens. In addition, they are intended to be quick to use, and I doubt many websites can meet that requirement for walk-up tickets.

In any case, do you really want to buy a ticket and have to wait 2 hours to collect it?!!