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TOD Cycle Reservation goes wrong

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Gareth Marston

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Advice/ comments appreciated,

I booked a Ticket on Departure Sales foe one of my regulars. Several Advance Purchase Tickets with free cycle reservations on each leg. All booked OK through STAR machine via Journey Planner as per normal if I was issuing them in office.I noticed the TOD Receipt didn't list the cycle reservations.

My customer collected tickets from a ScotRail TVM, AP tickets and seat reservation coupons came out as booked. In lieu of cycle reservation she got a coupon that didn't mention cycles at all, it had nothing printed under ticket type but did have "valid until" and was printed with date and time of train that had been booked underneath it had Vehicle registration required" printed.

She boarded 2 ScotRail services without question but was refused access for her bike by a VTWC Train Manager at Waverley. We've now bought her AP tickets for tomorrow and advised her to collect from person in booking office and then ask them to book cycle on trains directly rather than risk TOD again. she's don this.

Question- who does she have comeback with? It was ScotRail TVM that issued wrong coupon however there staff didn't seem to think it was problem, VTWC for refusing her access even though coupon had correct time and date matching booked AP ticket - common sense should have said there's no way car parking space be booked on a train.

Thanks.
 
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Mojo

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There is another ToD bug affecting Cycle reservations collected on Parkeon machines which I noticed over the summer. This is that one of the two coupons is printed in reverse. For example if the journey was on the 15.01 from Bristol Parkway to London Paddington, one coupon would say it is for the 15.01 from Parkway to Paddington and the other one would say it is for the 15.01 from Paddington to Parkway.
 

Tetchytyke

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I was under the impression guards get a printout of bike reservations, they certainly do on VTEC where the guard's often been waiting for me and never even asked for the coupon. So I'm guessing the issue is that the bike reservation didn't go through properly, rather than an issue with the TVM.
 

Gareth Marston

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I was under the impression guards get a printout of bike reservations, they certainly do on VTEC where the guard's often been waiting for me and never even asked for the coupon. So I'm guessing the issue is that the bike reservation didn't go through properly, rather than an issue with the TVM.

As you can see what should have been the bike reservations came out as garbage. She got from Thurso to Edinburgh without problem. All the tickets are sequential and its pretty clear somethings gone wrong when you look at them. A bit of discretion would have helped. Its cost her a night in Edinburgh and more tickets for today.
 

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Gareth Marston

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ScotRail and Virgin have been contacted will let Forum Members know once I get reply(s).

Ive made a TOD cycle reservation this morning and issued it off my own STAR machine and its come out without problem.
 

Harpers Tate

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The second two tickets look like they are set out like Parking permits.....
 

Gareth Marston

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Indeed all very welli if you want to park your car on the train in question however as there not Motorail services it surely would have been common sense that something had gone wrong.

Parking permits are for named car park at station for 24 hour periods not valid till a specific trains departure !
 

Tetchytyke

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it surely would have been common sense that something had gone wrong.

I suspect that the cycle reservation was not done correctly, which means that there was no cycle reservation for the train. VTWC insist on reservations for travel, and if the train was full of other cycle reservations then the guard can't let a non-reserved bike on board. It doesn't appear that the reservation simply printed incorrectly, it looks as though whoever did it screwed it up.
 

Jonfun

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I remember when I used to take my bike to and from university, it was pot luck whether they'd issue the cycle reservation correctly. I've had clerks issue some kind of parcel supplement, I've had clerks reserve me on one train and my bike on the one 45 minutes later. I think the relative infrequency of them being made and a desire by train companies to cut training means that clerks are making mistakes when issuing them, which obviously causes the customer significant inconvenience, particularly on trains where bike reservations are mandatory.
 

Haywain

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I have a feeling that there has always been a problem with sending cycle reservations to ToD, for the very reason encountered here - they do not print correctly. I can't find any evidence of this, and the fact that it will print OK on the TIS used by the OP does not mean it will print OK elsewhere. There are a number of different formats for cycle reservations which is why this might happen.
 

13 valleys

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I have travelled many times with Scotrail from Glasgow to Inverness return.Each time I have a ticket to attach to the cycle,one for myself,a seat reservation and the actual travel ticket.At the cycle space there has never been a reservation tag to indicate that the cycle space is reserved.My concern is that cyclists that have not reserved a space could just board on a first come first served basis.They would just assume that the space is available.If there is no indication that the space is reserved then this could pose problems when boarding at intermediate stations.Scotrail via social media state that a tag should be on display,but the on train staff state that is never the case.Each time I travel I always have the worry that I could be in a conflicting situation with other passengers who have already boarded.Even though I would be correct,getting the conductors attention within the short turnaround time can be difficult.
 

causton

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Yes, definitely the parking layout.

The time and date would normally be "03:59" on "02 JNR 16" (if the parking was bought for the 1st Jan).

I will do a test tomorrow and if I remember, if it is not too busy, and if the same thing happens on my TIS/ToD/S+B machines, I will see if I can get it faulted as that is appalling!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I deferred on Tribute and S+B issued the reservations without any problem. So either the issue is between software versions on the S+B or the way STAR sends the cycle reservations to the ToD system.

If I was smarter and thought of this while I was at work, I could have checked the ToD reference on the photo of the tickets to see what the system thinks is there! Hmm...
 
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