TrainPal / NLC 8454

[yorkie]

Someone contacted to me to say a friend of theirs had purchased a ticket from TrainPal, which was issued from NLC 8454. However NLC 8454 doesn't appear to be recognised as a valid issuing location. Does anyone know if it is new and if it is legitimate?

The TrainPal app now appears to be blocked from the GooglePlay store. Most of the reviews appeared to be from bots, giving it 5 stars. There were one or two reviews by humans with 1 star.

 

[wibble]

It's legit - CTRIP.COM

 

[Puffing Devil]

It's legit - CTRIP.COM

That website sets off Chrome/Googles dodgy site warnings. (Top level domain, not the subdomain linked)

 

[yorkie]

There's something not quite right about it.

The person who booked also contacted their helpline and no-one seemed to know anything about it, which is very unusual for a helpline for a train booking site.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Here is what I presume is the original description from one of those APK hosting websites. The poor English, barren Twitter account, and lack of contact information makes me very suspicious.

TrainPal offers full train lines and cheap tickets in Great Britain. You can get the cheapest fare when booking up to 12 weeks in advance with this train app. Further, this app enables you to split tickets easily to get the cheapest fare.

Split train tickets works almost the same way as the regular train tickets. Train ticket split makes it possible to travel on the same train, at the same times and even in the same seat. The only two differences of split ticketing are that you may pay a lot less for the same journey and hold two or more cheaper train tickets instead of an expensive one. Trainpal offers the fastest and cheapest train ticket spliiter.

Try split train tickets and you will save a lot of money. Our split rail tickets service is based on the big data from thousands of rail lines. It is easy to split your ticket in short time. With this split ticket train app, you can always book cheap train tickets that suit to your journey. TrainPal aims at providing best service for our customers to book cheap rail tickets online in UK. This train splitter is equipped with the smartest engine to split train ticket for your journey.

Ticket split is legal in UK. Unlike raileasy split ticket app, this train fare splitter is totally free. Split train fares is one of our core technologies and we are aming at developing the best split ticket app in UK. This mobile train tickets booking app does not charge any booking or card fees. Our smart engine can help you find the cheapest train tickets. TrainPal is driven by saving money for you. Go farther with TrainPal!

TrainPal Features:

Split tickets - even if you do not buy tickets in advance, you can still save lots of money with tickety split train tickets on the departure day of your journey. This split train tickets app can always find the best fare for you.

Cheapest train tickets - With advance technologies, you can always book cheap train tickets online. Compared to other British rail tickets, TrainPal offers the best train fares.

Maximum optional tickets - TrainPal is supported by the national rail. The smart search engine enables you to book cheap train tickets from the national rail tickets.

Secure payment - Your card information is encrypted in order to ensure a safe and secure payment experience when buying train tickets.

Fast checkout - You do not need to register the App when you book train tickets, which simplify your booking process.

Discount fare - You can get discounts when booking tickets in advance. With railcards, you can book cheap tickets easily.

The latest version of TrainPal is segmented into the following sections:

Find Trains
Split Train Tickets
Buy Tickets
My Tickets
Next journey
My Account
History Tickets
Contact Us

TrainPal includes the maximum tickets from the train operating companies below:

Arriva Trains Wales
c2c
Caledonian Sleeper
Chiltern Railways
CrossCountry
East Midlands Trains
Eurostar
Gatwick Express
Grand Central
Great Northern
Great Western Railway
Greater Anglia
Heathrow Connect
Heathrow Express
Hull Trains
Island Line
London Northwestern Railway
London Overground
London Underground
Merseyrail
Northern
ScotRail
South Western Railway
Southeastern
Southern
Stansted Express
TfL Rail
Thameslink
TransPennine Express
Virgin Trains
Virgin Trains East Coast
West Midlands Railway

Follow TrainPal on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thetrainpal

 

[Lrd]

If it is indeed CTrip then I have used them to book train travel in China with no problems.

 

[maniacmartin]

Ctrip are a large online hotel and travel agent catering mostly to the chinese market. (Like a Chinese equivalent of Expedia or Booking.com)

 

[Paul Kelly]

Maybe the app is screen-scraping Ctrip.com? Hard to see what's in it for the app developers though. I suppose it could be an elaborate scam to harvest peoples' card details?

 

[Darandio]

Is it just me, or is it similar to the one discussed here a few weeks ago? https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...ainpro-app-scammer-alert.154841/#post-3139178

 

[Clip]

Is it just me, or is it similar to the one discussed here a few weeks ago? https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...ainpro-app-scammer-alert.154841/#post-3139178

I knew it rang a bell but couldn't find it.

 

[AlterEgo]

Agree with @yorkie and others’ concerns - this is a very very fishy “service” and could well be a screen-scraper.

 

[Lrd]

Here is what I presume is the original description from one of those APK hosting websites. The poor English, barren Twitter account, and lack of contact information makes me very suspicious.

Do you have a link to the APK?

 

[waynemorrell]

Do you have a link to the APK?

I found this:

https://www.apkmonk.com/app/com.pal.train/

I would be very careful about downloading it though, definitely sounds a bit dodgy to me!

 

[causton]

The app seems to vaguely work well, and I found a link to their privacy policy:

http://www.thetrainpal.com/web/policy.html

Not putting any of my personal info in there though and deleting the app just in case!

 

[Lrd]

I found this:

https://www.apkmonk.com/app/com.pal.train/

I would be very careful about downloading it though, definitely sounds a bit dodgy to me!

I shall interrogate the code of the app to see what's going on

 

[majaz]

I'd be very curious to find out more about this as well! I have the app and have used it twice now, seemed fine, no frills and actually miles better than any other app I've used (the crosscountry one had me in tears a few weeks back). I am also one of the 5* reviewers.
But now I noticed the app is actually gone from the store (I wanted to update my review to include the fact that the split-ticketing worked a charm). What does that mean? How can it be retracted from the store but still operating? But yeah, if anyone has any reason to believe I am putting my finances or sth in jeopardy, I'd appreciate knowing about it! Or should I already be removing it asap?

 

[Deafdoggie]

I'd be very curious to find out more about this as well! I have the app and have used it twice now, seemed fine, no frills and actually miles better than any other app I've used (the crosscountry one had me in tears a few weeks back). I am also one of the 5* reviewers.
But now I noticed the app is actually gone from the store (I wanted to update my review to include the fact that the split-ticketing worked a charm). What does that mean? How can it be retracted from the store but still operating? But yeah, if anyone has any reason to believe I am putting my finances or sth in jeopardy, I'd appreciate knowing about it! Or should I already be removing it asap?

I am an Apple man myself (sorry!) so don't know Android too well, but I think removing it from the store is just that, removing it from the store. It doesn't stop the app, or delete the app, or anything, it just stops anyone else getting it. If you have found it good, and you have been able to collect the tickets then no problem.

I don't get too worried about these things, as if your details are used fraudulently, then the bank have to refund you.

It could be perfectly legitimate, and just run more for foreign visitors to the UK. If they can produce the tickets then either they have a licence, or are paying another company to do it for them. Which seems like a lot of effort for fraudsters to go to. I'd be concerned if no tickets were forthcoming

 

[marcouk2]

Re: Play Store availability, if searching on the device it will only show apps that have been set as compatible with that device. The trainpal app still shows as available for download for me on a Pixel 2 xl.

 

[majaz]

Which seems like a lot of effort for fraudsters to go to.

Yeah, thanks Deafdoggie, that's the funny thing here: it's ringing alarm bells for not having a real name/email/online presence/non-bot reviewers (bar me), but at the same time it is actually a very sleek app that is exactly what i was after. it works, i've already travelled with it, and today it split my tickets better than i would have manually (and i'm a pro!) so it is weirding me out loads!

The trainpal app still shows as available for download for me on a Pixel 2 xl.

That's odd, it isn't turning up in any of my searches. Are you trying to search for it in the app (not via google or through a link)? Because that's what I mean, if I go into google play store and enter the search term "trainpal" i get zero results. But you are right that this link still works.

 

[marcouk2]

Yep still available.
View media item 3018
Edit: now it's not working, giving me an error message through the app and returning no results when searching on a browser

Edit 2: googling trainpal gives me a working direct link still.

 

[majaz]

well, they are quite prompt at responding to queries by weirded out customers, i got this from them this morning:

"We are grateful for your support and concern.

Since some bugs need to be fixed in the app, we put it offline temporarily. But you can still use the app for booking train tickets. So please do not worry about it.

The new version of app will be online after the bugs are fixed. More functions will be available in the app.

Once again, thanks for using TrainPal. We will keep improving it and make it better."​

I guess I'll hold out for a bit longer, like Deafdoggie said, if i get defrauded the bank should sort me out, that is also a much more pleasant way to live

 

[TwistedMentat]

Just heard some stuff suggesting it was launched without accreditation. So it has been pulled while the accreditation is done.

 

[JaJaWa]

Ctrip (now known as Trip.com outside Mainland China) act as a Chinese equivalent of Trainline. I use it to buy all my Chinese rail tickets, it's instant, fully in English and now has no booking fees or change fees whatsoever. They also own Skyscanner.

They have recently launched the ability to book UK rail tickets (oddly seems to be using their China Rail style booking engine). I can still access this feature on their Hong Kong website here when viewed on a desktop / laptop here: https://hk.trip.com/?language=EN&locale=en_hk.

I presume they saw a wider market for their new booking engine and have created an app for the UK market called TrainPal. Their app for China Railways is leagues ahead of anything else so hopefully this new UK app will be as good. Looks like their UK service will be offering split ticketing and one-click refunds from the App Store images.

 

[julieandjack]

Just heard some stuff suggesting it was launched without accreditation. So it has been pulled while the accreditation is done.

Heard from where?

 

[A Challenge]

Ctrip (now known as Trip.com outside Mainland China) act as a Chinese equivalent of Trainline. I use it to buy all my Chinese rail tickets, it's instant, fully in English and now has no booking fees or change fees whatsoever. They also own Skyscanner.

They have recently launched the ability to book UK rail tickets (oddly seems to be using their China Rail style booking engine). I can still access this feature on their Hong Kong website here when viewed on a desktop / laptop here: https://hk.trip.com/?language=EN&locale=en_hk.

I presume they saw a wider market for their new booking engine and have created an app for the UK market called TrainPal. Their app for China Railways is leagues ahead of anything else so hopefully this new UK app will be as good. Looks like their UK service will be offering split ticketing and one-click refunds from the App Store images.

I know its Chinese but '£53.5' is wrong for pounds whatever.

 

[JaJaWa]

Skyscanner have now added UK Rail ticket booking, presumably also using this service as they were bought by China’s Trip.com.

 

[TwistedMentat]

Skyscanner have now added UK Rail ticket booking, presumably also using this service as they were bought by China’s Trip.com.

Link?

I tried their main site but didn't see anything.

 

[takno]

Skyscanner have now added UK Rail ticket booking, presumably also using this service as they were bought by China’s Trip.com.

Afaik they're still running as a pretty separate business unit.

Link?

I tried their main site but didn't see anything.

As far as I know they haven't really integrated the operation at all so I'd guess this is a separate development.

Looks like it's on the iOS app only at the minute. I would have thought it would be a fairly light front-end hitting one of the main ticketing suppliers' APIs. In fact I presume the TOC apps are pretty much done by integrating a client library that provides all the necessary screens. The easiest approach would be to just do that.

 

[TrainPal]

To whom it may concern,

We are proud to announce that TrainPal is a legal app for train booking in UK. It is owned by Trip.com and officially accredited by Rail Delivery Group. Here is the documentation: https://www.raildeliverygroup.com/f...ices/rsp/webtis_apps_accreditation_status.pdf

As a startup team, we have been devoting ourselves to searching the cheapest fare to all travelers. And we do not charge any booking or credit card fees. We might not be perfect but are trying to make it better. Train ticket fare is increasing year by year, but our technical team is studying how to optimize split tickets and save more money for your journey. You can find TrainPal on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pal.train

Regarding customer service, you can make a free call to us (7*24h FREE on +44 808 196 9996 ) or send email to [email protected]. We will always be there to solve your problems.

We are geek and really do not know how to play tricks. If anyone slander us, we will reserve the legal right to take action against the reputation infringement.

Best Regards,
TrainPal Team

I know its Chinese but '£53.5' is wrong for pounds whatever.

Dear customer, we are sorry for this typo but it has been modified in the app in Februray 2018. Thanks for your feedback. We will keep improving the app.

Just heard some stuff suggesting it was launched without accreditation. So it has been pulled while the accreditation is done.

Hi there, TrainPal is accredited by Rail Delivery Group. Here is the documentation: https://www.raildeliverygroup.com/f...ices/rsp/webtis_apps_accreditation_status.pdf

Yep still available.
View media item 3018
Edit: now it's not working, giving me an error message through the app and returning no results when searching on a browser

Edit 2: googling trainpal gives me a working direct link still.

Dear customer, it is available on Google Play.