TrainSplit beta site

[Jurg]

I see a beta version is available on Trainsplit, but it's not clear what the most appropriate means of providing feedback is so I'm starting a thread here.

TrainSplit

TrainSplit is a free service that makes it easy to find the cheapest train tickets for your journey.

beta.trainsplit.com

The Beta doesn't appear to have a toggle to select flexible fares, making comparison of flexible fares available on different trains more difficult than the current main site.
There doesn't seem to be a grid view for the Beta site. Is the intention to phase out the grid view in future?

 

[JoshD14]

I see a beta version is available on Trainsplit, but it's not clear what the most appropriate means of providing feedback is so I'm starting a thread here.

TrainSplit

TrainSplit is a free service that makes it easy to find the cheapest train tickets for your journey.

beta.trainsplit.com

The Beta doesn't appear to have a toggle to select flexible fares, making comparison of flexible fares available on different trains more difficult than the current main site.
There doesn't seem to be a grid view for the Beta site. Is the intention to phase out the grid view in future?

We've got plans to add more filter options to the search results view in the future, including selecting just advance or walkup fares, as well as filtering by specific TOCs, but this is down the line a bit.

We don't have plans to add in the grid view to the new site - there's contrasting views even within the team on it, but there are more advantages to the new search results design such as not hiding lots of options from customers and also provding the option to select different fares to just the cheapest (e.g. you can now purchase Standard Premium tickets for Avanti through the new site). There's always improvements we can make here (e.g. making it better at cutting through the noise, so to speak) and there are plans for the upcoming period to make improvements in this area.

 

[Joe Paxton]

I see a beta version is available on Trainsplit, but it's not clear what the most appropriate means of providing feedback is so I'm starting a thread here.

TrainSplit

TrainSplit is a free service that makes it easy to find the cheapest train tickets for your journey.

beta.trainsplit.com

The Beta doesn't appear to have a toggle to select flexible fares, making comparison of flexible fares available on different trains more difficult than the current main site.
There doesn't seem to be a grid view for the Beta site. Is the intention to phase out the grid view in future?

Funnily enough, I'd just started composing a post about the Trainsplit Beta site this morning concerning the first issue you raise - about the lack of an ability to just show flexible fares - but then life intervened, so thanks for posting this and highlighting it as a potential issue @Jurg.

We've got plans to add more filter options to the search results view in the future, including selecting just advance or walkup fares, as well as filtering by specific TOCs, but this is down the line a bit.
[...]

And thanks @JoshD14 for this assurance that such a functionality will be making an appearance in the new (currently beta) version of Trainsplit - I value it highly as a feature, and I'm sure others do too.

 

[yorkie]

A problem I experience is that if I input a 'via' location, I can't get rid of it!

Overall it is better, and the ability to get an 'open return' is most welcome (I got one yesterday in fact)

 

[MrJeeves]

A problem I experience is that if I input a 'via' location, I can't get rid of it!

That's one I'm planning to at least look into this week. It was a regression after fixing a different issue!

You can remove it if you put in a different station as a via point, and then try and remove it.

 

[JoshD14]

A problem I experience is that if I input a 'via' location, I can't get rid of it!

Yeah as mentioned above by @MrJeeves it's being looked into... one I've passed on to someone else in the team so I can actually do my degree this week

 

[Jurg]

We've got plans to add more filter options to the search results view in the future, including selecting just advance or walkup fares, as well as filtering by specific TOCs, but this is down the line a bit.

We don't have plans to add in the grid view to the new site - there's contrasting views even within the team on it, but there are more advantages to the new search results design such as not hiding lots of options from customers and also provding the option to select different fares to just the cheapest (e.g. you can now purchase Standard Premium tickets for Avanti through the new site). There's always improvements we can make here (e.g. making it better at cutting through the noise, so to speak) and there are plans for the upcoming period to make improvements in this area.

Thanks for the update / confirmation. I remain to be convinced that the new site is an improvement on the grid layout, but I will use it with an open mind and see how it goes!

 

[embers25]

I still prefer the trainscanbecheaper front end lol. I got around the via issue by putting a space. Despite the changes, still the best site out there.

 

[Deafdoggie]

I much prefer this layout. I was never a fan of the grid layout

 

[Adam Williams]

With respect to filtering down to flexible fares, I put together a mock-up of a Filters sidebar.

Definitely not final, but the sort of thing being discussed currently.

 

[Skymonster]

Ooooo, I really don’t like the lack of the grid view - without it I find convenience and comprehension of information displayed somewhat compromised and it being missing may well discourage me using the site in future.

 

[ainsworth74]

An immediate improvement as far as I'm concerned is that it immediately shows all the trains between Marske and Middlesbrough rather than hiding half of them them because they're a minute or two slower (see here for more detail on this previous moan). So it's thumbs up from me!

 

[Adam Williams]

Ooooo, I really don’t like the lack of the grid view - without it I find convenience and comprehension of information displayed somewhat compromised and it being missing may well discourage me using the site in future.

If you have some concrete examples of missing information that the grid surfaced more easily or made easier to comprehend than the beta site does in your opinion, do submit the feedback (click the conversation icon in the bottom left). Specific journey examples are welcome.

There's no intention to rush any of this,and plenty of time to collate and work through design feedback from a variety of customers with different perspectives.

 

[Vexed]

I think the new site and journey planning is a great step forwards. I made some bookings recently with no issues. However when I just tried to book a ticket, there was no Google Pay option. I think I remember this being there when I last used the new site but I might be mistaken.

Also, I would prefer future journeys on the account page to be sorted by travel date instead of booking date, like on the old site and Android. At the moment I have advances near the bottom of the page which are my next journey!

 

[MrJeeves]

You should have an option of Google Pay on the payment page.

 

[Adam Williams]

You should have an option of Google Pay on the payment page.

It does depend on their browser, of course.. Chrome on Android (and other PaymentRequest browsers) will get it, but Stripe regresses here for everyone else.

@Vexed What browser do you use?

 

[paul1609]

Deleted

 

[MrJeeves]

Deleted

Test data, but might as well remove it.

 

[Vexed]

It does depend on their browser, of course.. Chrome on Android (and other PaymentRequest browsers) will get it, but Stripe regresses here for everyone else.

@Vexed What browser do you use?

I was using Edge on desktop. It was working on the old site at the same time. I've checked https://stripe.com/docs/stripe-js/elements/payment-request-button and Google Pay does not show, so it would indeed be Stripe.

 

[JoshD14]

It's unfortunate that this is a regression to be perfectly honest (also made implementing and testing much harder for me!), and definitely unfortunate that Firefox refuse to support the PaymentRequest API which further reduces the coverage here.

Also, I would prefer future journeys on the account page to be sorted by travel date instead of booking date, like on the old site and Android. At the moment I have advances near the bottom of the page which are my next journey!

Thanks for spotting this - I'll look at fixing this one in a future update!

 

[Adam Williams]

I was using Edge on desktop. It was working on the old site at the same time. I've checked https://stripe.com/docs/stripe-js/elements/payment-request-button and Google Pay does not show, so it would indeed be Stripe.

View attachment 151695

Yeah, it's not ideal. I'm surprised Edge doesn't support it given that it basically is Chromium, but maybe this is all proprietary Google Chrome stuff (the whole logging in with Google and being able to use your cards via PaymentRequest).

It's not so much an old site vs new site thing, for what it's worth (the old site does support Stripe too). It just so happens that the new beta site also was chosen to test Stripe at the same time.

I think in theory it could be worked around if it was a massive deal-breaker, but not without PCI implications.

 

[Jurg]

I've just noticed that on the Beta site I can't get an itinerary for a journey leaving in the current 15 minute time period, whereas on the current live site it allows some tolerance. Assuming that this could be quite a simple fix.

On a more positive note, I've used the Beta site a few times now and it hasn't crashed my browser once. The live TrainSplit site quite regularly makes my browser (Chrome on Android) crash and shut down, particularly when changing an origin or destination, or adding or removing a via point in a search.

 

[Adam Williams]

I've just noticed that on the Beta site I can't get an itinerary for a journey leaving in the current 15 minute time period, whereas on the current live site it allows some tolerance. Assuming that this could be quite a simple fix

Yes, hopefully straightforward - I've put it in the issue tracker. The behaviour here should be consistent across the apps and websites.

On a more positive note, I've used the Beta site a few times now and it hasn't crashed my browser once. The live TrainSplit site quite regularly makes my browser (Chrome on Android) crash and shut down, particularly when changing an origin or destination, or adding or removing a via point in a search.

This is a new one I've not heard about before! If you can come up with a consistent set of steps that reproduces this problem on the current site, I'd be quite interested. I can't personally immediately reproduce it, but the version of Chrome, phone model, version of Android etc etc could all be factors here.

 

[fandroid]

This is a new one I've not heard about before! If you can come up with a consistent set of steps that reproduces this problem on the current site, I'd be quite interested. I can't personally immediately reproduce it, but the version of Chrome, phone model, version of Android etc etc could all be factors here.

I confess to having had similar problems with Trainsplit when investigating various options for travel/tickets. I would just shut the enquiry down and start over again. I cannot give any details of past attempts, but I guess I could have a go at a similar hypothetical enquiry and see what happens.

 

[JoshD14]

I've just noticed that on the Beta site I can't get an itinerary for a journey leaving in the current 15 minute time period, whereas on the current live site it allows some tolerance. Assuming that this could be quite a simple fix.

Thanks for this - as you say, a one line fix! I've got it in testing now, but I've also got a few things on test that need some more work before going live, hopefully in the next few days it will go live.

A problem I experience is that if I input a 'via' location, I can't get rid of it!

A fix for this one went live last weekend - let me know if it comes back, autocomplete is the bane of my existence

 

[yorkie]

A fix for this one went live last weekend - let me know if it comes back, autocomplete is the bane of my existence

Will do!

Also, another issue relates to 1st class being cheaper for part of the journey; the usual 1st class not available message possibly could do with some tweaking.

Let's say my journey is from Wimbledon to Grindleford, and let's say the cheapest combination is a 1st class ticket as far as Leicester, and standard from there. The website will state that "Some of this journey does not have first class accommodation. Your tickets will still be valid. First class accommodation is not available on the following legs: Wimbledon -> Waterloo , Sheffield ->Grindleford" which is technically correct, but some people might interpret this message as implying that the passenger can remain in 1st class from London to Sheffield.

If it helps, I can email a screenshot of some actual examples if you like.

 

[OrionHi]

It looks really good, sleek design. Initial impressions: I prefer being able to pick the time on the date picker, like with the current site. I've also come across an interesting bug where I can hover to view strike information on an empty space. I think when you hover over the empty space, it brings up the information for the corresponding date in the next month.

 

[Benjwri]

Does the beta site have all the same database of splits as the current one? There are a couple of splits to less busy stations which I am offered by the main site, but not the beta one. This is the only thing stopping me from using it at the moment. (@JoshD14)

Also I reported it to support but the 'Earlier' button doesn't function correctly, it converts an input of 'departing at' to 'arriving by', and add 30 minutes to the time. This isn't noticeable on a short journey, but when you look at long ones youll be looking at early morning journeys, click earlier, and suddenly journeys are the day before.

 

[OscarH]

Does the beta site have all the same database of splits as the current one? There are a couple of splits to less busy stations which I am offered by the main site, but not the beta one. This is the only thing stopping me from using it at the moment. (@JoshD14)

It should do, there are some slightly different parameters for finding journeys but the splits for the same itinerary should be the same. If you've got any examples we'd definitely have a look

Also I reported it to support but the 'Earlier' button doesn't function correctly, it converts an input of 'departing at' to 'arriving by', and add 30 minutes to the time. This isn't noticeable on a short journey, but when you look at long ones youll be looking at early morning journeys, click earlier, and suddenly journeys are the day before.

Cheers, I can reproduce. It's intended to change to arriving by, but it's not setting the correct time

 

[JoshD14]

I've also come across an interesting bug where I can hover to view strike information on an empty space. I think when you hover over the empty space, it brings up the information for the corresponding date in the next month.

Thanks - we've also spotted this one internally and I can reproduce. Need to do some more testing but it might be a bug with the library we use. We have an option enabled to hide the "offset" dates so it only shows the current month, but the individual items are still there in the DOM, just hidden with CSS, which is why the strike info shows when you hover over it.

Also I reported it to support but the 'Earlier' button doesn't function correctly, it converts an input of 'departing at' to 'arriving by', and add 30 minutes to the time. This isn't noticeable on a short journey, but when you look at long ones youll be looking at early morning journeys, click earlier, and suddenly journeys are the day before.

I've just popped a fix for this onto our test environment, will test once it's deployed and hopefully get that live today As Oscar alluded to, a quick fix hopefully!