Train fares - online and at station - same price?

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
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simonineaston
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by simonineaston »

ps I saw the actual gantry on the bridge where the standoff occurs in series 1 of the eponymous Scandi-Noir tv series - how exciting!
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
steve.y.griffith
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by steve.y.griffith »

Link below to an excellent R4 programmeThe Briefing Room about the current state of our railways

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001hfrp

Re the OP,s original question until recently I bought tickets at a station after checking on line first( now you can book the bike on line I use FGW or London NW) .Generally the same price although sometimes the internet price had changed . However I have had instances where a knowledgable ticket office could beat internet prices . At Llandrindod Wells until recently there used to be a independent ticket office and they were real train buffs and superb , people would phone up from all over the U.K. to book tickets ,sadly they retired last year ! .
Last edited by steve.y.griffith on 30 Jan 2023, 7:27pm, edited 2 times in total.
Jdsk
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by Jdsk »

steve.y.griffith wrote: 30 Jan 2023, 6:46pm Link below to an excellent R4 programmeTge Briefing Room about the current state of our railways

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001hfrp
...
Agreed.

Jonathan
WEBH
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by WEBH »

Slightly off topic, but slightly on - am I likely to get more luck with a bike on train booking at a station than online?
I ask because having looked daily for tickets to be available from Plymouth at the end of my tour, on the first day they're bookable every single bike space appears to be taken, on every train. I know there aren't many, but this seems hard to believe.
There is no way of contacting trainline without a booking ref, so I'm a bit stumped. Any suggestions?
Pendodave
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by Pendodave »

WEBH wrote: 3 Feb 2023, 10:32am Slightly off topic, but slightly on - am I likely to get more luck with a bike on train booking at a station than online?
I ask because having looked daily for tickets to be available from Plymouth at the end of my tour, on the first day they're bookable every single bike space appears to be taken, on every train. I know there aren't many, but this seems hard to believe.
There is no way of contacting trainline without a booking ref, so I'm a bit stumped. Any suggestions?
I would contact the train operator directly (GWR?, Cross country?) via twitter about your specific requirement. In my experience, they respond to this faster then normal emails/phone calls.
I doubt you would find more info at a station, as they use the same basic computer information as the rest of us.
As an experiment, I would be tempted to try booking a ticket and bike space from the intermediate stations on your route (bail out before getting as far as the payment, obvs) to see if it is along the whole route or not.
Or maybe the trains you're booking don't have reserveable spaces? My local ones don't.
softlips
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by softlips »

Pendodave wrote: 3 Feb 2023, 11:39am
WEBH wrote: 3 Feb 2023, 10:32am Slightly off topic, but slightly on - am I likely to get more luck with a bike on train booking at a station than online?
I ask because having looked daily for tickets to be available from Plymouth at the end of my tour, on the first day they're bookable every single bike space appears to be taken, on every train. I know there aren't many, but this seems hard to believe.
There is no way of contacting trainline without a booking ref, so I'm a bit stumped. Any suggestions?
I would contact the train operator directly (GWR?, Cross country?) via twitter about your specific requirement. In my experience, they respond to this faster then normal emails/phone calls.
I doubt you would find more info at a station, as they use the same basic computer information as the rest of us.
As an experiment, I would be tempted to try booking a ticket and bike space from the intermediate stations on your route (bail out before getting as far as the payment, obvs) to see if it is along the whole route or not.
Or maybe the trains you're booking don't have reserveable spaces? My local ones don't.
GWR is mandatory reservations on intercity. I took one recently just one station and the guard wasn't happy I didn't have a reserved space.....even though the cycle rack in the carriage I was in was otherwise empty.

.......and what is it with these new trains having less cycle storage than the old ones?
Jdsk
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by Jdsk »

Jdsk wrote: 25 Jan 2023, 3:36pm "Great British Railways: for the passenger":
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/grea ... -passenger

"• simpler, modern fares delivered, starting with new flexible season tickets on sale from 21 June and a new Great British Railways website for all tickets and clearer compensation"

Guess the year...
That was for 2021.

"Mark Harper – 2023 Keynote Speech on the Future of the Railways at the George Bradshaw Address":
https://www.ukpol.co.uk/mark-harper-202 ... w-address/

It's very vague. It does have a few specifics on ticketing, including some Pay-As-You-Go.

Jonathan
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mjr
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by mjr »

WEBH wrote: 3 Feb 2023, 10:32am Slightly off topic, but slightly on - am I likely to get more luck with a bike on train booking at a station than online?
I'm not sure in general. It depends which online retailer and how good your ticket office workers are.
There is no way of contacting trainline without a booking ref, so I'm a bit stumped. Any suggestions?
Don't use trainline. They are the dominant provider and seem to maintain that position through advertising and industry deals ( running the ticket websites of some train companies) instead of good customer service. They often charge booking fees that other sellers don't. They claim to be actively passing customer details to train company revenue protection officers, even when the ticket has been missold by their badly-designed app!

First Group (GWR, SWR, Hull Trains,. ...) mostly don't use them. Nor should we.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
WEBH
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by WEBH »

Take your point about Trainline, I guess I've fallen for the spiel and only book with them. My son has given me the same steer!
A quick look at Trainline seems to indicate that they pay very little, if any, tax in the UK, and that one's booking travels all around the world for tax purposes..
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Sweep
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by Sweep »

An update - good news and bad news on Avanti West Coast.


1: Chickening out on the fully electronic booking (see above on me using this many times on London Northwestern in case anyone thinks me a luddite) I toddled along to London Euston for a recent booking. Queue very fast (due no doubt to many folk booking online) and the operation very swift and simple - same price as online. Maybe because this is a mainline station for Avanti - I think the staff member doing the booking was Avanti.

2 - Bad news - With encouragement from folks above, including reassurance that etickets (as opposed to mtickets) don't need a dedicated app I went online to book another Avanti West Coast ticket - all went well until I got to the final delivery option and wasn't offered the option of an eticket. So out of interest I retained the same booking same train and removed the free bike carriage. Eticket option then allowed. So it appears that you can't book bikes electronically for an eticket on the Avanti West Coast site. I was offered the "collect at station" option but after my previous mess with a non printout of my bike tickets I wasn't going down that route.

So station it is going to have to be.

Avanti maybe have good reasons for this - with printed tickets you have to attach one to the bike of course and there are unfortunately some "wise guys and gals" who might try to sneak a bike on and screw up other cyclists.
Sweep
gbnz
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by gbnz »

mjr wrote: 8 Feb 2023, 12:29pm
Don't use trainline...... They often charge booking fees that other sellers don't
Sorry, can't help but post! A last minute trainline booking today, catching a train in two hours time. With additional fee's for "booking the ticket" and then additional fee's for "collecting the ticket" sneaked in towards the paying point. And then they tried to sneak in a £200-300 annual subscription, by offering my cash back on the ticket I'd just bought. Smacks of fraud?

Imagine if buying a loaf of bread for a £1, resulted in £300 of booking, collection and subscription fee's sneaked in at the till :wink:
Pendodave
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by Pendodave »

Sweep wrote: 5 Mar 2023, 11:30am

2 - Bad news - With encouragement from folks above, including reassurance that etickets (as opposed to mtickets) don't need a dedicated app I went online to book another Avanti West Coast ticket - all went well until I got to the final delivery option and wasn't offered the option of an eticket. So out of interest I retained the same booking same train and removed the free bike carriage. Eticket option then allowed. So it appears that you can't book bikes electronically for an eticket on the Avanti West Coast site. I was offered the "collect at station" option but after my previous mess with a non printout of my bike tickets I wasn't going down that route.

So station it is going to have to be.

Avanti maybe have good reasons for this - with printed tickets you have to attach one to the bike of course and there are unfortunately some "wise guys and gals" who might try to sneak a bike on and screw up other cyclists.
I booked a bike (and myself) onto a train yesterday from Sheffield to Stevenage. TPE and LNER. Was eticket until the bike was added, then became "collect at station ". So this isn't Avanti specific, and I'm pretty certain it's because you are supposed to physically attach it to the bike.
On a sample size of 1, all the bits prjnted out successfully, fwiw.
rareposter
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by rareposter »

Pendodave wrote: 3 May 2023, 10:19am I booked a bike (and myself) onto a train yesterday from Sheffield to Stevenage. TPE and LNER. Was eticket until the bike was added, then became "collect at station ". So this isn't Avanti specific, and I'm pretty certain it's because you are supposed to physically attach it to the bike.
On a sample size of 1, all the bits prjnted out successfully, fwiw.
I had a whole round-the-houses thing with EMR the other week. Needed a one-way ticket for me and bike. You have to phone them to book a bike on or use the "book a cycle space" reservation form on their website, those are your only two options:
https://www.eastmidlandsrailway.co.uk/t ... -on-trains

I hadn't bought the ticket for me because I didn't want a situation where I bought my ticket, then requested a space only to be told there were none available on that service so it leaves you in a bit of a catch-22. So I phoned them and the (very helpful) customer service rep tapped away at a keyboard for a few seconds then said, yes that service is fine and read out a code. That was it, just a AB1234 code format she read out to me. No printed ticket or email or actual proof.

I then booked my own ticket using the app which I use regularly.

Although it wasn't checked at all on the train, I do wonder if the system will have told the staff on that service "there is a bike booked on under the following code" and what would have happened if I'd given a wrong code. As it was - no checks, no verification, nothing. Kind of makes a mockery of the whole process.

TPE are much easier, you can just WhatsApp them and you get a message back with a screenshot of the details (train service, origin and destination stations). Really easy.
Jdsk
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by Jdsk »

From 20 May 2021:

"• simpler, modern fares delivered, starting with new flexible season tickets on sale from 21 June and a new Great British Railways website for all tickets and clearer compensation"
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/grea ... -passenger

Jonathan
peetee
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by peetee »

A salutary tale that may be of use to somebody.
My partner and I planned a three day break and booked our tickets in advance. About a month before the scheduled date we had to change our plans and tried to re-book. The tickets were transferable so we moved the date forward four weeks, travelling on the same days of the week and the same times of day. We were, in effect, booking as far in advance as we had done the first time. Imagine our shock when the clerk said that the price would be an additional £125. The original tickets were only £60. Paying three times the original price for a transferable fare was above and beyond what we were prepared to pay and unjustifiable, in my opinion, so we had to stomach the lost £60 and cancel the trip altogether.
The older I get the more I’m inclined to act my shoe size, not my age.
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