Train fares - online and at station - same price?

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

Post by Sweep »

rareposter wrote: 27 Jan 2023, 11:09am
Sweep wrote: 27 Jan 2023, 10:58am Don't know if they still do it but northern definitely used the ticket you validate before boarding - sod that - enough stress taking northern anyway without turning up at a station to fiddle with tech/data connections/global web.
Northern are e-tickets now - no need for validation, no need for app connectivity, just stored in the same offline wallet. Northern are actually one of the better operators, especially since there's no need to book a bike space. Buy ticket on the app, get on train, put bike in the space. Simple!
By "wallet" do you mean some dedicated thing within the app, only accessible from the app, or is this a reference to some generic wallet thingie, or even just a self-created doc folder using whatever prog?
My reference to stress with regard to northern was to do with uncertainty whether the train would turn up* or be ram-packed when it did due to poor provision or cancellation of previous trains. This has maybe improved though with effective renationalisation.
I agree that they are great/easygoing with bikes (one of the best) but then they don't of course run long distance nationwide services - I like the fact that Avanti need a booking - otherwise could be very stressful.
* Because of such uncertainty I have in the past when needing a turn-op-on-the day ticket taken advantage of Northern's policy at many rural stations which allows you to get a free stub from the machine promising to pay on the train. And I do of course. But if the train doesn't come I am not left with a pointless ticket and can just pedal.
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simonineaston
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by simonineaston »

As an aside, I've just come back from a country famous for its high taxes, excellent infrastructure and happy citizens and guess what, their railway system was a delight to use. From clean and quiet trains, ditto stations, easy-to-use and fair-priced ticketing, regular and reliable timetabling, the whole experience was straightforward and effective. And state-owned.
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
Jdsk
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

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simonineaston wrote: 28 Jan 2023, 10:50am As an aside, I've just come back from a country famous for its high taxes, excellent infrastructure and happy citizens and guess what, their railway system was a delight to use. From clean and quiet trains, ditto stations, easy-to-use and fair-priced ticketing, regular and reliable timetabling, the whole experience was straightforward and effective. And state-owned.
Mostly agree. But on our most recent trip we couldn't get a straight answer on booking a tandem from Odense to Esbjerg, either online or at the station. Eventually we risked it. The coach was double-decked and the tandem needed to go upstairs. The staff didn't help, but the other passengers did.

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

Post by Paulatic »

Sweep wrote: 28 Jan 2023, 10:12am [
By "wallet" do you mean some dedicated thing within the app, only accessible from the app, or is this a reference to some generic wallet thingie, or even just a self-created doc folder using whatever prog?
I can only speak for IOS but I’m sure Android must have something similar.
It’s just as it says, very similar to the one in your pocket and comes with the operating system. I open mine by looking at the phone and within it I can present my bank card or store cards, Tesco, CooP, Caravan Club card and increasingly more and more tickets you buy can be kept in it.
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Jdsk
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by Jdsk »

Paulatic wrote: 28 Jan 2023, 11:29am
Sweep wrote: 28 Jan 2023, 10:12am [By "wallet" do you mean some dedicated thing within the app, only accessible from the app, or is this a reference to some generic wallet thingie, or even just a self-created doc folder using whatever prog?
I can only speak for IOS but I’m sure Android must have something similar.
It’s just as it says, very similar to the one in your pocket and comes with the operating system. I open mine by looking at the phone and within it I can present my bank card or store cards, Tesco, CooP, Caravan Club card and increasingly more and more tickets you buy can be kept in it.
Yes.

...

Apple:

https://www.apple.com/uk/wallet/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Wallet

As above: it's built-in to the standard iPhone configuration.

...

Android has Google Wallet:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Wallet

but I suspect that there's much more variety in what people use than on iOS. (And I would use a third-party app for this rather than a Google product.)

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

Post by Sweep »

Paulatic wrote: 28 Jan 2023, 11:29am
Sweep wrote: 28 Jan 2023, 10:12am [
By "wallet" do you mean some dedicated thing within the app, only accessible from the app, or is this a reference to some generic wallet thingie, or even just a self-created doc folder using whatever prog?
I can only speak for IOS but I’m sure Android must have something similar.
It’s just as it says, very similar to the one in your pocket and comes with the operating system. I open mine by looking at the phone and within it I can present my bank card or store cards, Tesco, CooP, Caravan Club card and increasingly more and more tickets you buy can be kept in it.
Will check out on android, thanks.
Tho no way am i doing any mobile banking.
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soapbox
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

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Just reading this lot hurts my brain. I've pretty much opted out of the tech revolution with apps and I'm finding that I'm increasingly distanced from society as a whole. It'll be a sad day for me when I can no longer rock up at a train station, get on a train (ditto buses) with or without a bike, and pay with cash and get an actual, old-fashioned ticket. I fear that I only have a few years left of this life.
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by mjr »

On apps for android, I like PassAndroid because it can put my ticket on the lock screen, so I don't need to mess about unlocking it as I approach a gate line. I also have My Loyalty Card which can scan and store e tickets, but doesn't have such features.
soapbox wrote: 28 Jan 2023, 3:26pm Just reading this lot hurts my brain. I've pretty much opted out of the tech revolution with apps and I'm finding that I'm increasingly distanced from society as a whole. It'll be a sad day for me when I can no longer rock up at a train station, get on a train (ditto buses) with or without a bike, and pay with cash and get an actual, old-fashioned ticket. I fear that I only have a few years left of this life.
Well, one positive aspect to e tickets is that the only change forced to your " actual old fashioned ticket " will be that it will have a square barcode on it and you'll hold it against a ticket gate to open it, instead of posting it into a slot on the gate. This is because the mechanical and magnetic ticket readers are surprisingly expensive to maintain compared to a camera, so as soon as they can be abandoned, they will be.

To be frank, the biggest threat to your scenario is probably this government wanting all ticket offices closed.
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by RickH »

mjr wrote: 28 Jan 2023, 6:44pmWell, one positive aspect to e tickets is that the only change forced to your " actual old fashioned ticket " will be that it will have a square barcode on it and you'll hold it against a ticket gate to open it, instead of posting it into a slot on the gate. This is because the mechanical and magnetic ticket readers are surprisingly expensive to maintain compared to a camera, so as soon as they can be abandoned, they will be.
If you buy Avanti tickets over the counter at a WCML station (or at least at Wigan NW but I presume the same at any Avanti run station) you get a larger paper ticket with the square QR code (the same as the e-ticket ones), rather than the traditional credit card sized card ones. I don't know if any other train companies do that. Northern & TfW over the counter tickets are still the traditional ones from my recent experience.
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by rareposter »

Sweep wrote: 28 Jan 2023, 10:12am By "wallet" do you mean some dedicated thing within the app, only accessible from the app, or is this a reference to some generic wallet thingie, or even just a self-created doc folder using whatever prog?
There are 4 tabs within the app, one is called My Tickets. Open that and it shows you all the tickets you've bought with that operator that are still valid.

Tap on the one you want, it opens up. Doesn't require connectivity, doesn't use data.

Edit: they do email it to you as well so you can always save the PDF somewhere else.
soapbox wrote: 28 Jan 2023, 3:26pm Just reading this lot hurts my brain. I've pretty much opted out of the tech revolution with apps and I'm finding that I'm increasingly distanced from society as a whole. It'll be a sad day for me when I can no longer rock up at a train station, get on a train (ditto buses) with or without a bike, and pay with cash and get an actual, old-fashioned ticket. I fear that I only have a few years left of this life.
It's certainly going that way.
Although to be fair, cash is a pain - if it's lost or stolen, it's gone for good and it's slow and bulky to use and carry. Can be quite fiddly too, especially for older people rummaging around for coins with arthritic fingers.

No-one misses the days of queueing to get on a bus with old biddies counting out loose change. Far easier and quicker to tap a card or scan a barcode.
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Sweep
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by Sweep »

rareposter wrote: 28 Jan 2023, 8:08pm
Sweep wrote: 28 Jan 2023, 10:12am By "wallet" do you mean some dedicated thing within the app, only accessible from the app, or is this a reference to some generic wallet thingie, or even just a self-created doc folder using whatever prog?
There are 4 tabs within the app, one is called My Tickets. Open that and it shows you all the tickets you've bought with that operator that are still valid.

Tap on the one you want, it opens up. Doesn't require connectivity, doesn't use data.

Edit: they do email it to you as well so you can always save the PDF somewhere else.

thanks - will go the PDF route - fair to assume I hope that if I have got a bike pass with tickets they can manage to email me that even if they can't sort the printing of it.
Whenever travelling with Avanti or any long distance train company I tend to have the PDF saved on three or four devices so that there can be no screw-ups.
If a paper ticket I always photo it before the trip - makes delay repay quicker and less fuss.
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by iandusud »

simonineaston wrote: 28 Jan 2023, 10:50am As an aside, I've just come back from a country famous for its high taxes, excellent infrastructure and happy citizens and guess what, their railway system was a delight to use. From clean and quiet trains, ditto stations, easy-to-use and fair-priced ticketing, regular and reliable timetabling, the whole experience was straightforward and effective. And state-owned.
Says it all. The only way to have good public services (transport, health, education, policing, justice system etc) is to have high enough taxes to pay for them. It is the fairest system as those who can most afford it pay the most (assuming that there aren't massive loopholes for tax avoidance like here in the UK). Sadly in this country we have a system designed to not only keep the wealthy that way, but to make them even wealthier at the expense of the rest of us. It's called trickle up economics.
Jdsk
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by Jdsk »

soapbox wrote: 28 Jan 2023, 3:26pm Just reading this lot hurts my brain. I've pretty much opted out of the tech revolution with apps and I'm finding that I'm increasingly distanced from society as a whole. It'll be a sad day for me when I can no longer rock up at a train station, get on a train (ditto buses) with or without a bike, and pay with cash and get an actual, old-fashioned ticket. I fear that I only have a few years left of this life.
Please let us know if you need any help with the technology.

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

Post by Sweep »

simonineaston wrote: 28 Jan 2023, 10:50am As an aside, I've just come back from a country famous for its high taxes, excellent infrastructure and happy citizens and guess what, their railway system was a delight to use. From clean and quiet trains, ditto stations, easy-to-use and fair-priced ticketing, regular and reliable timetabling, the whole experience was straightforward and effective. And state-owned.
a tad off topic simon, but gotta ask where this was?
and why so quiet - no-one using them?
(stress - no fan of current Brit system and that included under New Labor)

anyways - thanks for all the useful info folks - will explore hybrid tech solutions to the original issue next time, tho when in london may well continue to use London Euston ticket office after web research - they are very good in my experience. Ditto ticket staff at Skipton.
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Re: Train fares - online and at station - same price?

Post by simonineaston »

Denmark / Sweden. I think it's fair to observe that most of my rail travel took place out of rush hours, but even so, with the chuffas rolling up every ten minutes or so (see screenshot), I imagine they'd cope. I was also impressed with the ticket inspection / security... each train I was on was swept by a team of three young and tough-looking staff for the tickets and a separate team checking luggage when I popped over to Malmo. As for the food hall at Malmo - impressive!
rush hour trains on the line I used
rush hour trains on the line I used
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
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