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Best way to book train tickets

Yogibear said:
If you are travelling on a train without a valid ticket you are committing travel fraud. I've seen people questioned then arrested cuffed and dragged off in to a police van for doing this. That's why I'm trying to explain what you can and cannot do. Maybe you need to challenge your online ticket companies about the services they claim to offer. Or you could just buy a valid ticket!
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Not sure why you think it's such a big deal. Many sites let you print out your own ticket or use your phone nowadays so why would there be any fraud involved? And if I have to pick up tickets from a station, I obviously pay the fare there first.
 
editor said:
Not sure why you think it's such a big deal. Many sites let you print out your own ticket or use your phone nowadays so why would there be any fraud involved? And if I have to pick up tickets from a station, I obviously pay the fare there first.
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editor said:
Not sure why you think it's such a big deal. Many sites let you print out your own ticket or use your phone nowadays so why would there be any fraud involved? And if I have to pick up tickets from a station, I obviously pay the fare there first.
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Trainline is a huge problem for barrier and enforcement staff because they still refuse to make it blidingly obvious to their consumers that they have to collect their tickets at certain stations. If they have bought an online ticket from A to B via C and chosen to print out that ticket then they have to be in receipt of a valid ticket for each part of that journey. If point A doesn't have the facility to print out their ticket then they can't just jump on the train and hope to print it out at point B. If they do they are travelling without a valid ticket and liable to all the nastiness that can go off with the BTP or the private police forces that some railways are trying to employ on minimum wages.
 
Yogibear said:
Buy your ticket from your local railway station, or your nearest staffed railway station. They will find you the cheapest available valid ticket for your journey. Valid is an important point because some of these online private companies will show you tickets that don't exist, or routes that are not valid, and so you would be travelling without a valid ticket and likely to be fined for ticket fraud if caught.

Also the likes of trainline will often offer 'cheaper' tickets but charge you for postage that makes it more expensive than buying from a person at your local station. The other big annoyance is that online tickets can only be collected from Mainline stations not from your local station. So you will be charged for a ticket from your local station to your nearest mainline station that has the facility to print out your ticket. You will then have to claim back from Trainline or whoever the cost of the ticket you had to buy or the fine you incurred travelling without a valid ticket.

Use your local staffed station, especially outside the busy times, and you are going to get the best deal available and be able to explore real cost cutting options like splitting your journey with seperate tickets..:)
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Just to wade in on an old discussion ... it depends on the staff in your local ticket office.

People are often given wrong advice.

I've had ticket office staff refuse to sell me certain tickets, and had to make complaints in order to get a refund on the excess they've charged me.

Certainly not all ticket office staff will entertain the idea of looking for split ticket options for you.

For someone that doesn't know much about the rail fares system, absolutely, a good ticket office clerk who knows their stuff will get you a better result than online. It's a bit of a gamble though whether you get a good one.

And it's not true that online-purchased tickets can only be collected from 'Mainline' stations. They can be collected from most stations these days, and you are asked to select from a list, which station you want to pick up from, when you confirm the purchase.

And no-one should ever use Trainline, who add on a booking fee, selling you the exact same thing as you can buy without fee from any of the rail companies.
 
teuchter said:
And no-one should ever use Trainline, who add on a booking fee, selling you the exact same thing as you can buy without fee from any of the rail companies.
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A lot of the TOC's sites are just white label'd Trainline's site. I know cause I was working on their system years ago when I used to work in IT :)
 
OzT said:
A lot of the TOC's sites are just white label'd Trainline's site. I know cause I was working on their system years ago when I used to work in IT :)
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I know. It's one of (I think) two systems that everyone uses. But the TOCs don't add booking fees.
 
I booked train tickets yesterday. When I completed the deal there was a pop up appeared saying I could save £16.87 from my next ticket. Can I help, it's a con. It's nothing to do with training. To sign to this they want details, including bank details to set up a direct debit...dont do it people.
this just arrived
Screenshot_20200112-154011.png
 
Data harvesting scam innit. Your data is worth more than 16 quid, dont give it up that easily to cunts like trainline.

Btw my train booking tip is to never book tickets with the Trainline. Booking fee bullshit. All the actual operators are free and national rail page/app work ok. I dont see the point for UK travel.
 
Oh I got that "complete savings" thing when I bought a gig ticket a while back. I signed up, immediately bought another gig ticket, got the price back, and then cancelled my subscription to "complete savings". I don't think it led to a hike in spammy scummy bullshit landing in my inbox (although I do seem to get a high volume anyway due to a serious lapse in common sense a few years back that made me fill in one of those stupid surveys. incidentally, my contact info seems to have made it to South America in recent weeks.)
 
Supine said:
There was a complaint about that site / scam in the guardian yesterday. They take 15 quid from your account every month!
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I did a bit of google research when they first asked me to join. Because I joined and then left straight away, I think I got at least one gig ticket for nish on the deal. But yeah, it only makes any kind of sense if you're spending shedloads on a regular basis anyway.

Any deal that necessitates you spending money on consumerism in order to benefit is a capitalist scam.
 
Riklet said:
Btw my train booking tip is to never book tickets with the Trainline. Booking fee bullshit. All the actual operators are free and national rail page/app work ok. I dont see the point for UK travel.
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My tip is to always book tickets through The Trainline if you’re claiming back on expenses, as you can make money on cashback deals with them and whoever is paying your expenses pays the booking fee too.

I got about a fiver back from a £180 train ticket to an interview recently.
 
strung out said:
My tip is to always book tickets through The Trainline if you’re claiming back on expenses, as you can make money on cashback deals with them and whoever is paying your expenses pays the booking fee too.

I got about a fiver back from a £180 train ticket to an interview recently.
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Solid tip!

Fuck me 180 quid train ticket being paid for. Hope it went well!
 
hash tag said:
I booked train tickets yesterday. When I completed the deal there was a pop up appeared saying I could save £16.87 from my next ticket. Can I help, it's a con. It's nothing to do with training. To sign to this they want details, including bank details to set up a direct debit...dont do it people.
this just arrived
View attachment 195632
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I wonder what Bungle would have to say about this? :D
 
strung out said:
My tip is to always book tickets through The Trainline if you’re claiming back on expenses, as you can make money on cashback deals with them and whoever is paying your expenses pays the booking fee too.

I got about a fiver back from a £180 train ticket to an interview recently.
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There are several train operators who pay higher cashback than Trainline.
 
Topcashback sometimes offers cashback on sites which charge more if you go via the portal than if you go direct and avoid the cashback. Travelodge did this a year back. As I am an honest kind of guy I had to forgo the £10 cashback to allow my employer to save £20 on some crappy hotel room by booking direct. I would not be at all surprised if they weren't trying to play the same kinds of filthy dirty tricks with train fares. My best ever train cash back was 10% with expedia via top cashback.
 
hash tag said:
www.theguardian.com

Why are UK train fares so expensive? We ask an expert

Cat Hobbs, who campaigns for public ownership of railways, on the cost of tickets and the companies pocketing the profits
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
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I've often found it quite bizarre how so many people think railways should run at a profit (or, at least, not a huge loss) and yet have no issue with vastly more being spent on roads which nobody expects should make a profit, bar a few toll roads.
 
Carvaged said:
I've often found it quite bizarre how so many people think railways should run at a profit (or, at least, not a huge loss) and yet have no issue with vastly more being spent on roads which nobody expects should make a profit, bar a few toll roads.
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In the 80s the Tories would refer to putting money into the railways as subsidy, whereas spending on roads was called investment.
 
<bump>

This is either a dead easy question for you rail enthusiasts or it's going to involve my queuing up at a station to ask.

We are going to visit friends near Dundee at beginning of April:

(a) Me, Mrs W and W2 are going there and back (out from KGX 2/4, return 6/4) - easy direct route - have already bought return using Friends and Family railcard (we might break journey at Durham on return).

(b) W1 and her BFF are travelling with us from KGX 2/4 but then returning via Oxenholme 6/4 to stay with BFF family for a few days then returning to EUS. They can get from Dundee to Oxenholme via Edinburgh/Haymarket.

So the question is - is that return journey (b) a permitted route and if so can they just buy a return to DEE using their 16/17 Railcard?

If not, how do they do the journey/buy the tickets?
 
They can't split their return journey on a KGX->DEE return ticket over multiple days.

Might be one for the RailUK Forum.
 
As far as I can see, a (no railcard) Super Off Peak Return, London Terminals to Dundee, is £175. I would have to check but I believe Oxenholme would be on a permitted route back, and a Super Off Peak Return allows you to break the return journey, so I think it would be OK.

they'd have to watch they stayed within these restrictions, mainly relevant to when they leave London on the outward journey.

I'm not familiar with the 16/17 Railcard - NRE doesn't seem to offer a discount on that fare. Not sure why as elsewhere it looks like it should.

A 16-25 railcard would bring it down to £115.50 - it might be worth getting one each.


*edited to add

16-17 railcard, I think, should reduce it to £87.50.

For some reason the NRE journey planner won't offer me that, but it looks like the LNER website will.

Also, on the LNER website, putting via Oxenholme offers the same fare as the default route (via York etc) and therefore I think it's a permitted route.
 
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