Why can't people buy train tickets at newsagents?

[Hellfire]

There are regular postings on our forum by people who have problems because they board a train at a station with no ticket facilities, or there is a TVM that doesn't work.

It made me wonder why the number of outlets selling rail tickets is so restricted. In London every other newsagent can sell you tube and bus tickets or top up an Oyster

Wouldn't it be a useful service for tickets to be available in selected newsagents in various towns? Or is the cost if setting it up prohibitive.

 

[GarethJohn]

I'd include Post Offices, supermarkets and bus stations. Some towns and villages have unmanned stations miles from habitation.

It would be so easy to get your ticket the day before or while you buy the paper.

Although the range of tickets available for every journey I suppose that it would be difficult to train all the staff issuing one. Even those in the industry struggle at times.

 

[table38]

On Merseyrail, many of the stations have MtoGo joint shop/ticket offices. I still think it's odd to ask the guy on the till for a railway ticket!

 

[Be3G]

There are such things as ‘rail-appointed travel agents’, but I've never ever seen one. I've always thought I'd love to see a list of where they exist.

 

[GarethJohn]

There are such things as ‘rail-appointed travel agents’, but I've never ever seen one. I've always thought I'd love to see a list of where they exist.

Newtown I think.

 

[cuccir]

Some of the independent ticket offices at rail stations are officially, I think, operated as rail-appointed travel agents eg Bishop Trains at Bishop Auckland, and Chester-le-Track at Chester-le-Street and Eaglescliffe.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

Wouldn't it be a useful service for tickets to be available in selected newsagents in various towns?

Another way of achieving this would be to have "Ticket on Demand" machines which weren't located on railway stations. Particularly if they could print tickets within seconds or minutes, the ordering of the ticket is processed on a phone, tablet or computer which doesn't then impose restrictions on complexity.

Cost naturally would remain an issue. For reasons known to themselves, train operating companies can be reluctant to install even card only machines on unmanned stations. If it's somewhere that's "manned", what needs to be monitored? That it's not out of order presumably and to refill it with blank tickets.

 

[najaB]

There are regular postings on our forum by people who have problems because they board a train at a station with no ticket facilities, or there is a TVM that doesn't work.

It made me wonder why the number of outlets selling rail tickets is so restricted. In London every other newsagent can sell you tube and bus tickets or top up an Oyster

Wouldn't it be a useful service for tickets to be available in selected newsagents in various towns? Or is the cost if setting it up prohibitive.

This is what Print@Home and mTickets are supposed to get around - the jury is out as to if these are good solutions or not.

 

[razor89]

You can (or could) buy Merseytravel scratch off Saveaways from some newsagents in the Liverpool area. They are renowned on Merseyrail for selling customers the wrong Saveaways for the journey the customer wants to make. There are loads of threads on here talking about occasions where dedicated rail staff have cocked up, how many more do you think there would be if newsagents could sell tickets too?

 

[theshillito]

On Merseyrail, many of the stations have MtoGo joint shop/ticket offices. I still think it's odd to ask the guy on the till for a railway ticket!

You can also buy scratchcard Saveaways from various newsagents, which you can then stockpile and then scratch off the date when you want to use them. They also sell them online in batches.

 

[HSTEd]

Carnet tickets would help.

But physical tickets are out of fashion.

 

[dannypye9999]

Bad idea. imagine wanting to buy a drink and magazine, id expect to in and out of the newsagents in less than 2 minutes. Nobody fancys queuing up for ages behind numbers of people who have prefered to buy tickets from the newsagent other than a machine or the ticket office. People will infact start to see the newsagent as a ticket office and not a newsagents. And I don't think the newsagent worker would quite enjoy being pestered all day long about things like "what times this train, what times that train, can I use my ticket for this, can I use my ticket for that". Remember hes a newsagent, not a ticket advisor.

 

[starrymarkb]

National Express tickets are now available from any post office. I assume it just prints on the till roll. But with Nat-Ex tickets they are generally for a booked service which makes verification easier

 

[Howardh]

Bad idea. imagine wanting to buy a drink and magazine, id expect to in and out of the newsagents in less than 2 minutes. Nobody fancys queuing up for ages behind numbers of people who have prefered to buy tickets from the newsagent other than a machine or the ticket office. People will infact start to see the newsagent as a ticket office and not a newsagents. And I don't think the newsagent worker would quite enjoy being pestered all day long about things like "what times this train, what times that train, can I use my ticket for this, can I use my ticket for that". Remember hes a newsagent, not a ticket advisor.

Is it any different from people buying their lottery ticket or a pack of stamps? Ideally at all stations (never mind newsagents) in the UK you should be able to buy a London Travelcard. Otherwise, if one doesn't come with your postal ticket, there's the queue at Euston....

 

[Hadders]

Newsagents and small stores already sell lots of additional products through Paypoint or Payzone. Adding rail tickets would be relatively staightforward if the will was there.

However only 'simple' tickets could be retailed as there'd be no link to the reservation system, so no seat reservations or advance tickets.

 

[Philip]

From the point of view of someone who works in a station booking office, I wouldn't be too pleased if newsagents or post offices in the area started selling tickets and taking a lot of custom from us, neither would our union. I guess that's a selfish way of looking at it but then there are other factors such as the level of training and competency on ticket knowledge of the person behind the counter and the can of worms that would likely open. I know some people whinge about booking office clerks and guards not knowing what they're doing but trust me most of us do and would know a lot better than someone selling in a newsagents! So I would leave the selling of rail tickets for the booking office and the guards to deal with, that is what they are well trained to do and thus is the common sense approach.

 

[theshillito]

From the point of view of someone who works in a station booking office, I wouldn't be too pleased if newsagents or post offices in the area started selling tickets and taking a lot of custom from us, neither would our union. I guess that's a selfish way of looking at it but then there are other factors such as the level of training and competency on ticket knowledge of the person behind the counter and the can of worms that would likely open. I know some people whinge about booking office clerks and guards not knowing what they're doing but trust me most of us do and would know a lot better than someone selling in a newsagents! So I would leave the selling of rail tickets for the booking office and the guards to deal with, that is what they are well trained to do and thus is the common sense approach.

True, but I thought the suggestion was for stations without ticket offices as an alternative to buying on the train/machine. I don't think anyone was suggesting replacing or supplementing proper, existing ticket offices...

 

[Philip]

True, but I thought the suggestion was for stations without ticket offices as an alternative to buying on the train/machine. I don't think anyone was suggesting replacing or supplementing proper, existing ticket offices...

Don't think there'd be much point, in Northern land anyway, as most of the unmanned stations have a ticket machine on the platform, what's wrong with using the machine to buy tickets? Not withstanding the use of TVMs you'd be further reducing the role of the guard in the selling tickets to people on the train - and the commission that comes with it!

 

[theshillito]

Don't think there'd be much point, in Northern/ATW land anyway, as most of the unmanned stations have a ticket machine on the platform. Not withstanding that you'd still be reducing the role of the guard in the selling tickets to people on the train - and the commission that comes with it!

Not in Cheshire you don't. We're getting machines slowly, but you're lucky to get electronic announcements, or indeed electronic anything, at some stations...

 

[telstarbox]

I think it's a non-starter due to the amount of training and knowledge which shop staff would need. In particular, newsagents might have a number of part-time or casual staff minding the shop who would all need the training.

If it's to ensure the viability of a local shop and ticket office by combining the two, it would be better to do it the other way round and get trained ticket clerks to sell sweets, fags and mags.

It's a good idea for shops to sell simple ticket products with no restrictions, e.g. Oyster topup or Arriva weekly passes via the PayPoint system. But asking shop staff to deal with time restrictions, route restrictions, Railcards and the rest will do more harm than good - either long queues or grief when they sell someone an invalid ticket.

Once smart tickets take off it will make sense for newsagents to offer top-up services as with Oyster shops in London.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

On Merseyrail, many of the stations have MtoGo joint shop/ticket offices. I still think it's odd to ask the guy on the till for a railway ticket!

Do MtoGo shops sell the full range of tickets/local A to B tickets/just rovers?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

There are regular postings on our forum by people who have problems because they board a train at a station with no ticket facilities, or there is a TVM that doesn't work.

The stations I can think of with no ticket office or TVM are in isolated areas (eg the Hope Valley) where there isn't always a shop near the station anyway. Then not all the shops are open early/late/Sundays so you have to buy from the guard at some point anyway...

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

And I don't think the newsagent worker would quite enjoy being pestered all day long about things like "what times this train, what times that train, can I use my ticket for this, can I use my ticket for that". Remember he's a newsagent, not a ticket advisor.

You make a lot of sense in what you say above.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Newsagents and small stores already sell lots of additional products through Paypoint or Payzone. Adding rail tickets would be relatively staightforward if the will was there.

However only 'simple' tickets could be retailed as there'd be no link to the reservation system, so no seat reservations or advance tickets.

Simple tickets? Not sure such a thing exists!

On a national basis, the simplest it gets is Anytime fares, but, as an example, Manchester to Chester has four returns with "Anytime" in the name! I don't think I'd trust an untrained newsagent to sell me the one I need.

 

[SS4]

Another way of achieving this would be to have "Ticket on Demand" machines which weren't located on railway stations. Particularly if they could print tickets within seconds or minutes, the ordering of the ticket is processed on a phone, tablet or computer which doesn't then impose restrictions on complexity.

LM did that at University and it's proving pretty well used IIRC.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Newsagents and small stores already sell lots of additional products through Paypoint or Payzone. Adding rail tickets would be relatively staightforward if the will was there.

However only 'simple' tickets could be retailed as there'd be no link to the reservation system, so no seat reservations or advance tickets.

Already possible in TFGM Land: http://www.tfgm.com/journey_planning/Tickets/Pages/tickets_paypoint.aspx

Also for Metro Cards https://www.wymetro.com/TicketsAndPasses/MetroCards/HowToBuyYourMetroCard/

and others as well, I think.

 

[muz379]

Plus at the moment booking office staff are not on any sort of commission .
whereas to make it worth their while you would have to give some sort of commission or incentive to these shops to actually start selling tickets as well . This would ultimately be seen by the passenger

Not to mention if this business is making commission off each ticket they sell where is the incentive to give impartial ticket advice about the cheapest and best options .

Plus who is the passenger going to complain to when the ticket seller at their newsagents tells them they can use a saver return in the morning peak and the guard on the train or RPI at the station makes them buy a whole new ticket

 

[Hassocks5489]

Back in the days of Connex South Central, they randomly installed a Quickfare self-service machine in a newsagent near Norbury station. It didn't last very long!

I posted some stuff on another thread a while ago about off-station self-service machines. There are examples at Bournemouth and Loughborough Universities, among others.

@Telstarbox: I think the MtoGo shops can sell a full range of National Rail tickets, although on my rare visits to Merseyside I've never bought anything other than a Saveaway from them.

 

[jon0844]

Having a machine to collect tickets would be good though. If I could collect from my local newsagent, I could then get Plusbus tickets. No point otherwise, as I'd not get my ticket until getting off the bus.

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[HH]

"Why can't you buy Nuclear Submarines; Houses; Cars; Medical treatment; medical prescriptions; <anything specialist you care to name> at newsagents?"

Is this a dumb question?

 

[Tim R-T-C]

If there is a ticket machine or service in a local shop, does this count as an opportunity to buy before boarding?

 

[muz379]

If there is a ticket machine or service in a local shop, does this count as an opportunity to buy before boarding?

suppose it would depend on how close to the station said shop is . Say the shop is half a mile to the west of the station but I live half a mile from the east of the station am I expected to walk an extra mile to buy a ticket . I think not . It would only IMO be fair to treat it as an opportunity of the shop is inside the station