Southeastern's ticket website doesn't work!

[seahermit]

I can't believe I'm posting this. I registered a new account today with Southern and booked tickets for Hastings to Ashford, Kent (open return). No problem obviously, it took just 20 minutes.

When I tried to register an account on the Southeastern website (with a view to buying a Weekender from Ashford to Rochester and back along the coast), a message came up that "the passwords do not match". I must have tried twenty different password variations, with and without numbers etc., and checked them repeatedly. The website remained mutely unresponsive, would not accept anything I typed in!

Well, there may be some secret tricks which this dumb "customer" is missing but it does fit in with my experiences of the last few days. I haven't travelled for a while and since then the UK rail network seems to have become markedly more chaotic. Neither the National Rail site nor the operators' sites seem to always work properly, the info is often wrong or contradictory or plain missing, or the website is so badly constructed that it is impossible to find what you want quickly and smoothly. I found Trainline and one or two of the others quite a nice, professional experience.

Mind you, to some extent I can see their problem - the press last week reported that there are currently 20 million different kinds of train ticket in the UK!

I just hope that the booking office at Ashford station is not boarded up when I get there and try to buy a Weekender before rushing to get the train ..

 

[Islineclear3_1]

This is why we need knowledgeable staff in ticket offices who can offer the full gamut of tickets (which it seems are limited from a TVM)

 

[yorkie]

Mind you, to some extent I can see their problem - the press last week reported that there are currently 20 million different kinds of train ticket in the UK!

Not so much; it does not matter how big the underlying database is, and as you say some providers do provide a professional experience.

The only thing I would add is that if all journeys were priced by single legs that would make presentation of tickets easier, but that's a whole new topic really.

I just hope that the booking office at Ashford station is not boarded up when I get there and try to buy a Weekender before rushing to get the train ..

If the ticket office is closed and the ticket you need is unavailable from the machine, you should be able to buy on board at no penalty. If you have any doubts, contact Southeastern to check what they say you should do in these circumstances.

 

[seahermit]

Well, if there is no other way of course I should be able to buy a ticket when on board, but that should not be necessary. Nor should the number of ticket options etc. make any difference to the working of the whole system, if the programming has been done correctly. But you have to open an account on the Southeastern website before they will let you order tickets - and if you can't even do that because the website is in a bad mood, the only thing left to do is pull your hair out in handfuls!

These things could only happen in a farce or on the UK rail network ..

(I went onto the Trainline site, registered, bought my Weekender, it all took just 15 minutes).

 

[Typhoon]

I just hope that the booking office at Ashford station is not boarded up when I get there and try to buy a Weekender before rushing to get the train ..

Ashford should be open - it is advertised as closing at 21:30. People I know have had difficulty buying a Weekender ticket at our local (mid-size) station on multiple occasions. It does not seem to be widely known about but clearly is beneficial in the south east (in particular) to fill half empty trains.

If the ticket office is closed and the ticket you need is unavailable from the machine, you should be able to buy on board at no penalty. If you have any doubts, contact Southeastern to check what they say you should do in these circumstances.

I would avoid the HelpPoints at the stations. In my experience the staff who respond just tend to follow a script ("You must have a ticket before you travel", "You can buy a ticket at the ticket office - it is open until 4.30pm" having told them its closed). I have found e-mail somewhat more helpful (especially as you can print the response) but no good for any sort of urgency.

I would have thought some reference (searchable) document would be able to supplement incomplete knowledge of tickets and their availability.

 

[Typhoon]

But you have to open an account on the Southeastern website before they will let you order tickets - and if you can't even do that because the website is in a bad mood, the only thing left to do is pull your hair out in handfuls!

I regularly buy tickets online at the Southeastern website but have no account. It does mean you have to enter your card details each time but I can put up with that. I just ignore the 'invitation' to Log On or register.

 

[seahermit]

I searched for the means to buy tickets as a "guest" without opening an account, didn't spot it but, thanks, it must be buried there somehere - I'll try again next time round.

I don't mind opening an account, makes things a bit quicker subsequently - as long as the website actually functions properly. But I can't believe that the SE rail site wouldn't even do something basic like let me register as a would-be regular customer. Presumably it's like the rail network itself - nobody can be bothered to check things are going smoothly or to rush to remedy things if some quirk happens.

 

[talldave]

For what it's worth, I use the Hull Trains site. It hasn't suffered from a appearance over functionality redesign like so many other TOCs' websites. And you can buy a ticket without having to select a specific service (much like visiting a ticket office!).

 

[mallard]

Mind you, to some extent I can see their problem - the press last week reported that there are currently 20 million different kinds of train ticket in the UK!

Put it this way; there are (approx.) 2600 stations in the UK. Just having a single fare from each station to each other station is nearly 7 million tickets. Of couse, there are also return tickets and off-peak single/return tickets (nothing unusual or particularly complex about that). Once you have just 4 different types of ticket, there should be about 27 million possible fares. The reason it's lower than that is largely because most fares are the same in both directions (and thus appear only once in the fares database) and most longer distance fares are priced between "clusters" of stations rather than having individual fares for each; both of these "optimisations" are invisible to the rail user.

The only surprising thing here is that there are only 20 million fares. Although my copy of the fares database only contains around 6 million fare records, so whoever came up with the "20 million" figure must have, at the very least, counted "reversible" fares twice and seperated out some of the clusters.

 

[Wallsendmag]

You've forgotten about Bus and Ferry links , the reference data in our Admin System is a nightmare to manage.