Collecting pre paid tickets from station

[ashworth]

An older relative of mine has booked AP tickets from Newark to Edinburgh on the East Coast website. Usually when booking tickets like this she has them delivered to her address by 1st Class post but on this occasion accidently clicked on the box to collect them from Newark Northgate Station on the morning of travel.

No major worry about this and she does know that she has to take the debit card that she used to purchase these tickets with her and a record of the booking number.
However, she is concerned about having to use the automatic machine to collect the ticket, as her eyesight is not as good as it was and she is worrying about whether she will be able to read the instructions and operate the machine.

Does she have to use the machine, or can she collect them from the staff in the booking office instead?

 

[Chris-P]

An older relative of mine has booked AP tickets from Newark to Edinburgh on the East Coast website. Usually when booking tickets like this she has them delivered to her address by 1st Class post but on this occasion accidently clicked on the box to collect them from Newark Northgate Station on the morning of travel.

No major worry about this and she does know that she has to take the debit card that she used to purchase these tickets with her and a record of the booking number.
However, she is concerned about having to use the automatic machine to collect the ticket, as her eyesight is not as good as it was and she is worrying about whether she will be able to read the instructions and operate the machine.

Does she have to use the machine, or can she collect them from the staff in the booking office instead?

At all the stations I've been to, I have been able to collect them from both the machine and staff, just say that you would like to collect a ticket and give them the card/booking ref #

 

[ashworth]

Thanks for that information. That will put her mind at rest as she has been worrying about it for weeks. People do worry about small things when they get older but I suppose it will come to us all!

 

[sheff1]

At Sheffield on a Friday evening, when there are often huge queues at the Fast Ticket machines, I have heard booking clerks refuse to issue pre booked tickets at the windows.

Whether they would refuse an elderly lady with poor eyesight I don't know (the people I saw being refused were students) but if possible I would suggest your relative goes down before the day of travel to collect her ticket and asks a staff member to help her get the ticket out. If she lives too far away to do this then tell her to allow plenty of time on the day - again asking for help if necessary.

 

[ashworth]

At Sheffield on a Friday evening, when there are often huge queues at the Fast Ticket machines, I have heard booking clerks refuse to issue pre booked tickets at the windows.

Whether they would refuse an elderly lady with poor eyesight I don't know (the people I saw being refused were students) but if possible I would suggest your relative goes down before the day of travel to collect her ticket and asks a staff member to help her get the ticket out. If she lives too far away to do this then tell her to allow plenty of time on the day - again asking for help if necessary.

I wouldn't think that there would be too much of a problem between 7 and 7.30 am on a Saturday morning at Newark Northgate.
She isn't travelling until the end of February and so I suppose that I could go with her some time in the next few weeks and help her to collect them.

 

[wellhouse]

The Instructions on the machine are less of a problem than the Font Size on the print out of the reservation.

It may also be helpful to know that tickets are available within a couple of hours of reservation (and at any Fast Ticket machine, not just at the nominated station) so it is not necessary to wait until the date and time of travel before collecting the tickets.

 

[yorkie]

..
Whether they would refuse an elderly lady with poor eyesight I don't know ...

If they did, I think they'd quite possibly be in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act.

 

[sheff1]

If they did, I think they'd quite possibly be in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act.

I agree, but not much consolation if you miss your train because you can't retrieve your ticket ... hence my suggestion to go down before the day of travel if that is possible.

 

[rail-britain]

The ticket machine should meet the minimum DPA requirements for eyesight
However, I am quite sure the travel centre staff will gladly assist if the person collecting the tickets simply says they cannot read and follow the instructions on the machine!

 

[WillPS]

At Sheffield on a Friday evening, when there are often huge queues at the Fast Ticket machines, I have heard booking clerks refuse to issue pre booked tickets at the windows.

Whether they would refuse an elderly lady with poor eyesight I don't know (the people I saw being refused were students) but if possible I would suggest your relative goes down before the day of travel to collect her ticket and asks a staff member to help her get the ticket out. If she lives too far away to do this then tell her to allow plenty of time on the day - again asking for help if necessary.

Well that's brilliant. Sheffield station is a completely mismanaged.

 

[142094]

Has Sheffield got anymore ticket machines now compared to the last time I was there (there were only about 4)? There were queues at around 3 in the afternoon, and it wasn't even that busy.

 

[northwichcat]

When I bought an Advance starting at Stockport from Eurostars website it warned me that to collect at the Stockport I would need to use the VT ticket machines and not the ticket office, despite the ticket office being Virgin managed.

If you can't collect it from the ticket office but have disability problems then station staff should assist on request.

 

[transportphoto]

An older relative of mine has booked AP tickets from Newark to Edinburgh on the East Coast website. Usually when booking tickets like this she has them delivered to her address by 1st Class post but on this occasion accidently clicked on the box to collect them from Newark Northgate Station on the morning of travel.

No major worry about this and she does know that she has to take the debit card that she used to purchase these tickets with her and a record of the booking number.
However, she is concerned about having to use the automatic machine to collect the ticket, as her eyesight is not as good as it was and she is worrying about whether she will be able to read the instructions and operate the machine.

Does she have to use the machine, or can she collect them from the staff in the booking office instead?

If you look on National Rails website and look at the Stations information page under the Ticket Buying & Collection section it will say something along the lines of
Collection of pre-purchased tickets Y/N-
From Ticket Machiene Y/N
From Ticket office- Y/N
Here is a link to the page for Newark North Gate (NNG)

Hope you find this useful!

 

[ashworth]

Thanks that's great.
I can see that pre paid tickets can be collected from the ticket office at Newark Northgate. That saves me a 30 mile round trip if I had to take her beforehand to get them or even a 15 mile round trip to into Nottingham to use the machines there.

 

[button_boxer]

Has Sheffield got anymore ticket machines now compared to the last time I was there (there were only about 4)? There were queues at around 3 in the afternoon, and it wasn't even that busy.

There's 4 (three EMT and one Northern with a Yorcard reader) under the information boards on the concourse, next to the main entrance to the station and fed by a single queue. But there's also a further 2 hidden away at the far left hand end of the ticket office counter, and if you don't know they're there it wouldn't occur to you to go looking for them.

 

[transportphoto]

Has Sheffield got anymore ticket machines now compared to the last time I was there (there were only about 4)? There were queues at around 3 in the afternoon, and it wasn't even that busy.

There's 4 (three EMT and one Northern with a Yorcard reader) under the information boards on the concourse, next to the main entrance to the station and fed by a single queue. But there's also a further 2 hidden away at the far left hand end of the ticket office counter, and if you don't know they're there it wouldn't occur to you to go looking for them.

If you look at the Route for each station you will be able to find out where the ticket machines are located. Here is a link to the route for Sheffield Station.

Hope this is useful.

 

[142094]

Thanks for the link, but I already knew there were 4 and already knew where they were.

However the link doesn't show the 2 others mentioned by button_boxer, so really isn't that useful.

 

[transportphoto]

Thanks for the link, but I already knew there were 4 and already knew where they were.

However the link doesn't show the 2 others mentioned by button_boxer, so really isn't that useful.

Im sorry, I can only show the official things - this page is found via the National Rail Enq. Stn info page for Sheffield.

 

[142094]

Fair enough, but I was looking for someone who had been to Sheffield recently. Plus, the ones mentioned by button_boxer should be on there if it is official, guess when they made these maps they didn't pay much attention to their asset lists.

 

[sheff1]

If you look at the Route for each station you will be able to find out where the ticket machines are located. Here is a link to the route for Sheffield Station.

... but that link doesn't show the two other machines mentioned. Unfortunately for me more people have found them now - I used to be be able to go straight there whilst a queue of people waited at the centrally located ones

Interesting that the other link confirmed that prepaid tickets cannot be collected from Sheffield booking office . I wonder what would happen in the 'little old lady' situation ?

 

[142094]

Think you must have mis-read - two machines are not for pre-paid collection and two are. However this means (especially for a station in a city as big as Sheffield) people will be queuing for tickets and someone who is hoping to collect may miss their train, and lose money as a result. EMT should have its backside kicked and get some more machines in pronto.

 

[sheff1]

Think you must have mis-read - two machines are not for pre-paid collection and two are. However this means (especially for a station in a city as big as Sheffield) people will be queuing for tickets and someone who is hoping to collect may miss their train, and lose money as a result.

Not sure if this was directed at me, but Sheffield has 7 machines in total. 5 allow pre-paid collection - 3 in the main group central of 4, plus the 2 'hidden away' ones.

Still totally inadequate and, as you say, people are very likely to miss trains. Now that people have discovered the other 2, I usually collect tickets the evening before - OK as I work in the city centre, but not so good for those who don't.

 

[142094]

My mistake, mis-read and thought you were referring to the nationalrail link.

 

[shinkansen1966]

Pre booked tickets are available to collect 2 hrs after they were booked online. If I can, I generally go to the station's ticket machine as soon I can to get the tickets. Even if it may be days or weeks before the departure time.

It's easier to select a station nearer still, even it's not the station you'll be travelling from. I often travel from Kings Cross to Leeds on advance purchase tickets, but nominate the ticket machines at Finsbury Park stn for collection...only a 10 min walk from my house.

 

[yorkie]

It's easier to select a station nearer still, even it's not the station you'll be travelling from. I often travel from Kings Cross to Leeds on advance purchase tickets, but nominate the ticket machines at Finsbury Park stn for collection...only a 10 min walk from my house.

You can collect from any station that has collection facilities. It doesn't matter which one you choose.

 

[button_boxer]

Not sure if this was directed at me, but Sheffield has 7 machines in total. 5 allow pre-paid collection - 3 in the main group central of 4, plus the 2 'hidden away' ones.

With the seventh machine being at the other end of the footbridge by the tram stop. Forgot about that one as I rarely go out that way.