Where and how do you normally purchase your train ticket?

[railwaytrack]

Where do you normally buy your train ticket and how do you normally pay? I have created a poll here as i am interested to see what methods are most common these days?

If you use multiple different methods then just select the ones that you use the most frequently. So if you use more than one method just as frequently as each other than you can select more than one. But only select methods that you regularly use. I am not interested in methods that you occasionally use.

I am including payment methods such as Contactless or Google Pay or Apple Pay etc under "Card" so just select "Card" if you use any of these to purchase your ticket.

Feel free to discuss anything regarding this in this thread. I look forward to seeing the responses to this poll.

Many thanks.

 

[ainsworth74]

I buy my weekly season tickets online to a smartcard but my other tickets online to e-ticket. Not sure which option to choose?

 

[railwaytrack]

I buy my weekly season tickets online to a smartcard but my other tickets online to e-ticket. Not sure which option to choose?

I have just changed the poll to allow more than one option for people like you who use multiple options frequently. I had not thought of that. So you can select both options now.

 

[Runningaround]

I don't think the polls fare on those who don't like new technology, as they would prefer the option to vote by posting a letter

 

[jfollows]

If I'm buying a ticket which isn't an advance ticket (ie it's the same price at the time I travel) I buy it from the station ticket office with a card, eg Northern Duo or Day return from Wilmslow station. I did this just over a week ago.
I buy e-tickets from Avanti for trip to London. I did this a few weeks ago when I went to London to meet my sister and my nephews.
I use contactless with a registered credit card when I'm in London. I did this on the same London trip to go shopping the day before I met my sister and on the day itself.
So I ticked multiple boxes.
I won't use m-tickets.
My preference is for credit-card paper tickets but I'm a reluctant convert to e-tickets also.

 

[Alex365Dash]

For travel entirely on the GTR network, I simply use KeyGo. I usually otherwise book eTickets online (TrainSplit in advance, LNER app on day of travel), except for outboundary Travelcards and cross-London tickets for which I have to use ToD instead. (I would prefer smartcard fulfilment for Travelcards, but GTR’s Super Off-Peak Day Travelcards can’t be fulfilled to smartcard.)

If we’re including PlusBus tickets, these are generally last minute purchases from the guard on the way to the destination station.

 

[yorkie]

I usually purchase through Trainsplit (using the seat selector, if the trains are reserveable) and choose e-tickets.

If I do not want to select a return itinerary and am purchasing a flexible ticket on the day of travel, then I might use Trainline's app (I will stop doing this as soon as Trainsplit has an 'open return' option!)

I generally avoid using TOC websites, with some exceptions, such as if I am buying a longer distance journey on Northern, then I will need to use Northern's website, to only pay 7 quid while if I am travelling with LNER on advance tickets, I won't be buying them myself, but someone else will.

 

[Ken H]

I usually buy from a station not where i travel from. Cash or card. The stations where i travel from dont have ticket offices. I find the ticket office quicker than the machines as i often buy non standard tickets e.g plusbus and the Northern ones are a faff for that.

 

[S&CLER]

Always buy tickets by card from station. Have used a TVM once in my life (day return Cromer to Cambridge), don't bank online or own a smartphone (and hope to be dead before they become unavoidable). Certainly would give up rail travel altogether rather than buy a smartphone for which I would have no other conceivable use.

 

[Haywain]

Always buy tickets by card from station. Have used a TVM once in my life (day return Cromer to Cambridge), don't bank online or own a smartphone (and hope to be dead before they become unavoidable). Certainly would give up rail travel altogether rather than buy a smartphone for which I would have no other conceivable use.

And yet here you are posting on an internet forum.

 

[Ken H]

And yet here you are posting on an internet forum.

big step from social media to doing financial stuff online.

 

[kristiang85]

For advances I buy online and collect paper tickets from a TVM at the station.

For walk up tickets I buy paper from TVMs, even on my regular route (I used a smartcard twice - the first time was such a faff to get it to work, and the second time it charged me more than I would have normally paid for paper, so never again!).

I just generally prefer having a physical ticket.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Most of my shorter journeys start on Merseyrail so I have to use the ticket office (no TVM or e-tickets).
Longer journeys, usually with TfW or Avanti, I usually go for e-tickets.
Rovers and Rangers (I often use the latter), have to use a ticket office.
Always card, never cash.

I've also recently booked tickets with Trenitalia, ÖBB and DB, all on e-tickets.
I'm just left with a Geneva-Chambery regional leg which I will buy on the day when I get to Geneva, the route depending on the time of day easyJet gets there.
In 16-odd recent EU trips involving multiple cross-border trains I've rarely used a booking office or ATM, unless the trip is unbookable online (eg some TERs).
Some trips used to be a pain when you could book online but had to collect physical tickets from an ATM (eg Hungary), but that phase seems over now.
Same goes for airline/ferry bookings, all on e-tickets now.
I used to print out all the PDFs, but on recent trips I've just shown the barcode on phone/tablet.

A booking office/ATM is often needed for local city tickets (eg day multimodal travelcards), but if you know your itinerary you can often book online in advance.
Increasingly you have to buy and use whatever the local Oyster-type system is, often leaving unused credit on the card when you move on.
As a senior, I've also sometimes needed a ticket office to issue a card to prove eligibility for the discount (eg Spain's Tarjeta Dorada).

 

[Grumpy Git]

Local station 95% of the time (after checking on one of the split ticketing sites).

 

[Dai Corner]

Local station 95% of the time (after checking on one of the split ticketing sites).

Don't you feel the split ticketing sites deserve a sale after providing you with useful, often money-saving, information?

 

[mirodo]

Always e-ticket via an app. Trainline if it's same day travel or being expensed to my employer, otherwise LNER.

 

[Grumpy Git]

Don't you feel the split ticketing sites deserve a sale after providing you with useful, often money-saving, information?

I think supporting my (very) local booking office is more important.

 

[LondonExile]

Advances I buy online, from computer rather than app, and these days, e-Tickets for fulfillment. As I have a printer, I print a copy as a backup, but show my phone to barriers/revenue staff as first preference.

If there's no benefit in booking in advance (e.g. Tyne & Wear Metro, or Newcastle to Durham); card payment at the TVM, unless I'm visiting family in London where I just use contactless to get around.

 

[Skymonster]

I will sometimes buy online if there is a benefit to me in doing so - cheap advance fares or (occasionally) seat reservations. However I won’t buy online if the only method of fulfilment is e-ticket or if I have to pay extra for CCST ticket issue (so only if TOD via TVM is available). For most others - the majority - though I’ll buy at the station (TVM on the day, pay by card).

 

[Bungaroosh]

Only three voted for website > posted to you (Royal Mail).

I do this for journeys booked a week or more ahead from a website that offers free first class postage.

 

[ainsworth74]

Only three voted for website > posted to you (Royal Mail).

I do this for journeys booked a week or more ahead from a website that offers free first class postage.

Gosh I can't remember the last time I had tickets posted to me. If you don't mind me asking why do you get them posted?

 

[Trainbike46]

I use posted tickets for my journeys where neither eTicket nor ToD is available, so basically SailRail tickets starting in Northern Ireland

 

[yorkie]

Local station 95% of the time (after checking on one of the split ticketing sites).

Don't you feel the split ticketing sites deserve a sale after providing you with useful, often money-saving, information?

I think supporting my (very) local booking office is more important.

By that logic, surely you should be buying a through ticket?

If too many people do what you do, things will have to change, as discussed in another thread.

I have to say, reading posts like yours makes me want something to happen.

I think it's highly morally dubious doing this; if anyone is really keen to have 100% of the savings identified by such sites, they should at least buy each ticket individually from the site that found them.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 May 2022 ==

Only three voted for website > posted to you (Royal Mail).

I do this for journeys booked a week or more ahead from a website that offers free first class postage.

No doubt a TOC site (TOC sites are subsidised by taxpayers) as the retailer will be making a loss on that!

 

[Bungaroosh]

Gosh I can't remember the last time I had tickets posted to me. If you don't mind me asking why do you get them posted?

So I've got them on me in advance of a (longer-planned) journey without having to get them from the station. One less thing to do.

People will say, "why don't you get an e-ticket"? Because I don't like doing transaction-type things on a phone, or fiddling with a phone at a gateline, or having a phone out at the gateline when I might often be dealing with bags and luggage (a small bit of paper is easier to handle in that situation than a phone that the scanner may or may not read easily). I once bought an e-ticket by mistake (or was hoodwinked into doing so by the website) and did not like the experience of using it.

I will keep using credit card sized tickets as long as they are available.

 

[Grumpy Git]

By that logic, surely you should be buying a through ticket?

If too many people do what you do, things will have to change, as discussed in another thread.

I have to say, reading posts like yours makes me want something to happen.

I think it's highly morally dubious doing this; if anyone is really keen to have 100% of the savings identified by such sites, they should at least buy each ticket individually from the site that found them.

Why should I buy a through ticket? I don't go into the pub and pay for two pints when I've only asked for one?

'Highly morally dubious', really? At least I'm not breaking the law or misleading my peers.

 

[yorkie]

Why should I buy a through ticket?

You want to use the ticket office, who will only advise you on that basis.

I don't go into the pub and pay for two pints when I've only asked for one?

That analogy does not work; it's nonsensical.

The correct analogy would be something like this: you wish to buy the ingredients for a cake; your local shop will sell you the entire ingredients at a premium. However an online retailer will sell you the entire ingredients at a cheaper price but the way they do this is by doing some really clever stuff which works out that you can get the same resulting ingredients but by asking for them in a very specific way. You then go to the local shop and hand the specific set of instructions, which the online retailer had to put a lot of effort into generating, and then the local shop spends some extra time calculating the discounted price.

You then say how wonderful the local shop is, despite the local shop originally quoting you a very high price. The local shop makes a loss but is bankrolled by taxpayers, whereas the online site you used to calculate the cheapest combination of ingredients gets no remuneration for their efforts.

'Highly morally dubious', really?

I think so and I wasn't the first one to say that; see the link I provided to the other thread.

At least I'm not breaking the law or misleading my peers.

True it's not illegal, but in my opinion (and we can agree to disagree!) it's much more morally dubious than breaking temporary absurd laws that should have been declared unlawful and should never have existed in the first place, but that's a whole new topic!

 

[Grumpy Git]

True it's not illegal, but in my opinion (and we can agree to disagree!) it's much more morally dubious than breaking temporary absurd laws that should have been declared unlawful and should never have existed in the first place, but that's a whole new topic!

Purely by coincidence, I'm suffering from a confimed case of Covid at the moment. I'm relatively fit for my age, but I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, it is a nasty virus and I find the comments of many posters on here dismissing lockdown measures as very misguided, (I'm not going to kill anyone by buying my split ticket from Merseyrail).

 

[ainsworth74]

We're not doing Covid chat in this thread. Please take it to the Covid-19 sub-forum.

 

[weepingwillowb]

I use a variety of ways. If it's a journey on Avanti, I'll go to the local ticket office and buy advance tickets, because Avanti don't have the option of buying online and collecting a ticket at the station. If I'm planning a trip online, a few weeks in advance, I'll probably buy the tickets online to collect, unless it's where I need something a bit more complicated, such as, for example, instead of buying a return from Lancaster to Stoke-on-Trent, I need a Lancaster-Manchester return and a Manchester-Stoke return (cheaper), so I either buy those at the ticket office, or buy online and collect at the different departure stations.
A run down to Preston, or a day out that I've decided on a few days beforehand, I'll buy in advance at the ticket office. Not very often that I buy a ticket on the day of travel, as I try to be organised, but it does occasionally happen, and they're always bought at the ticket office.

 

[railwaytrack]

Many thanks for all of your votes and replies. That is really interesting to see. I did not realise how quite how popular buying E tickets online and buying tickets online and collecting at the station were. These two have got so many votes here. I suppose perhaps less people are buying at the station or onboard these days. Maybe the corona virus has affected this. Personally my normal methods are using cash either onboard the train from the Guard or from the ticket office if it is open.