Overcharged at Paddington ticket machine

[melevittfl]

I was travelling back from a trip to London with the family and we needed tickets for Paddington to Twyford. This was about 2PM so I pushed the Station Finder, found Twyford and selected off peak single tickets. We have a friends and family railcard so I added that. All looked correct on the screen so I paid the £40.50 it wanted.

However, once we got on the train, I checked The Trainline and the same tickets to the same destination with a railcard were about £29.

Looking at the tickets, it looks like the ticket machine sold me tickets with a route Via Reading. Given Twyford is before Reading, it seems I've been over charged.

Am I missing something? And is there any way to claim back the difference as I seem to have been mis-sold tickets at a higher price than I should have been. I know it's not a huge amount of money, so it's more the principle.

 

[jfollows]

I don't think you were overcharged directly, as you probably realise there are multiple ticket options and in particular a London-Twyford ticket via Reading does make sense (I always used it on the occasions I visited my sister whose nearest station was Twyford) and there's a different ticket which is more expensive than the "not via Reading" one.
So the question really is why you bought the more expensive ticket from the ticket machine - and I can't know this. Did you miss the option of the cheaper ticket or was it not displayed? Maybe you need to try it again and see what is presented to you?

 

[Gaelan]

To answer the question of why the via-Reading tickets exist, I suspect it's so you can take a fast service that doesn't call at Twyford then double back, which may be faster (or useful if you wanted to visit Reading anyway).

 

[30907]

Interesting - the GWR website defaults to the cheapest ticket which is NOT VIA READING (and didn't throw up any Via Reading journeys).
Someone who knows GW TVMs might know what the interface looks like. If it seems misleading an e-mail to GW Customer services might result in a goodwill gesture.

 

[yorkie]

The fastest journeys are via Reading, but it's cheaper to avoid Reading.

Both options should be presented.

Planner - Results - FastJP

www.fastjp.com

11:37	London Paddington to Twyford
|	1 change - Reading
12:14	0hrs 37mins
11:40	London Paddington to Twyford
|	Direct Train
12:31	0hrs 51mins
11:57	London Paddington to Twyford
|	Direct Train
12:40	0hrs 43mins
12:07	London Paddington to Twyford
|	1 change - Reading
12:45	0hrs 38mins

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Presume £40.50 is calculated as the total cost of 2 x £15.75 adult + 2 x £4.50 child Off Peak Day Singles (route "via Reading") with Family & Friends railcard discount applied.

The route "not via Reading" ticket, priced at a total of £29.50 (= 2 x £11.45 adult + 2 x £3.30 child, again with Family & Friends railcard discount applied) seems to be an Anytime Day Single ticket type.

So, it could be easy, when buying the tickets from the TVM in a hurry, to look just for Off Peak Day Single tickets and to think that they would invariably always be cheaper than Anytime Day Singles, when actually that's not always the case, this because of the different routes.

 

[Horizon22]

The fastest journeys are via Reading, but it's cheaper to avoid Reading.

Both options should be presented.

Planner - Results - FastJP

www.fastjp.com

11:37	London Paddington to Twyford
|	1 change - Reading
12:14	0hrs 37mins
11:40	London Paddington to Twyford
|	Direct Train
12:31	0hrs 51mins
11:57	London Paddington to Twyford
|	Direct Train
12:40	0hrs 43mins
12:07	London Paddington to Twyford
|	1 change - Reading
12:45	0hrs 38mins

Only by a whole 6 minutes if you take the GWR semi-fast Didcot service!

Will be even quicker from May.

 

[jfollows]

Only by a whole 6 minutes if you take the GWR semi-fast Didcot service!

Will be even quicker from May.

The difference used to be much greater, of course. I probably wouldn’t bother today, but I did in the 1990s and so it’s increasingly less relevant as a fare, but remains as an option still.

 

[MikeWh]

A point to note for future. If using contactless PAYG (meaning no railcards at the moment) you can travel via Reading for the same price as direct. This is because the paper ticket has to allow you to break journey at Reading whereas PAYG will charge the Reading fare if you touch out there and the Twyford fare if you double back without exiting at Reading.

 

[gray1404]

Cite this when contacting GWR.

 

[Gaelan]

Cite this when contacting GWR.

Fascinating - are there more detailed T&Cs somewhere? As written I can’t see why you couldn’t buy from a TVM then claim back the difference from a split-ticket price (for, as it says, an identical journey)!

Relatedly, does GWR do on-the-day advances, and if do, do their TVMs sell them? (I know TfW has them but not from TVMs.)

 

[melevittfl]

Cite this when contacting GWR.

Thanks! I'll give that a try.

Clearly they know it's an issue if they offer that. I'm sure they're not doing it out of the goodness of their heart.

 

[mangyiscute]

Fascinating - are there more detailed T&Cs somewhere? As written I can’t see why you couldn’t buy from a TVM then claim back the difference from a split-ticket price (for, as it says, an identical journey)!

Relatedly, does GWR do on-the-day advances, and if do, do their TVMs sell them? (I know TfW has them but not from TVMs.)

I don't think gwr TVMs (at least the old ones which are the majority, although iirc the news one that they for example installed at Reading have now been removed) have the journey planning feature of some TVMs, so I don't think that they'd be able to sell advance tickets

Looking on their website I can buy advances for the London to Bristol train in 2 hours time, so on the day advances must exist

 

[JonathanH]

If using contactless PAYG (meaning no railcards at the moment) you can travel via Reading for the same price as direct. This is because the paper ticket has to allow you to break journey at Reading whereas PAYG will charge the Reading fare if you touch out there and the Twyford fare if you double back without exiting at Reading.

Indeed, but alas not much use if the OP is travelling with children, as there is no corresponding arrangement for them to go via Reading in this way without buying a paper ticket.

The other observation that could be made is that young children up to age 10 can travel for free from Paddington to Twyford on the Elizabeth Line, but not GWR, when accompanied.