UK Brit Rail Pass (4 days in a month) experience

[Toller Station]

I’ve just finished a trip of the UK traveling on a UK England Rail pass (First Class, 4 days in a month). Here, hopefully useful to others is my experience

The Rail Pass at least in my region can only be obtained through ACP International. Their customer service is pretty good and friendly. The only problem is paying them. Getting the site to accept credit cards is the challenge. While they suggest the normal solutions, clear cookies, try a different browser etc. they also advised this
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There are a few reasons why payments are not successful through our website because our bank where the payments are processed is located in Dublin, Ireland and some credit card companies may block this transaction due to fraud protection as this payment from an overseas bank has not been authorized by the cardholder. This can easily be fixed by notifying your credit card company and letting them know you are trying to make a payment to "ACP Rail International" for the total amount of your purchase and that our bank is located in Dublin

I tried more than one card, from two banks (one in the US one in my country of residence, Colombia) and both were declined. I did call the banks and they could not see the declinations. Eventually the security department of the Colombian bank called several hours later and asked if I had tried to make a payment. He then cleared the payment. It does suggest as if their banking structure, no doubt for tax purposes, loses them business.

Given the payments issue I did not make seat reservations, a service they offer, as I didn’t want to deal with declined cards again. They actually suggest that you leave reservations until you arrive in the UK.

I used the electronic M-pass option and I had no issues with getting through gates. One ticket inspector on Grand Central(Kings Cross - Hartlepool) didn’t scan it as ‘it would make a ‘strange noise’. The tickets, with my plan you download a ticket for each chosen day, worked fine. However they don’t load to Apple Wallet. I left mine in my email and the attachment opened up fine for scanning.

On another train, GWR Torquay to Dorchester West, changing at Castle Cary. There are no gate lines at Torquay so my ticket was not scanned there. As we neared Castle Cary over an hour later, no ticket inspector. I asked a member of staff about scanning my ticket and he said that the ticket inspector was further down the train and would not scan my ticket before we arrived.

My concern was that in not having my ticket scanned GWR would not get any revenue share for the day. With a layover at Castle Combe I spoke to a member of staff there who seemed to have an excellent knowledge of ticketing. He explained the flaw in my thinking. Where you travel and on which train company doesn’t matter. The revenue from the ticket is split across train companies on an agreed basis. You could spend the entire ticket validity on GWR and LNER would still get a portion. Perhaps that works, but I’m a little surprised that with electronic ticket checking that it is not more sophisticated.

In terms of value obviously it is a great was to see the UK. I paid $349 for the four day England flexi pass in First Class on the senior rate. Given that one of my journeys was from Hartlepool to Torquay (Grand Central to KC, GWR from Paddington, rather than having to use Cross Country) that probably paid for most of the ticket. These days, with crowded trains even in First (the GC to Hartlepool was full) the idea of just getting on any train you want, to wherever you wanted go isn’t without potential problems.

i also bought their $25 Safeguard plan which was vague in terms of what it covered prior to purchasing and not much better afterwards.

On my trip no check was made of my eligibility for the Senior discount and nor that I was an overseas resident - I am UK born now living in Colombia. Proving that you are resident abroad and meet the ticket requirements is more difficult these days. I have a UK passport and that is not stamped on entry and departure from the UK anymore.

Would I buy a UK rail pass again? Yes, but the payment issue suggests making sure that you can get the pass, before commiting to other plans.

 

[zero]

No passports have been stamped when leaving the UK since the 1990s if not earlier, and British passports haven't been stamped when entering the UK for decades too. However stamps do not prove your residence in any case - do you not have a Colombian ID card or driving licence or utility bill?

It is a scam for ACP Rail to offer paid seat reservations as they are free. You can reserve a seat for any train using the GWR website, and LNER also shows you the seat map for its own trains.

Interestingly a Eurail Global Pass for 4 days in a month, 1st class, senior, is only USD 342 and is just as valid as a Britrail pass, but cannot be scanned in the UK at all as the 2D barcode is not recognised.

 

[30907]

Just a comment on revenue allocation: yes, the overall system could be more sophisticated now that so many tickets are scannable, but it's probably not quite a high enough percentage yet (and would be expensive!). Railpasses represent a tiny percentage of revenue anyway, so even lower priority to allocate precisely.

 

[Toller Station]

No passports have been stamped when leaving the UK since the 1990s if not earlier, and British passports haven't been stamped when entering the UK for decades too. However stamps do not prove your residence in any case - do you not have a Colombian ID card or driving licence or utility bill?

It is a scam for ACP Rail to offer paid seat reservations as they are free. You can reserve a seat for any train using the GWR website, and LNER also shows you the seat map for its own trains.

Interestingly a Eurail Global Pass for 4 days in a month, 1st class, senior, is only USD 342 and is just as valid as a Britrail pass, but cannot be scanned in the UK at all as the 2D barcode is not recognised.

Yes I do have a Colombian residency card but possession of that hardly proves the requirement not to have lived in the UK for the past 6 months or more. In Colombia for example many expats stay less than 183 days a year to avoid tax. Same is true of the driving license or a utility bill. As for utility bills (a frequently suggested alternative) mine, and I suspect others, are often in the name of the spouse or partner. I did have documents to prove that I did meet the requirements and would have been fine if the person checking those had reasonable fluency in Spanish.

Yes you can get seat reservations from train companies but you often need an account to do so. Rather painful to set up an account for each train company you might be traveling on. In my four days of travel I used four different ones. Scam seems a rather harsh word as they book the seats for you, which for many unused to the UK rail system may be a worthwhile service.

 

[Toller Station]

Just a comment on revenue allocation: yes, the overall system could be more sophisticated now that so many tickets are scannable, but it's probably not quite a high enough percentage yet (and would be expensive!). Railpasses represent a tiny percentage of revenue anyway, so even lower priority to allocate precisely.

Yes, I understand that it is a small amount of revenue but my guess is that many passes are used for significant single journeys. For example In looking at Hartlepool to Torquay Cross Country would have helped me avoid London and the indicated 1st Class price on that, even in advance, was eye watering.

ACP had suggested when buying that I would need a log to track my journeys to be submitted to them which I presumed (perhaps wrongly) might provide the data to build the apportionments of revenue. However the form has all sorts of issues when trying to complete online and I was never chased for the data.

As you say in the overall scheme of things capturing the usage is probably not a priority. I guess all the scannable ticket tells the readers is ‘good for this day’?

 

[zero]

Yes I do have a Colombian residency card but possession of that hardly proves the requirement not to have lived in the UK for the past 6 months or more. In Colombia for example many expats stay less than 183 days a year to avoid tax. Same is true of the driving license or a utility bill. As for utility bills (a frequently suggested alternative) mine, and I suspect others, are often in the name of the spouse or partner. I did have documents to prove that I did meet the requirements and would have been fine if the person checking those had reasonable fluency in Spanish.

Yes you can get seat reservations from train companies but you often need an account to do so. Rather painful to set up an account for each train company you might be traveling on. In my four days of travel I used four different ones. Scam seems a rather harsh word as they book the seats for you, which for many unused to the UK rail system may be a worthwhile service.

No train guard is going to go through your passport and look at your travel history. Anyway, physical presence is not the same as residency, for example evidence of your travel history would not be accepted to prove you are resident in the UK. If the RDG (or Eurail) wanted a more strict proof of your physical presence outside the country you claim as your home, or other proof of residency, they should ask for it at the point of purchase.

My previous statement wasn't clear - an account with GWR is sufficient to reserve seats for free with all TOCs except Caledonian Sleeper (which is still free in the seated coach), you do not need to make an account with each TOC. In any case, reserving seats can be done at stations. It is a scam as it is misleading those "unused to the UK rail system" to believe that they must pay ACP Rail in order to reserve a seat.

Yes, I understand that it is a small amount of revenue but my guess is that many passes are used for significant single journeys. For example In looking at Hartlepool to Torquay Cross Country would have helped me avoid London and the indicated 1st Class price on that, even in advance, was eye watering.

ACP had suggested when buying that I would need a log to track my journeys to be submitted to them which I presumed (perhaps wrongly) might provide the data to build the apportionments of revenue. However the form has all sorts of issues when trying to complete online and I was never chased for the data.

As you say in the overall scheme of things capturing the usage is probably not a priority. I guess all the scannable ticket tells the readers is ‘good for this day’?

The readers do check the date, and ticket scans are all recorded, so it would be possible to use the data to apportion revenue if they wished to do so. I had thought that would have been the case, but I suppose it's probably not worth the time to implement this.

Not sure if the member of staff you spoke to was talking about a Britrail Pass specifically; they were at least correct about regular GB tickets - look up ORCATS (including on this forum) for more information about how revenue allocation works. Anyway, I believe all ticket revenue except for open access operators currently goes to the UK government.

 

[The exile]

The number of expats living abroad and returning to this country using a rail pass only available to non-uk residents must be minuscule so checking isn’t worth it. Presumably there’ll be some kind of geo-blocking on online purchases -in the past purchasing a physical ticket in another country was probably enough of a hurdle.

 

[Toller Station]

The number of expats living abroad and returning to this country using a rail pass only available to non-uk residents must be minuscule so checking isn’t worth it. Presumably there’ll be some kind of geo-blocking on online purchases -in the past purchasing a physical ticket in another country was probably enough of a hurdle.

There are 5.5 million British expats currently living abroad. Many of those return to visit friends and family. While not a huge market you really believe it is minuscule? You can get a pass for several days for the same price as some quoted long distance fares. That single Cross Country journey I mentioned in First was significantly more expensive than my pass for four days. You think other people don’t figure that out?

 

[The exile]

There are 5.5 million British expats currently living abroad. Many of those return to visit friends and family. While not a huge market you really believe it is minuscule? You can get a pass for several days for the same price as some quoted long distance fares. That single Cross Country journey I mentioned in First was significantly more expensive than my pass for four days. You think other people don’t figure that out?

Got my comment the wrong way round (still half asleep). The minuscule risk is UK resident foreign passport holders who are in a position to purchase a UK passport abroad which shouldn’t be available to them…
Not of course that I ever exploited this when resident abroad….

 

[Toller Station]

No train guard is going to go through your passport and look at your travel history. Anyway, physical presence is not the same as residency, for example evidence of your travel history would not be accepted to prove you are resident in the UK. If the RDG (or Eurail) wanted a more strict proof of your physical presence outside the country you claim as your home, or other proof of residency, they should ask for it at the point of purchase.

My previous statement wasn't clear - an account with GWR is sufficient to reserve seats for free with all TOCs except Caledonian Sleeper (which is still free in the seated coach), you do not need to make an account with each TOC. In any case, reserving seats can be done at stations. It is a scam as it is misleading those "unused to the UK rail system" to believe that they must pay ACP Rail in order to reserve a seat.



The readers do check the date, and ticket scans are all recorded, so it would be possible to use the data to apportion revenue if they wished to do so. I had thought that would have been the case, but I suppose it's probably not worth the time to implement this.

Not sure if the member of staff you spoke to was talking about a Britrail Pass specifically; they were at least correct about regular GB tickets - look up ORCATS (including on this forum) for more information about how revenue allocation works. Anyway, I believe all ticket revenue except for open access operators currently goes to the UK government.

The member of staff looked at my ticket and said that as it was a flexi pass it was only allocated revenue.

The rule in non residency makes sense as the tickets are discounted to encourage travel from overseas. These days with a VPN it’s pretty easy to make it look like to a booking system you are wherever you want to be. The tickets are delivered electronically. What’s the control to stop UK residents buying passes? If they blocked UK credit cards for example that would suggest that Brits living in the EU and keeping UK banking ties would be blocked.

I’ve no axe in this and it states that you should be prepared to show your passport. I have a UK passport (I have dual citizenship with the US) which I would been happy to show but it is hardly any test that I am entitled to use the pass. The T&Cs state that Britrail and their representatives (presumably the train companies?) can confiscate the pass at any time.