southern rail season

[387star]

Hi I have just bought a Southern Season ticket (National Rail do not appear to offer this) and the website appeared to force me into buying using the expensive next day delivery option (£6) when I was hoping to just pick the ticket up from the machine

Question is why didn't the option come up to pick the ticket up from the station? My local station is Chichester and it does have the right facilities

Thanks!

 

[yorkie]

National Rail (ATOC) do not sell any tickets, it's for information only.

You will have to ask Southern that question directly.

I selected a Chichester to London season starting 8 July, and it did the same thing for me. I then tried another station (Portsmouth) and it did the same again. I then tried London to Chichester (which, by the way, has identical validity as a Chichester to London) and it also did the same thing. I therefore conclude it doesn't matter which station you choose from and their system may be broken.

 

[causton]

Their system may be broken.

In more than one way!

FWIW: it seems to do this for every station, I've tried it with the various seasons near me on different operators... perhaps they just want to make more profit!

 

[RJ]

My TiS doesn't print TOD for season tickets, sundries, platform tickets and other miscellaneous products. I advise that it would have been posted to the nominated address. It's not a bug in the system, there's a reason for everything.

 

[dzug2]

Are season tickets printed on different coloured stock? No idea, but if so that would account for them not being available from machines.

 

[Malderon]

Well Annuals are printed on Gold Card coloured stock but I'm not sure that has anything to do with it.

The machine at Chichester will only sell weeklys but I've never tried printing out a prebooked season ticket.

I have to get mine at the ticket office anyway for Easit discount

My guess is that its just a limitation of the machines that they cant print long season tickets, whether due to something mechanical or security reasons I have no idea.

 

[MikeWh]

Are season tickets printed on different coloured stock? No idea, but if so that would account for them not being available from machines.

They were when I last had one (around ten years ago). Grey for monthlies and gold for annuals in the south east.

 

[LexyBoy]

They were when I last had one (around ten years ago). Grey for monthlies and gold for annuals in the south east.

Monthly tickets have always been on orange stock for me, though a colleague has a 6 month season on grey stock.

Whilst I agree that a no-cost delivery option should be available, why not buy the ticket at the station? This can be done at least one working day in advance, more for renewals IIRC.

 

[Wolf_359]

Anything over a weekly ticket has to be issued by a booking office & registered on the season ticket database.

This is so that if you lose it or it wears out it can be replaced, also Annual Seasons are printed on different colour of ticket stock which are not available in a ticket machine. Shorter tickets are printed on Orange Stock.

It is also because your photocard number needs printed on the ticket & Quick Ticket Machines are unable to do this at the moment.