BR Fares now selling itinerary-free tickets

[Paul Kelly]

Yes GooglePay support is currently in progress. I accept the point about the BUY button being "loud" in simple query mode but I did want it to be prominent! Apart from that the main UI has hardly changed - except on mobile where it was too wide in many cases, so the information is now spread over an extra line - maybe that impacts on the appearance of obtrusiveness?

No changes to expert mode apart from the BUY icon itself, which is deliberately smaller there so as to not upset the (very historical) coloured table layout too much. I also made a small change to the sort order of flows in expert mode, to hopefully make it more logical and consistent.

 

[Haywain]

Yes GooglePay support is currently in progress.

Good to hear.

I accept the point about the BUY button being "loud" in simple query mode but I did want it to be prominent! Apart from that the main UI has hardly changed - except on mobile where it was too wide in many cases, so the information is now spread over an extra line - maybe that impacts on the appearance of obtrusiveness?

It is that, and the fact that on mobile it is likely to make some pages very long!

For the future, you might consider adding a filter to the simple view to make it a bit easier to find tickets for a particular route.

 

[jfollows]

Really excellent and useful, thank you.
I use expert mode because I usually want the detail, and it’s certainly not at all obtrusive there.

 

[Paul Kelly]

It's a fair point that the mobile layout was a bit too "spacious" - not what you really want on a small screen. I've adjusted it a bit:
Before: After:

 

[mattdickinson]

I don't believe any of the third-party retailers can fulfil tickets to smartcards.

At one point there was talk of Trainline issuing its own smartcard.

 

[Haywain]

It's a fair point that the mobile layout was a bit too "spacious" - not what you really want on a small screen. I've adjusted it a bit:

Definitely an improvement. Thanks.

A side issue - in the last few days I am getting a 'Verify you are human' tick box come up every time I access the site, which I hadn't encountered previously. Is this a deliberate thing, or something Cloudfare put in place without your knowledge (not that I understand how such things work)?

 

[trainJam]

The destinations index (which is not the same as the origins index and has been renamed to station index) has been hidden.

Example use case: finding which origins are defined with a certain special bus/ferry/Z1-6/etc...

URL for destination index still works:

Purchase flexible walk-up fares for any British train journey

Purchase flexible single/return tickets & Travelcards – in 3 clicks. Full details of all British rail fares shown, with built-in Season Ticket Calculator.

www.brfares.com

 

[Alex-B]

Definitely an improvement. Thanks.

A side issue - in the last few days I am getting a 'Verify you are human' tick box come up every time I access the site, which I hadn't encountered previously. Is this a deliberate thing, or something Cloudfare put in place without your knowledge (not that I understand how such things work)?

That is a bit of a pain - especially when you open a link in a new window and get the tick box again. @Paul Kelly have you considered using something like Cloudflare Turnstile to reduce the level of visitor interaction required?

 

[MrJeeves]

@Paul Kelly have you considered using something like Cloudflare Turnstile to reduce the level of visitor interaction required?

That is exactly what is being used here, isn't it?

 

[jfollows]

Cloudflare is a complete pain for genuine real people trying to use the Internet, but the way it’s been implemented on brfares.com is tolerable. I understand the problem, it’s just that I think there is a better solution. I run my own mail server and web site.

 

[BG2024]

This is brilliant! There's a ticket I use regularly that journey planners won't suggest without some very messy coaxing (and even then, sometimes it's impossible to get what I need). I've just bookmarked the exact page for it so I can now buy it in seconds.

 

[Wallsendmag]

At one point there was talk of Trainline issuing its own smartcard.

There was a RDG project to set up a TPR Smartcard service but i think it worked out too expensive

 

[Kilopylae]

At present, neither E-Ticket nor ToD for the most part.

This is really frustrating but thank you for explaining. Is there any reasoning behind this silliness? It's not as if there are old TfL gatelines in sunny Devon.

 

[Adam Williams]

Is there any reasoning behind this silliness?

Not that holds up to any scrutiny, in my view.

 

[tomoufc]

Are there any glaring examples of tickets that you can now buy this way, that would otherwise require going to a booking office and hoping the staff member has the patience and knowledge to help?

 

[mikeb42]

The best news in rail ticket retailing from the informed passenger's point of view for some time.

This will be especially useful in overcoming the practical difficulties created by the likes of Avanti and LNER and their fake compulsory reservations nonsense. Falling back to ticket machines (or worse, the booking office) sounds all very well but is routinely a lottery of queueing, other timewasting and frustration. Likewise the difficulty of creating a viable itinerary for some good value tickets that can be used in creative ways...

May the creators of this facility be rewarded bountifully while the perpetrators of some of the problems it overcomes be condemned to circle the fires of Hell forever on a Merseytravel Pacer with the heating stuck on full and no ear protection against the flange squeal from endlessly traversing a tight radius curve...

 

[Adam Williams]

Are there any glaring examples of tickets that you can now buy this way, that would otherwise require going to a booking office and hoping the staff member has the patience and knowledge to help?

The Man in Seat 61 (@seatsixtyone) on X

I found out a thing: The beyond-Dublin fares (e.g. London-Galway) that exist in the fares system but no online retailer sells them (as they all INSIST on finding a timetable first, and TfW haven't input any Irish train times into the GB system). At https://t.co/hNdBLiemFL:

x.com

 

[signed]

The Man in Seat 61 (@seatsixtyone) on X

I found out a thing: The beyond-Dublin fares (e.g. London-Galway) that exist in the fares system but no online retailer sells them (as they all INSIST on finding a timetable first, and TfW haven't input any Irish train times into the GB system). At https://t.co/hNdBLiemFL:

x.com

You can also buy ROI-Scotland via Cairnryan which is definitely something that would be very complex to get

 

[mikeb42]

It's a pity the Rover/Ranger problem seems to have no solution.

Try buying one which is eligible for a Network Railcard discount, with that discount, from a TfW booking office.

Next to impossible in my experience and this is something I've had cause to try on numerous occasions. Multiple clerks have said that they're explicitly prohibited from selling tickets with Network Railcard discounts in general. The reasons all sound ridiculous: "We don't know what that Railcard is", "It's not valid in Wales" (So what?!) but there's no budging them. It's noteworthy that their TVMs won't do it either for regular non-rover tickets. The general workaround is online purchase and ToD - most I use have Maltese cross validity so paper is necessary. Obviously, this doesn't work with Rovers/Rangers. The only solution is to break my journey at the next GWR station along the route and visit the booking office, at which point there's no problem at all even though that station's not in the NSE area either.

Presumably the timescale for the industry solving this one is sometime never?

 

[Haywain]

Try buying one which is eligible for a Network Railcard discount, with that discount, from a TfW booking office.

Just how many rover tickets get a Network Railcard discount?

 

[Adam Williams]

Presumably the timescale for the industry solving this one is sometime never?

I would not remotely be surprised if it never got solved, then the products were withdrawn because nobody used them.

 

[mikeb42]

Just how many rover tickets get a Network Railcard discount?

At least 6. One of which I use many times a year, as a regular punter not a rail enthusiast.

Maybe more I don't know about.

Why do TfW refuse to sell *any* Network Railcard discounted tickets? (Or at least did for several years until a year or two back after which I gave up?) Surely they're not actually allowed to do this under the regulatory regime?

 

[Haywain]

At least 6. One of which I use many times a year, as a regular punter not a rail enthusiast.

A look at the railrover.org website suggests only one.

 

[mikeb42]

A look at the railrover.org website suggests only one.

Ok, so to be properly pedantic, consistent with my posts referring consistently to Rover/Ranger except where my pedantry slipped and I stated only Rover once...

There is indeed only one Rover - although to be pedantic there are 3 and 7 day versions.

There are several Rangers.

The importance of the distinction is currently mysterious as you won't get TfW to issue any of them with a Network Railcard discount. With enough persuasion they will issue one without it most of the time, but see how much fun you have getting anyone to refund the improper overcharge.

Meanwhile you won't even get them to issue a Reading to Paddington return with the discount unless things have changed!

With apologies for the inadvertent thread hijack.

Excellent work, brfares.com

 

[cjohnson]

This is great, thanks! One question; is there a technical or other accreditation related reason why Boundary Zone tickets aren’t available to purchase?

 

[OscarH]

This is great, thanks! One question; is there a technical or other accreditation related reason why Boundary Zone tickets aren’t available to purchase?

Boundary zones should be a available in the next couple of days

 

[James H]

That will be great - my father (Freedom Pass holder) will appreciate that.

I have tried to show him how to apply his Freedom Pass in the Trainsplit advanced options, but it's quite complex. This will be much easier

 

[Paul Kelly]

A side issue - in the last few days I am getting a 'Verify you are human' tick box come up every time I access the site, which I hadn't encountered previously. Is this a deliberate thing, or something Cloudfare put in place without your knowledge (not that I understand how such things work)?

It's something Cloudflare's algorithm chose to do automatically - my best guess was there was a big spike in bot traffic and it decided to add extra verification for everyone, or something like that. Seems to be mostly fixed today though, and I didn't change anything!

 

[Haywain]

It's something Cloudflare's algorithm chose to do automatically - my best guess was there was a big spike in bot traffic and it decided to add extra verification for everyone, or something like that. Seems to be mostly fixed today though, and I didn't change anything!

Yes, seemed to disappear later yesterday.

 

[signed]

Definitely an improvement. Thanks.

A side issue - in the last few days I am getting a 'Verify you are human' tick box come up every time I access the site, which I hadn't encountered previously. Is this a deliberate thing, or something Cloudfare put in place without your knowledge (not that I understand how such things work)?

It is something setup by the website owner.

Individual websites can set how harsh or frequent the challenge is, based on a scale from AFAICR low to I am under attack, but that’s basically the extent of their control

It is normal for Cloudflare challenges be ramped up for launches (as launching something will mean a lot more traffic than normal) then drawn back