Advance Ticket printed without booked service on it

[mvm03]

I booked 3 tickets from Darlington to Reading on XC (2 with a senior, 1 with a 16-25 railcard) which needed to be printed as I had a bike reservation. The 16-25 and one of the Senior railcard tickets printed normally with the booked service and seats marked on them. However, the final senior railcard advance ticket printed without any booked service on it, just marked 'valid only on xc services'. Is this something I need to speak to someone about before getting on the train? I have the email confirmation with all the details on them, maybe that'd be enough?

 

[yorkie]

I think you would be fine in reality, given you have enough evidence to be on the correct train and most XC TMs are pragmatic.

How many coupons did your coupon receipt (if printed) say were printed, and did this correspond to the number actually printed?

Was there an open ticket office to seek assistance from at the location where the TVM malfunctioned?

This is one of the reasons (among many others!) why the "TOD" (ticket on departure) system for old style "CCST" (credit card sized ticket) stock is being phased out; it's expensive to maintain and not really fit for purpose. In future, it may be worth obtaining e-tickets, and a bike reservation separately.

 

[mvm03]

Actually printed 8 coupons as it said on the machine; 3 tickets, a receipt and 4 copies of the bike reservation for some reason. There wasn't anyone around unfortunately with it being a Sunday and the ticket office was shut. Might be because I was in the new bit of Darlo station. Might ask ticket office beforehand given we're getting to the station anyway. I usually do get e-tickets and thought that the bike reservation would be electronic aswell as it usually is on LNER. Did think of getting them separately but was worried spaces might run out so I just got them together on the GWR website.

I think you would be fine in reality, given you have enough evidence to be on the correct train and most XC TMs are pragmatic.

How many coupons did your coupon receipt (if printed) say were printed, and did this correspond to the number actually printed?

Was there an open ticket office to seek assistance from at the location where the TVM malfunctioned?

This is one of the reasons (among many others!) why the "TOD" (ticket on departure) system for old style "CCST" (credit card sized ticket) stock is being phased out; it's expensive to maintain and not really fit for purpose. In future, it may be worth obtaining e-tickets, and a bike reservation separately.

 

[MrJeeves]

and 4 copies of the bike reservation for some reason

One could guess that three of those were maybe supposed to be different reservations, corresponding with the three travel tickets which were printed.

It's difficult to say whether the machine or the retailer is at fault, though, but I'd put my money on the ticket machine.

 

[TravellingTyke]

I had similar on an advance journey from Lowestoft to Romford. The itinerary showed three services: Lowestoft to Ipswich, Ipswich to Shenfield, Shenfield to Romford. However the ticket machine spat out a single coupon, and showed only the time of the last leg (Shenfield to Romford).

I called Uber ticketing who advised me to send a copy of what I received to them by email (to which they haven't responded yet, but told me on the phone I would be ok to travel). The ticket office opened before my train departed so I enquired there, and was advised I had not received too few coupons and that it was standard practice to print only one of the booked trains given space restrictions (which is not my experience at all - I have always had all "mandatory" reservations printed).

Of course, as I predicted, the guard queried whether I was on the right train out of Lowestoft ("Are you travelling early?") but was ok when I showed him my itinerary.

 

[janb]

I had similar on an advance journey from Lowestoft to Romford. The itinerary showed three services: Lowestoft to Ipswich, Ipswich to Shenfield, Shenfield to Romford. However the ticket machine spat out a single coupon, and showed only the time of the last leg (Shenfield to Romford).

This was correct, only the Shenfield to Romford leg is a "reservable" service for this journey.

 

[TravellingTyke]

Interesting! So does that mean I could have taken any trains from Lowestoft through to Shenfield? That's wild flexibility on an £11 journey.

 

[Watershed]

Interesting! So does that mean I could have taken any trains from Lowestoft through to Shenfield? That's wild flexibility on an £11 journey.

Any "appropriate" connecting service. The definition of that is left very wooly by the industry (deliberately so, you might say).

 

[cornishjohn]

Interesting! So does that mean I could have taken any trains from Lowestoft through to Shenfield? That's wild flexibility on an £11 journey.

"appropriate" connecting service. The definition of that is left very wooly by the industry (deliberately so, you might say).

In the good old days I did use occasional Advance tickets fairly early on the connection leg(s). No ticket inspector ever batted an eyelid, however, the "No break of journey" rule is (or was) still in play. In practice, you don't (or didn't) break your journey if you stay inside the gateline, so such a ticket/journey is not the correct pathway to a leisurely pub lunch on the way... Don't push one's luck.

 

[saismee]

Interesting! So does that mean I could have taken any trains from Lowestoft through to Shenfield? That's wild flexibility on an £11 journey.

On local services in and out of Ipswich, the consensus is that they act as flexible tickets. On the Ipswich to Shenfield part I wouldn't risk travelling far out of the intended time, but you could play ignorance as it doesn't actually say. You would have no trouble breaking your journey at the Ipswich barriers if you asked to be let out (say, if you travelled on an earlier Lowestoft service), so long as you came back before the intended time of the mainline leg.

 

[TravellingTyke]

As it happens, the ticket let me through the gateline at Ipswich without having to ask, and while I might have chanced a pint over the road given the generous layover time the pub was closed and so I only used station facilities, in the form of the Co-Op in the ticket hall, anyway.

I had inferred I had to travel on the whole of the booked itinerary which is why I was surprised it wasn't all printed on there. Every day is a school day (including, it seems, for the chap in the Lowestoft booking office, whose explanation was "lack of space on the ticket"!).

 

[saismee]

As it happens, the ticket let me through the gateline at Ipswich without having to ask, and while I might have chanced a pint over the road given the generous layover time the pub was closed and so I only used station facilities, in the form of the Co-Op in the ticket hall, anyway.

Did it let you back in as well?

 

[TravellingTyke]

Did it let you back in as well?

It did!

 

[saismee]

It did!

Normally paper tickets only allow passage through in one direction and get rejected when you try to come back. Quite shocked it worked.

 

[MrJeeves]

Normally paper tickets only allow passage through in one direction and get rejected when you try to come back. Quite shocked it worked.

My understanding is that the gateline computer stores the ticket details for only a certain period of time, so if the generous layover was particularly generous, then it should have "forgotten" about the last usage.

I don't work for Cubic though, and most of their tech is a magical technical pit of despair, so who knows.

 

[mvm03]

We all got to Reading with no issues just had to explain to the TM and we were all sat together so no issues

 

[saismee]

My understanding is that the gateline computer stores the ticket details for only a certain period of time, so if the generous layover was particularly generous, then it should have "forgotten" about the last usage.

I don't work for Cubic though, and most of their tech is a magical technical pit of despair, so who knows.

I was under the assumption that the data was stored on the ticket rather than the station computer. Maybe you're right but I think the generous layover would've been under an hour, assuming usual XX30 arrival from LWT and then XX53 departure to SNF. Though it depends on the time of day and could've been up to an hour so the system may have forgotten by that point.

I haven't tried in a while but I think re-using a ticket taken out of the capture bin still rejects as being used already. I don't see how the gates could store the ticket's information as simple tickets would all have the same information.

 

[Deerfold]

Normally paper tickets only allow passage through in one direction and get rejected when you try to come back. Quite shocked it worked.

They usually don't allow reuse through a barrier within 15 minutes (however the recorded time (on the ticket) is rounded so can be 10 minute or 20 minutes). This seems to be to disallow more than one person passing through a barrier.
With a short time out of the barriers they're a pain, with a longer connection, no problem. Etickets seem to have a much smaller time between reuse.

 

[MrJeeves]

I was under the assumption that the data was stored on the ticket

I only believe this is the case for London Underground, where the last station gate used will record its location info.

I am confident this doesn't happen for National Rail barriers as the requisite code in the fares data which would be stored on the ticket is the same for the vast majority of NR stations.