Technically possible? Absolutely, there are a whole host of ways in which you could do it - the best would be a single-sign on solution where RST Online acts as an Identity Provider (IdP) and permits staff to login to any online retailer (this is a problem universities solved 20 years ago, in 2006, for access to academic resources); but other approaches could work too, e.g. requiring the member of staff to scan the Aztec code on their RST-issued card before being able to book tickets.
Is the main desire to avoid RST Online (but is more preferable then paperroll tickets issued over the counter at stations).
You are almost correct, there are 5 (rangers and rovers).
For e-tickets, since an e-ticket can be copied an unlimited number of times, it is entirely reliant on the scan database to prevent misuse. That is relatively simple for a single or return ticket, but much more more difficult for a ticket that is valid for unlimited journeys by the same person within a given time period. Rangers/rovers are arguably even worse than season tickets in this regard since, unlike season tickets, they are not tied to a photocard.
Well spotted - this was an oversight when re-writing the home page. Now restored to have separate links for the origins and destinations index.
It is using Trainsplit sales system (Raileasy being Trainsplit’s owners)Trainsplit's getting competition!
There is quite a bit of curation that's applied to the locations and tickets offered (it's not just the ones that the data says you can sell); e.g. there are some bus locations in the fares data where - in all practicality, you won't have any success actually having that ticket accepted. To date, this has been fairly conservative.
I think the two tools complement each other well and you would probably use each of them in different circumstances.Trainsplit's getting competition!
Interesting - do you know if there's a list of practically useless bus-rail tickets? With the £3 cap, most of them are probably fairly useless, but it's still worth knowing.
Trainsplit's of course still useful for getting decent itineraries (inc. split ticketing) and buying advances, plus the local ticket office still gets some use for the occasional rover. But quite a few walk-up fares which require extensive use of the extra options tab on Trainsplit (e.g. Z 1-9 Travelcards or operator-specific niche fares) are now a lot easier via BRFares.
It's only available at ticket offices. Online retailers can do refund and rebook but that won't necessarily get the same result.
They are not in the list of things prohibited for a Third Party Investor (Retailer) to sell under the license template from RDG, and are only listed until the list of products that Third Parties are not obliged to sell.
I would believe it. When a train-load of people come off the train and every ticket now displays 42 because the conductor has scanned in gate mode. Their name is attached to the scan so I always try to mention it when I see them.
Many thanks for the fix
The worst culprits I have found have been Northern agency staff using Masabi devices!
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i must check but the bus-rail tickets still have value even with the £3 cap. I used to use them pretty much all the time, but its tricky when you can't buy them online and need to take the bus (that you're getting the ticket for) to the station
I think that is generally true, but I also think there are cases where trainsplit was previously the "least bad" option, but this site is better. In particular things like the "tfw+wmt" tickets.
I think most journey planning sites will struggle with the TfW/WMT journeys, unfortunately, unless you implement some deliberate heuristics to try harder to surface them for routes where you know the benefit is there. They are "un-intuitive" itineraries, usually significantly slower than going basically any other way else (which means they're the first to get thrown out at the stage of identifying journey opportunities in most implementations) - and the rail industry financially penalises you for doing too many availability enquiries in general which discourages looking deeper.
Yes this is indeed possible, and unlike other sites which can book SailRail it doesn't need to find an itinerary. This is particularly useful for things like Belfast to places which can't be reached in a day from the only bus-connected ferry to Cairnryan (the 07:30). In these cases a break of journey is permitted according to the Conditions of Travel, but the normal sites don't seem smart enough to handle this and refuse to see to these places. Similarly in the other direction too, although I'm not sure if Stena will accept a SailRail ticket that is dated for the previous day and for whicih an overnight break of journey was the only option.
I'm sure there used to be a note in Knowledgebase saying that SailRail tickets for journeys originating in Ireland shouldn't be sold through GB online/telesales retail channels to avoid that issue, but it's not present now.
There definitely was in the TFM
Strange that Trainline never tried packaging one way change-of-route excesses, given that...
I don't think there's any way to issue an excess in a ToD booking, and there's no E-Ticket format for an excess, so the only option left would be expensive postal fulfilment!
