Advance single with no specified train

[vfish]

Short story: my advance single to London Victoria from Arundel shows a date and train operator but no time - is it valid all day?

I'm very far from home in Scotland down in Sussex and I really don't like the underground. I was able to book a route down using Thameslink to cross London but due to engineering work I couldn't get a route back. I went into the station and bought my ticket there, we discussed an 11 am train, giving me 2 hours to get a bus to King's Cross. I have 2 advance singles, Arundel to London, London to Edinburgh. I didn't really look at the tickets until I got here but now I see my advance single from Arundel to London doesn't have a time, just a date. I plan to go for the 11am anyway but I've never seen an advance single with no time and don't want to be in trouble! Can anyone reassure the train guard/ticket inspector will be used to this?

Thanks

 

[AlterEgo]

it would help if you could post a picture of the ticket here. This will assist us in knowing if there’s a missing second coupon or whether your original ticket has misprinted in some way. (Some advances are issued on one coupon, some are issued still as two)

 

[vfish]

I hope this has come out clearly!

Thanks

 

[Watershed]

I hope this has come out clearly!

Thanks

We have seen a few of these pop up recently. I suspect it's an issuing error somewhere along the process.

Your ticket is legally speaking still only valid on the train you selected when booking, so it might be wise to have a copy of your booking confirmation handy when you travel.

Of course, there's no compulsion to carry that, and indeed you may have had your ticket bought for you by someone else, so you may not even have access to it. You might also have deleted it after booking. So in practical terms your ticket is effectively flexible for that date (on any Southern train).

 

[vfish]

Thank you. I didn't even get a receipt because I was sure the ticket office at Haymarket couldn't sell me anything wrong. I'm hoping that 11am on a Sunday is so unlikely to be a time you want to cheat southern rail that it'll be fine but I just live in fear of a penalty fare (ScotRail let you buy a ticket on the train, I have zero experience of penalty fares!)

 

[yorkie]

Thank you. I didn't even get a receipt because I was sure the ticket office at Haymarket couldn't sell me anything wrong...

Ah, you bought the tickets from Haymarket ticket office! That explains a lot!

There are concerns about the behaviour of some staff members at that ticket office; I would encourage you to make a complaint to Scotrail.

You are absolutely entitled to a receipt, and you should have been provided with the reservation coupon too. It's not acceptable. Did they refuse, or did you not ask?

I'm hoping that 11am on a Sunday is so unlikely to be a time you want to cheat southern rail that it'll be fine but I just live in fear of a penalty fare (ScotRail let you buy a ticket on the train, I have zero experience of penalty fares!)

My advice is to get the train you agreed to catch.

In future, however, my strong advice is to book such journeys from a retailer who will provide you with all relevant parts of the ticket included, as well as a through itinerary for your whole journey.

Obtaining a through itinerary is useful because it demonstrates your contractual rights to travel from your overall origin to your overall destination, and can mitigate against potential denials of your rights by some staff, who may question the legitimacy of split tickets, the validity of your tickets, or the connection times allowed in the itinerary.

A problem you may have is if you experience delays, you will be entitled to take the next available service from London, however obtaining permission to do so, as well as claiming delay compensation, may prove challenging.

Perhaps consider booking through our ticketing site next time; we include advanced options, for example you could choose "avoid tube", or "Dont change at: London Victoria", or "Change at: St Pancras".

You can also require additional interchange time at any location you wish; this can be useful to reduce the chance of missing an onward connection (and potentially being without a seat) as well as giving yourself time to grab a bite to eat on the way.

 

[Haywain]

You are absolutely entitled to a receipt, and you should have been provided with the reservation coupon too. It's not acceptable. Did they refuse, or did you not ask?

Or was the reservation coupon not printed (there would normally be an indication on the ticket that another coupon is required)?

 

[Wallsendmag]

Not one of the better TIS available

 

[vfish]

I bought a day return at the same time ( I was going to Stirling) and she did ask if I wanted a receipt for all of this but I didn't think I needed one, so that bit is definitely my fault.

The only avoid tube option I was given involved getting off and on 8 different trains due to engineering works, that's why I went to the station in the first place: to book tickets with a bus sized gap in the middle because I couldn't work out how to make any of the train company websites give me longer to change trains by bus.

The guard on this train just said "lovely, thank you" to my ticket (although the train has quite a few people on the wrong train because of a mix up with an rail replacement bus so maybe she doesn't care as much as normal about tickets!)

Thanks for everyone's help. Should I ask at Victoria to retain my ticket at the barrier for correspondence with ScotRail or will my photo be sufficient?

 

[CyrusWuff]

Ah, you bought the tickets from Haymarket ticket office! That explains a lot!

There are concerns about the behaviour of some staff members at that ticket office; I would encourage you to make a complaint to Scotrail.

You are absolutely entitled to a receipt, and you should have been provided with the reservation coupon too. It's not acceptable. Did they refuse, or did you not ask?

Given the ticket makes no mention of a separate reservation coupon, I suspect the TIS didn't produce one as it would have been a counted place.

I saw an odd example recently purchased on Trainline and collected from a Flowbird TVM (no obvious reason why it couldn't have been issued as an e-ticket) which should have had two counted place reservations associated with it, but only the details of the second were printed on the ticket.

 

[Jan Mayen]

I bought a day return at the same time ( I was going to Stirling) and she did ask if I wanted a receipt for all of this but I didn't think I needed one, so that bit is definitely my fault.

The only avoid tube option I was given involved getting off and on 8 different trains due to engineering works, that's why I went to the station in the first place: to book tickets with a bus sized gap in the middle because I couldn't work out how to make any of the train company websites give me longer to change trains by bus.

The guard on this train just said "lovely, thank you" to my ticket (although the train has quite a few people on the wrong train because of a mix up with an rail replacement bus so maybe she doesn't care as much as normal about tickets!)

Thanks for everyone's help. Should I ask at Victoria to retain my ticket at the barrier for correspondence with ScotRail or will my photo be sufficient?

Just realised I was on that train as far as Amberley! My ticket wasn't checked at all, even though I was in the same carriage as the OBS.

 

[Haywain]

she did ask if I wanted a receipt for all of this but I didn't think I needed one, so that bit is definitely my fault.

A receipt would not have shown your journey details anyway, so wouldn't have been much help.

Should I ask at Victoria to retain my ticket at the barrier for correspondence with ScotRail or will my photo be sufficient?

The photo should be enough.

 

[yorkie]

Given the ticket makes no mention of a separate reservation coupon, I suspect the TIS didn't produce one as it would have been a counted place...

But then why not provide the customer with an itinerary?

 

[CyrusWuff]

But then why not provide the customer with an itinerary?

Sadly that is something that could only be answered by the original seller. Looking at the picture, I've just noticed there's no NRS reference shown either, so it's also entirely possible it was somehow sold against a non-reservable service.

Looking at RTT for Arundel on 27/04, everything appears to be duplicated.

Drilling down into the 1500 departure, it appears that one is set as having reservations available but the other is not. If they both have the same Retail Service ID, that's possibly what caused the original retailing problem.

 

[Haywain]

Drilling down into the 1500 departure, it appears that one is set as having reservations available but the other is not.

The Timetable History website shows 3 versions of the 15:00 and indicates that all would have had reservations available. It's thoroughly confusing.