Britrail Questions

[Altnabreac]

Couple of questions for anyone who's dealt with Britrail passes, either as a ticket clerk or a customer.

I'm looking at buying 3 children's Britrail passes for my nieces/nephew who are British citizens but live in New Zealand and will be visiting the UK without their parents.

1 Verifying the passes. What proof will they need to verify the passes? Obviously they won't have foreign passports and I'm not sure if the kids passports have NZ residency visas etc in them or if that is only in their parent's passports? Would something like photocopies of their parent's New Zealand residency documents be suitable?

2 Booking reservations / sleeper supplements etc. I understand the passes have to be sent to New Zealand rather than to me in the UK. If I want to book Sleepers and reserve seats etc how easy is it to do this in advance if I don't have the actual tickets? Alternatively is it possible to get the passes sent to me instead as I'll be meeting the kids at the airport anyway.

Thanks in advance for any other thoughts / ideas that might be useful.

 

[bb21]

BritRail passes cannot be sent to a UK address so it will have to be sent to NZ. To book a sleeper berth, just tell them over the phone that you have a flexible ticket, and you should be allowed to pay the sleeper berth supplement. As things currently stand, children are not permitted to travel on the sleeper without an adult so I assume that someone from the UK will be going with them?

You will need proof of foreign residence for them to show the booking office clerk when validating their passes officially speaking, although I have never been asked for it before. If their names are listed in their parents' passports, then those passports should suffice. The bottom line is that you need something with their name on. Whatever document they use to travel to UK with should be acceptable.

 

[mattsifi]

Hi, I am a Brit living in Germany (only passport: British), and I had no problems using my BritRail England FlexiPass last summer.

I bought my pass at a German train station, though you can also buy them online at:
http://www.bahn.de/p/view/angebot/paesse/grossbritannien.shtml
Unfortunately, although most of the bahn site can be in English, I can only find this page in (simple enough) German, and unfortunate too that the 'Wohnsitzland' (country of residence) only lists European countries. You might try phoning them instead, or contact their UK office:
http://www.bahn.com/i/view/GBR/en/home/contact/contact-in-the-uk.shtml

With my station-bought pass, there wasn't even anything on it to say, "Must be stamped before use", but I thought I should, so took it along to where I happened to be (Hexham - a small place), together with my German address-registration papers (only in German...). The nice lady didn't even ask for these, and nobody gave my pass so much as a second glance throughout my journeys. Perhaps large London stations would ask to see official papers, since they'd be used to the things - so perhaps get them validated somewhere small..?

Btw, I would recommend First Class passes, since they're only about 30 euro more expensive (for England 2-days-in-a-month adult, for example), and you get free food and drink on the Intercitys, and don't need to reserve seats.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[Altnabreac]

BritRail passes cannot be sent to a UK address so it will have to be sent to NZ. To book a sleeper berth, just tell them over the phone that you have a flexible ticket, and you should be allowed to pay the sleeper berth supplement. As things currently stand, children are not permitted to travel on the sleeper without an adult so I assume that someone from the UK will be going with them?

You will need proof of foreign residence for them to show the booking office clerk when validating their passes officially speaking, although I have never been asked for it before. If their names are listed in their parents' passports, then those passports should suffice. The bottom line is that you need something with their name on. Whatever document they use to travel to UK with should be acceptable.

Thanks they'll be travelling with me on the sleeper but sadly I'll have to pay more than the Britrail price for my tickets.

They won't have their parents passports with them but it sounds like the verification bit isn't strictly enforced so hopefully a photocopy should be fine.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Hi, I am a Brit living in Germany (only passport: British), and I had no problems using my BritRail England FlexiPass last summer.

I bought my pass at a German train station, though you can also buy them online at:
http://www.bahn.de/p/view/angebot/paesse/grossbritannien.shtml
Unfortunately, although most of the bahn site can be in English, I can only find this page in (simple enough) German, and unfortunate too that the 'Wohnsitzland' (country of residence) only lists European countries. You might try phoning them instead, or contact their UK office:
http://www.bahn.com/i/view/GBR/en/home/contact/contact-in-the-uk.shtml

With my station-bought pass, there wasn't even anything on it to say, "Must be stamped before use", but I thought I should, so took it along to where I happened to be (Hexham - a small place), together with my German address-registration papers (only in German...). The nice lady didn't even ask for these, and nobody gave my pass so much as a second glance throughout my journeys. Perhaps large London stations would ask to see official papers, since they'd be used to the things - so perhaps get them validated somewhere small..?

Btw, I would recommend First Class passes, since they're only about 30 euro more expensive (for England 2-days-in-a-month adult, for example), and you get free food and drink on the Intercitys, and don't need to reserve seats.

Cheers,
Matt

First class did look very good value. Just depends how cheap I can get tickets for me to accompany them.

Looks like the pass will have to go to New Zealand although I do have friends in Darmstadt coming to visit first so maybe I'll get the passes sent via Germany.

 

[najaB]

Looks like the pass will have to go to New Zealand although I do have friends in Darmstadt coming to visit first so maybe I'll get the passes sent via Germany.

I've never seen a Britrail pass so I don't know if it will be an issue but will passes posted to Germany for passengers from New Zealand cause any issues?

 

[bb21]

Thanks they'll be travelling with me on the sleeper but sadly I'll have to pay more than the Britrail price for my tickets.

They won't have their parents passports with them but it sounds like the verification bit isn't strictly enforced so hopefully a photocopy should be fine.

What did they use to enter UK?

 

[CyrusWuff]

It's possible to order passes to be sent to New Zealand from the BritRail website. There's also a "Guest" pass, which allows a UK resident to travel with a pass holder. Not sure about the conditions (and additional cost) of same though.

 

[bb21]

The Guest Pass is priced at 1.5 times the adult rate, for two people travelling together, one British resident and the other not.

Since this is priced as one fare, and comes as one ticket (for two people), I don't think you will get any further discount (eg. child, youth, etc), but I could be wrong. (Can't check right now.)

 

[Altnabreac]

What did they use to enter UK?

They will use their individual (British) passports to enter the UK. I just don't think their passports contain anything to prove non British residency as it is only their parents (who are remaining in New Zealand) who have New Zealand residency visas.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

The Guest Pass is priced at 1.5 times the adult rate, for two people travelling together, one British resident and the other not.

Since this is priced as one fare, and comes as one ticket (for two people), I don't think you will get any further discount (eg. child, youth, etc), but I could be wrong. (Can't check right now.)

Thanks.

Even at 1.5 times price it might be worth me getting one of these to cover me and one of the children and 2 x child passes.

Also you get a free child pass for each adult pass ordered so I don't know if an adult pass + guest pass would entitle you to 1 or 2 child passes as well?

 

[matthewa]

I've had a Britrail pass 3 times now and travel on a British passport.

I've only been asked once for proof of residency in Australia and that was at Oxford. I produced a photocopy of my residency at this time... So going from this it should be ok for you to show one - As long as their names are on and proves they're a resident of NZ.

Though the next two times I had a pass and went to go and get it validated - Oxford again and at Ascot. All the person did was look at it, ask if I was travelling on the day and stamped it. No checking whatsoever!!

 

[paddington]

If the children live in NZ with their parents and none of them have NZ passports, I don't see why the kids' passports would not have NZ visas, unless they are "illegally" living as visitors... of course NZ is a lot more relaxed about this sort of thing than Australia - furthermore Australia doesn't even issue physical visas any more unless you pay lots extra.

 

[Altnabreac]

If the children live in NZ with their parents and none of them have NZ passports, I don't see why the kids' passports would not have NZ visas, unless they are "illegally" living as visitors... of course NZ is a lot more relaxed about this sort of thing than Australia - furthermore Australia doesn't even issue physical visas any more unless you pay lots extra.

Well their parents have working visas but obviously the kids don't as they aren't working. They do have permission to be there as children of people with working visas. There just isn't anything physically in their passports to show this should it be requested by a railway clerk.

Seems like this isn't much of an issue anyway and will get them to bring photocopies of all their parents documentation.

 

[pne]

What proof will they need to verify the passes?

When I asked ATOC about this I got the response:

As a British Citizen you are entitled to travel on a BritRail Pass as long as you have not been "resident" or living in Britain for the last 6 months.
On board train staff are trained to recognise British Passports as a potential issue (from domestic travellers), however, as you are an international resident you are perfectly entitled to travel on a BritRail Pass. My advice would be to take proof of residency in Germany, which has your address on, in case the train staff ask (i.e: utility bill/bank statement, etc...)

Since this was in a personal email to me, rather than on a website, it is probably a personal statement rather than necessarily official policy, but it seems to me that there is no specific ‘official list’ of things which can be used to prove foreign residency. Just something that will convince the person who will stamp the pass and the guards who will check it. Obviously more difficult for children as all this ‘utility bill, bank statement’ etc. with their name on it will not apply to them.

Germany has certificates of registration which is what I’m planning to use (in addition to a bank statement and perhaps a credit card statement, for good measure), and which would work for my daughter if she were a British citizen as well, since those obviously list all people staying at one address whether children or adults.

I don’t know whether NZ would have anything comparable saying ‘Person XYZ born XX.YY.ZZZZ is known to us, the municipality/province/state of XYZ, to be regularly resident at address XYZ’.

 

[Altnabreac]

When I asked ATOC about this I got the response:



Since this was in a personal email to me, rather than on a website, it is probably a personal statement rather than necessarily official policy, but it seems to me that there is no specific ‘official list’ of things which can be used to prove foreign residency. Just something that will convince the person who will stamp the pass and the guards who will check it. Obviously more difficult for children as all this ‘utility bill, bank statement’ etc. with their name on it will not apply to them.

Germany has certificates of registration which is what I’m planning to use (in addition to a bank statement and perhaps a credit card statement, for good measure), and which would work for my daughter if she were a British citizen as well, since those obviously list all people staying at one address whether children or adults.

I don’t know whether NZ would have anything comparable saying ‘Person XYZ born XX.YY.ZZZZ is known to us, the municipality/province/state of XYZ, to be regularly resident at address XYZ’.

At the very least they have paperwork around their schools in NZ etc. I think their parents residency visa also mentions the kids. Will get them to bring a few different options.

Thanks again for the advice.