Do you use TrainPal?

[yorkie]

Here are some example issues with them:

TrainPal sold me an invalid ticket I got £81 penalty fare

I travelled from Cambridge North (CMB) to London yesterday. I bought train tickets in the Trainpal app. I told the app I wanted to leave around 8am, and that I wanted tickets for myself and a child and that I had a family and friends railcard. I requested a return ticket for the same day. I...

www.railforums.co.uk

Dubious TrainPal adverts

Trainpal seems to be blanketing Social Media with various dubious adverts dressed up as "secret hacks" or "top tip" type videos whilst using accounts which, from their account name, appear to have no connection to TrainPal (but clearly must do). The tips and hacks are often themselves somewhat...

www.railforums.co.uk

TrainPal Price Match Promise rejected

Good day everyone! I am new here and found this forum because I wanted to try TrainPal's Price Match Promise but has been repeatedly rejected. I booked a London Victoria to Eastbourne for 2 adults using Two Together Railcard on 2nd November 2025 (Sunday) 21:46 - 23:25 via TrainPal. At first...

www.railforums.co.uk

Feel misled by Trainpal - child Eurostar ticket

Booked some tickets for Eurostar via TrainPal so we could take advantage of the small discount being offered for new app users. Step 1 asks for origin and destination and dates as usual, but also asks for passengers names and DOBs - all fine and entered for 2 adults and 2 children aged 9 and 3...

www.railforums.co.uk

TrainPal refusing refund after offering to exchange tickets as new booking was to Euston rather than St. Pancras

Hi all, Recently, my parents and my brother travelled to London and back from Liverpool to catch the Eurostar. My Dad (against my advice) booked return advance tickets with TrainPal and, upon collecting the tickets a week before travel, realised he’d accidentally booked two tickets with a...

www.railforums.co.uk

Buying railcard off website advice

I want to buy a two together railcard. Trainpal and trip.com have 10% off at present. However when you buy the railcard from either you can only access via their app and not via usual railcard app. Does this also mean I can never buy any train tickets from elsewhere and have to buy from...

www.railforums.co.uk

The first one alone is shocking for their abysmal response, falsely claiming GTR were correct to issue a Penalty Fare and refusing to help their customer, who was following the itinerary they provided. The other examples are the icing on the cake.

If anyone here uses them, I urge you to read the above and consider if it's worth the risks of booking with such a retailer who behaves like this.

 

[Crithylum]

I would only use them to create a ticket (or itinerary) that shouldn’t be valid, but TrainPal thinks is valid

 

[styles]

I used them a couple of times in their early days because they had promo codes, no booking fees, and their split ticketing algorithm was somewhere in the middle of Trainline (basic) and Raileasy (advanced).

They've seemingly adopted all the Temu-style garbage since then, like the dodgy affiliate marketing on social media and the spin to win things in the app and whatever else. In their desire to be like the other large third party retailers they've seemingly raced to push out features like in-app Railcards, but then done so really badly.

I suppose there is a benefit to having a site which issues itineraries not valid with the tickets they're sold with, providing you're happy with the faff of getting a penalty fare from some badly trained revenue officer and then submitting multiple appeals to get it overturned, so that you can get away with using a F+F Railcard on peak services. Though I do wonder how many times you could appeal this before somebody said well no you're doing it on purpose now knowing full well the Railcard isn't valid on peak services.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

I suppose there is a benefit to having a site which issues itineraries not valid with the tickets they're sold with, providing you're happy with the faff of getting a penalty fare from some badly trained revenue officer and then submitting multiple appeals to get it overturned, so that you can get away with using a F+F Railcard on peak services. Though I do wonder how many times you could appeal this before somebody said well no you're doing it on purpose now knowing full well the Railcard isn't valid on peak services.

I was about to come back on this with a rather smart-alecky response to this, but looking up the NRCoT, I see that what condition 13.1 actually says (with added italics and bold from me for emphasis) is:

13.1 Your Ticket may show that it is valid only on certain train services, such as those of a particular Train Company, or on trains travelling via a certain route or routes. If no specific route or Train Company is shown, then (subject to any time restrictions for the type of fare you have purchased) it will be valid on:

13.1.1 any direct train service between the station(s) shown on your Ticket; or

13.1.2 as shown on the itinerary presented by the journey planner on www.nationalrail.co.uk or from a Licensed Retailer in connection with the purchase of a Ticket and/or including the relevant restrictions applying to that Ticket.

Unless there's another condition that talks about itineraries validating tickets, or someone is going to successfully argue that 'time restrictions for the type of fare (...) purchased' does not incorporate railcard restrictions it would appear that railcard time restrictions won't be overridden by an itinerary.

Just to maintain the smart-aleckery, I'll comment that the current version of NRCoT (https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/condition-13/ online, https://assets.nationalrail.co.uk/e...2/National_Rail_Conditions_of_Travel_2025.pdf as a pdf) doesn't appear to have a condition 13.2...

 

[AlterEgo]

Railcard time restrictions will be overriden by an itinerary (the ticket being sold against it) because that is a customer contract - you were sold the ticket at that price to travel on that train. The NRCoT do not affect your statutory rights.

 

[redreni]

Railcard time restrictions will be overriden by an itinerary (the ticket being sold against it) because that is a customer contract - you were sold the ticket at that price to travel on that train. The NRCoT do not affect your statutory rights.

Yes, but I still agree with @Fawkes Cat , no action can legitimately be taken against a passenger using a ticket in line with an itinerary issued by an accredited retailer, but only because that's the law, not because the NRCoT says that. The NRCoT doesn't say that.

And it matters because what about - forgetting for a moment about Railcards - a scenario where you are travelling on the route given you by an itinerary but not at the times specified on the itinerary? Let's assume you are complying with the time restrictions on the ticket, but an RPI decides you are 'off-route'.

The wording everybody is ignoring in the thread about TrainPal getting somebody a Penalty Fare and then refusing to help them - "subject to any time restrictions for the type of fare you have purchased" - becomes important, because it makes clear (in my view) that the option to validate a route using an itinerary is not intended to circumscribe the times at which you may travel beyond the time restrictions (if any) applying to the ticket. A route cannot be a permitted route at certain times of the day but not at others.

It is true that it also purports to work the other way around - if the right to use an itinerary to validate your route is subject to compliance with any time restrictions applying to the ticket, then the November 2025 update to the NRCoT did not (contrary to popular belief) create a blanket entitlement to rely on an itinerary for everything - only for routeing. But that doesn't really matter because - as you point out - of course you can rely on an itinerary given you when you bought your tickets, as a matter of contract law.

But crucially, you don't have to be constrained by that itinerary if you are doing something different that is allowed, such as travelling at a different time as permitted by the ticket restrictions.

 

[blimmo]

someone is going to successfully argue that 'time restrictions for the type of fare (...) purchased' does not incorporate railcard restrictions

There is precedent for this: condition 9.5 allows an excess as the only penalty for time restrictions but the ToCs insist that this doesn't include Railcard restrictions. As I see it they can't interpret "time restrictions" to their favour in both cases.

 

[teaspoon]

It is true that it also purports to work the other way around - if the right to use an itinerary to validate your route is subject to compliance with any time restrictions applying to the ticket, then the November 2025 update to the NRCoT did not (contrary to popular belief) create a blanket entitlement to rely on an itinerary for everything - only for routeing. But that doesn't really matter because - as you point out - of course you can rely on an itinerary given you when you bought your tickets, as a matter of contract law.

But crucially, you don't have to be constrained by that itinerary if you are doing something different that is allowed, such as travelling at a different time as permitted by the ticket restrictions.

Interesting that this should come up today - it's not TrainPal-related, but I bought a Glasgow to Newcastle ticket from the LNER app today, and it sold me a ScotRail + Lumo anytime day single fare with an itinerary on ScotRail & LNER services.

I expect it would have resulted in an interesting discussion with the train manager (in both directions), but would I have had a valid argument that it would be valid, provided I took the services I had reservations for?
(I called LNER, who thought about it for a while, decided it was a mistake, and said they'd refund me. Ultimately my work is paying so I'm not bothered about the additional cost.)

 

[redreni]

Interesting that this should come up today - it's not TrainPal-related, but I bought a Glasgow to Newcastle ticket from the LNER app today, and it sold me a ScotRail + Lumo anytime day single fare with an itinerary on ScotRail & LNER services.

I expect it would have resulted in an interesting discussion with the train manager (in both directions), but would I have had a valid argument that it would be valid, provided I took the services I had reservations for?
(I called LNER, who thought about it for a while, decided it was a mistake, and said they'd refund me. Ultimately my work is paying so I'm not bothered about the additional cost.)

Yeah, I agree travelling in breach of a Railcard time or minimum fare restriction, or in breach of a TOC restriction, isn't something you can be penalised for if your itinerary says you can do it. What I'm saying is Condition 13.2 13.1.2 is about routeing. It privileges TOC restrictions by putting them at the top and making everything that comes after subject to them, though.

The right to rely on an itinerary should in my view be absolute, but if you read it, it's actually heavily qualified. Personally, I would only be comfortable relying on an itinerary and 13.2 13.1.2 NRCoT to refute an allegation that I was off-route.

If I were relying on an itinerary for anything else, I would just say "well, this is the contract we formed when I bought the ticket and you (the TOC) are a party to it. You can't change the terms unilaterally now."

 

[TheSmiths82]

I used them last year for one of my journeys down south. I think it was because I got a certain percentage off so it was the cheapest option but haven't used them since. I think my journey was something simple like Portsmouth to Waterloo. I prefer to book direct from the TOC's especially as I get good discounts with Northern or Trans Pennine via a work scheme. I am always a bit wear about third party sites in case things go wrong, but I have booked tickets via this forum before with no issues.

 

[sheff1]

Personally, I would only be comfortable relying on an itinerary and 13.2 NRCoT to refute an allegation that I was off-route.

You would struggle to rely on NRCoT 13.2 as there is no paragraph with that number in the document.

 

[redreni]

You would struggle to rely on NRCoT 13.2 as there is no paragraph with that number in the document.

Excuse me - 13.1.2. Amended above.