Eurostar/European Style Tickets

[Sidious]

GNER and Midland Mainline used to issue large Eurostar style tickets (prior to their respective demise) for advance purchase tickets.

Does anyone know if any TOC still issues this style of ticket, or is all UK domestic ticketing done on credit card sized stock?

 

[craigwilson]

GNER and Midland Mainline used to issue large Eurostar style tickets (prior to their respective demise) for advance purchase tickets.

Does anyone know if any TOC still issues this style of ticket, or is all UK domestic ticketing done on credit card sized stock?

I think all tickets you'd get from a station ticket office or TVM, or via a TOC website would be of the credit-card sized stock. You might get them from travel agencies but I doubt anywhere else these days.

I prefer the credit-card size stock - I like something I can put in my wallet!!

 

[Sidious]

Yes, I'm not sure why they went down the route of issuing the European style tickets in the first place. I know they would be incompatible with automatic ticket gates now too.

I was just wondering if they had vanished completely?

 

[Frontera2]

Yes, I'm not sure why they went down the route of issuing the European style tickets in the first place. I know they would be incompatible with automatic ticket gates now too.

I was just wondering if they had vanished completely?

The type of ticket stock you are referring to is known as "ATB" and originates from the airlines (ATB= Airline Ticket & Boarding pass) The Elgar (used by Eurostar) and Tribute ticket issuing systems used this.

AFAIK Tribute is no longer used by TOCs, it is however still used by some Rail Appointed Travel Agents. So whilst rare, tickets for domestic journeys on ATB stock, aren't impossible to find.

One of the benefits of ATB stock which saw it's introduction in the late 90's was that both the ticket details and reservation(s) could be printed on one ticket rather than have seperate reservation coupons. However, as others have noted, the public didn't particularly warm to them as you can't exactly keep it in your wallet!

 

[radamfi]

Another advantage was that the times of 'suggested services' were printed on the ticket.

 

[Oscar]

Eurostar Domestic Sales still issue tickets to and from Lndon Estar CIV (for Eurostar connections) on ATB stock.

 

[tsr]

Elgar ATB tickets are very useful on Eurostar journeys as bookmarks for the main ID page in my passport ... but apart from that, I don't really like them all that much, due to the size. There's often a large amount of what (to the passenger) is irrelevant information on the bottom of the ticket, too, which may not be avoidable, but perhaps the size of the ticket means this is likely to look too prominent, as it is printed in quite a large size.

 

[pjnathanail]

Does anyone know of any rail appointed travel agent who still uses tribute?

 

[trc666]

The tickets are still in circulation - I had a couple presented to me at the barrier yesterday but not sure which TOC or travel agent issued them. Some CIV tickets are issued on orange common stock tickets but for some reason will not operate the barriers at Waterloo, they need to be shown to a member of staff to be let through.

 

[Oscar]

Some CIV tickets are issued on orange common stock tickets but for some reason will not operate the barriers at Waterloo, they need to be shown to a member of staff to be let through.

Tickets issued to London Intl CIV by ticket offices or Raileasy are issued on common stock.

 

[ashworth]

Another advantage was that the times of 'suggested services' were printed on the ticket.

I know the disadvantage is that they don't fit in your wallet but I did like these tickets for longer AP ticket journeys that included a number of connections.
It was very useful to have all reservations and times for suggested unreserved connecting services listed on the ticket. Now if you don't keep a printout of your booking or write down all the times when you book you have to go searching through timetables to make sure that you use connections that will get you to your reserved train on time.
There are added complications if you end up using by accident a train which does have reservations if your suggested train had been an unreserved one!

 

[flymo]

As a matter of interest, attached is a photo of one I had from a few years ago.

 

[NLC1072]

The type of ticket stock you are referring to is known as "ATB" and originates from the airlines (ATB= Airline Ticket & Boarding pass) The Elgar (used by Eurostar) and Tribute ticket issuing systems used this.

AFAIK Tribute is no longer used by TOCs, it is however still used by some Rail Appointed Travel Agents. So whilst rare, tickets for domestic journeys on ATB stock, aren't impossible to find.

One of the benefits of ATB stock which saw it's introduction in the late 90's was that both the ticket details and reservation(s) could be printed on one ticket rather than have seperate reservation coupons. However, as others have noted, the public didn't particularly warm to them as you can't exactly keep it in your wallet!

I still use Tribute at my place of work! The newly released Tribute 12 infact!

 

[Greenback]

I never liked the Tribute tickets, though I recognise that it was advantageous to have journey detaisl printed on one ticket, rather than the large numbers of smaller tickets that get issued for some journeys with credit card sized ones.

But for me, the inability to put the ticket into the top pocket of my shirt outweighed everything else!

 

[island]

The type of ticket stock you are referring to is known as "ATB" and originates from the airlines (ATB= Airline Ticket & Boarding pass) The Elgar (used by Eurostar) and Tribute ticket issuing systems used this.

I think it might be Automated Ticket and Boarding pass.

 

[Greeby]

I still use Tribute at my place of work! The newly released Tribute 12 infact!

Nice. We here aren't even using Tribute 11 to it's fullest as our TOC still hasn't either installed the barcode scanners or activated the auto-warrant system (I'd gladly put up with a little extra manual entry if it meant warrants and vouchers were accounted for in the balance). And also we're supposedly forbidden from using sundries, even though there is no such prohibition written in the procedures manual.

 

[NLC1072]

Nice. We here aren't even using Tribute 11 to it's fullest as our TOC still hasn't either installed the barcode scanners or activated the auto-warrant system (I'd gladly put up with a little extra manual entry if it meant warrants and vouchers were accounted for in the balance). And also we're supposedly forbidden from using sundries, even though there is no such prohibition written in the procedures manual.

Trust me, you don't want Tribute 12! there is a load more end of shift sheets to print out in obscure places resulting in countless unwanted "audit errors", how you can call a missing end of shift sheet an audit error is beyond me as it is all electronically stored and sent off to accounts anyway!

Also tribute 12 freezes on card payments and you cant cancel one if a customer after producing their card decides they want to pay cash so you either have to put your own card in to cancel it (which looks quite dodgy to the customers) or restart the machine...

And not using sundries is another blessing, the less you have to do with the machine the better! (theres way more to go wrong if you select the wrong sundry and can even end up crediting a customers bank card by accident in some cases!)

NLC1072