FIP-travel in the UK

[toerist]

Hello Everyone,

In September me and a colleague (both employees of the Belgian Railways) will be making a trip to London. To get there we will make use of our free Eurostar tickets. But during our stay in London we would like to make a side-trip to the railway museum in York. For that we would like to use our free FIP-tickets, but as a noticed that there are automatic ticket gates in UK stations, I wondered whether it's necessary to exchange our non-machine readable FIP-tickets for machine readable ones. And if so where best to do it, to make sure we don't have some unpleasant experiences during our stay in the UK.

I would like the thank everyone in advance for their constructive and helpful answers!

 

[lemonic]

There is no obligation to have machine readable tickets. All ticket barriers are staffed when in use so just show your tickets to the member of staff and they will let you through. For information, London Kings Cross has ticket barriers, York station does not.

 

[WestCoast]

In the UK, all automatic barriers must be manned by a member of staff when they are operational, who can manually check tickets that the barriers cannot read.

 

[toerist]

thanks for the answer!

it does appear to be rather costly to have staff supervising ticket gates, the ones they are installing throughout the Netherlands don't seam to have staff around

 

[185]

In the UK:

Your pass, when correctly dated is valid for 48 hours, and is unrestricted, valid for use on all services. Pass validity is the same as Eurail, InterRail, and a BritRail.

Be sure to tell us if you have any problems using your FIP pass, as there are a lot of staff from all of the British companies on here

 

[WestCoast]

it does appear to be rather costly to have staff supervising ticket gates, the ones they are installing throughout the Netherlands don't seam to have staff around

It is costly, however, it is nice to have a presence of staff to help with issues.

Automatic tickets gates are extremely common in London and the South East of England, where services are usually very busy. Outside that area, generally, they are less common. There are also human inspectors standing at stations, which are more common outside of London.

 

[FGWman]

Do you get free eurostar tickets. We have to pay for ours. Still good value though

 

[gordonthemoron]

since E* is/was part owned by NMBS, I can see why Belgian staff would get free tickets

 

[142094]

In the UK, all automatic barriers must be manned by a member of staff when they are operational, who can manually check tickets that the barriers cannot read.

In reality you'll find that some staff do wonder off and leave them unattended. Half the time probably due to boredom.

 

[WestCoast]

In reality you'll find that some staff do wonder off and leave them unattended. Half the time probably due to boredom.

True, but I believe barriers can also be observed remotely by a camera.

 

[gordonthemoron]

you could just tailgate someone through the barriers in that case

 

[toerist]

Do you get free eurostar tickets. We have to pay for ours. Still good value though

up to now we get 4 single trip free tickets in 1st class to be used on Eurostar or Thalys services, yet I expect the use on Eurostar to be gone soon.
Until recently we could also buy reduced rate tickets on Eurostar for family and friends, but this advantage has already ended and we can only get those for Thalys now, so I expect that soon our free tickets will follow as well

 

[maddeningcrowds]

you could just tailgate someone through the barriers in that case

Or just push it hard. In order to avoid any repeat of the Hillsborough disaster, they are not locked in any real sense, so that large crowds can always get in or out in an emergency.

 

[dk1]

since E* is/was part owned by NMBS, I can see why Belgian staff would get free tickets

I didnt think any FIP got free Eurostar whether it was BR, SNCB or SNCF. The £21 single fare is to cover the cost of Eurotunnel payments that cannot be re-couped.

 

[toerist]

the free tickets we get for eurostar don't have anything to do with FIP as such, we just get them from our boss, so in the end he pays the bill

 

[185]

Crikey. Free E* tickets!? I'm off to Belgium

Billets s'il vous plait?
Karten....err... Alstublieft?

Damn. Think I speak better Norwegian

 

[dk1]

the free tickets we get for eurostar don't have anything to do with FIP as such, we just get them from our boss, so in the end he pays the bill

I see. The mention of FIP threw me.

 

[reb0118]

As an aside I'm sure you can get FIP discounts on "Rail-Rovers" which can be handy if you use up all your boxes on your FIP coupon. As a Belgian you would get a 75% discount on these.

Does NMBS have an equivilent?

 

[AlterEgo]

As an aside I'm sure you can get FIP discounts on "Rail-Rovers" which can be handy if you use up all your boxes on your FIP coupon.

Surely that would only be on rovers which offered a Priv discount?

 

[reb0118]

Surely that would only be on rovers which offered a Priv discount?

Most rovers do offer priv discount - also some day rangers also.

 

[AlterEgo]

Most rovers do offer priv discount - also some day rangers also.

Yes - but not all. I think someone was going to do a list on here....

75% discount on Rover tickets is unbelievable value by any standards.

 

[toerist]

As an aside I'm sure you can get FIP discounts on "Rail-Rovers" which can be handy if you use up all your boxes on your FIP coupon. As a Belgian you would get a 75% discount on these.

Does NMBS have an equivilent?

well for the UK we can get up to 2 coupons per year, if our coupons are all used we can get 75% discount on tickets using our FIP card (the UK being the exception here, usually we only get 1 coupon per country* and max 50% discount)

*unlimited free travel in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, 12 coupons for France

 

[Barrett M95]

Are you SNCB? Mechelen by any chance? Shot in the dark...

 

[toerist]

nope NMBS Mobility, Antwerp Central