First time using a collection machine

[silverfoxcc]

Please note NOT the first time on a train, but have booked a ticket online for collection at the departure station.
Have the ref number, and as i will be leaving at 08.30!! dont want to hold up a humungus queue working out on what buttons to press

So what is the idiots guide to getting the tickets printed?

 

[Merseysider]

It's all here.

However, you do normally need the correct bank card.

 

[30907]

Exact details may depend on the machine. This is from a recent experience at Preston and I may not have got the sequence precisely right.

Have credit card and reference ready to hand.

Press on Tickets for Collection or something similar on screen.

Insert card in slot. Remove card when instructed. A bit like Pay-at-Pump

Look at and follow onscreen instructions.

When keyboard shows up, carefully key in reference. This can be fiddly as the right place to touch on a touch screen often isn't quite where you expect.

The machine will tell you how many bits of card it is printing. Make sure you have them all before leaving, receipt included.

And Loco2 does it better.

 

[Gareth Marston]

Please note NOT the first time on a train, but have booked a ticket online for collection at the departure station.
Have the ref number, and as i will be leaving at 08.30!! dont want to hold up a humungus queue working out on what buttons to press

So what is the idiots guide to getting the tickets printed?

Well ifyoubought a ticket that says Off Peak or Anytime on it you could buy it on the day anyway pre booking on the internet saves you nothing and If you've gone to someone like Trainline you've paid an extra booking fee and maybe even credit card charges.

Don't turn up two minutes before departure give yourself time then have your booking reference handy - don't write it on a bit paper you could transpose it incorrectly and secondly have the card you bought it on ready to insert in the machine.

 

[edwin_m]

Well ifyoubought a ticket that says Off Peak or Anytime on it you could buy it on the day anyway pre booking on the internet saves you nothing and If you've gone to someone like Trainline you've paid an extra booking fee and maybe even credit card charges.

You usually don't get a seat reservation if you buy on the day.

 

[JaJaWa]

I will add that one of my debit cards requires it to be firmly held into the ticket machine until it says to remove it, so give that a go if the machine is having an issue with it.

 

[maniacmartin]

Remember to use the same bank card that you used when booking the tickets. Try to avoid a machine that is outdoors as they can sometimes have very difficult touchscreens where you have to press very hard to have the touch register. Also, some machines are very slow and you need to wait a good few seconds between keying in each letter of the collection code.

Note that you don't need to wait until the day of travel to collect the tickets. You could avoid any queues by collecting them right now if you wanted (just don't lose them). You also can collect from any station that offers the facility to collect prepurchased tickets, even if it isn't the one you selected when making the booking.

 

[silverfoxcc]

Gents

Thanks for all the input. I like the bit about pay at pump. I have never done that either!!


Just to give you a heads up the last time i was going to use this method for Twyford to Peterborough i thought i would buy on the day instead of driving. On getting to the ticket office i found the price on the net ( Virgin EC) was half the cost a pay on the day was!!! so i drove, and hated it esp as the cheepo fare is within a few pounds of the fuel and parking. The guy at the ticket office certainly had failed the charm school part. And also got the seat reserved on the outward journey so tomorrow is a win win

Yes will get there early with all the references inc the free wifi ones!

Thanks again

Ron

Oh saw another two 387 units arrive at reading at lunchtime today hauled by a 57 i think they were 132 and 133 if anyone is interested

 

[Ianno87]

To save yourself time on the day, you could always pick them up beforehand if you happen to be in or near a station.

It doesn't have to be the station you specified when booking - I routinely pick mine up somewhere else when I happen to be passing a random machine a few days before.

 

[urbophile]

It's all here.

This says 'can be collected from any machine', whatever the design or company. I'm sure that is true almost everywhere, but as far as I know Merseyrail machines only sell (and dispense) tickets for local destinations. I think that is why the machine at Liverpool South Parkway is owned by Northern despite it being a Merseyrail station. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Merseysider]

This says 'can be collected from any machine', whatever the design or company. I'm sure that is true almost everywhere, but as far as I know Merseyrail machines only sell (and dispense) tickets for local destinations. I think that is why the machine at Liverpool South Parkway is owned by Northern despite it being a Merseyrail station. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Correct on all counts! However, I think that at least some of Merseyrail's machines offer more than just local stations.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Here are two seperate web resources - from raileasy and The Trainline - which list stations that offer TOD ("Ticket On Departure") ticket collection facilities. The two lists should match!

The stations that offer it are the same regardless of whichever booking site you actually buy the tickets from.

I think there may be a few stations where the ticket machine might be inaccessible when the ticket hall is locked up (i.e. even when trains are still running).

To be honest OP, if you were to be struggling then I dare say one of your fellow travellers might well help out.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Correct on all counts! However, I think that at least some of Merseyrail's machines offer more than just local stations.

They do not however do TOD as Merseyrail won't pay for them to be online. One of the many ways in which they don't act as a National Rail TOC and should to some extent be told to play the game or go fully independent.

 

[Merseysider]

I think there may be a few stations where the ticket machine might be inaccessible when the ticket hall is locked up (i.e. even when trains are still running).

Can confirm; Salford Crescent is one such station. Sometimes the booking office will close early meaning no ticket collection. silverfoxcc, it may be worth checking the status of your local station, or advising on the thread what station that is.

They do not however do TOD as Merseyrail won't pay for them to be online. One of the many ways in which they don't act as a National Rail TOC and should to some extent be told to play the game or go fully independent.

Absolutely. Living on the Merseyrail network, and using it several times a week, I do find it a rather poor state of affairs. That said, if it's a cost issue, I'd rather keep our booking offices and have no ToD/TVMs than no booking offices and a TVM, as is often the case in suburban Manchester.

That reminds me, silverfoxcc, if you have any issues at all then you can normally get a member of staff to print the tickets for you at the booking office, if there's no-one else around to help you use the machine.

 

[miami]

Just to confirm, there is no need to enter a PIN number when collecting you ticket.

If you're paranoid you should film the dispensing of the ticket as they don't always completely print (in my experience about 1 in 30 fail).

 

[Abpj17]

It is rush hour though, so you should try to arrive with a reasonable amount of time to spare. (It's a familiar site at my station for one machine to be broken and for the other to have a queue)

 

[xotGD]

Lots of people don't realise that after they have entered their reference number they need to hit the "Print All Tickets" button at the bottom right of the screen - they just stand there waiting for something to happen until the person behind them (i.e. me) tells them to press the button.

Also, many people grab their tickets and go without waiting for the receipt to be printed - often plenty of these littering the ticket tray.

 

[silverfoxcc]

Well it went like a dream, and all legs of the journey without a hitch. Thumbs up to GWR and Virgin

 

[AntoniC]

Last week I collected ToD tickets from Liverpool Lime St and I am not travelling until 3rd June !

 

[work-traveller]

Can anyone say why most online booking systems require you to nominate a station to collect your tickets from (defaulting to the station your journey commences at), when you can actually then collect your tickets from any station?

My only thought is that it's a safeguarding measure in case a person proposes to collect tickets from a station that has no ticketing facilities. This would therefore alert them to this fact and make them pick somewhere that does have facilities.

 

[Haywain]

Can anyone say why most online booking systems require you to nominate a station to collect your tickets from (defaulting to the station your journey commences at), when you can actually then collect your tickets from any station?

My only thought is that it's a safeguarding measure in case a person proposes to collect tickets from a station that has no ticketing facilities. This would therefore alert them to this fact and make them pick somewhere that does have facilities.

Exactly the reason you give. To prevent you thinking that you can collect your tickets at a station such as Gleaneagles, which has no ticketing facilities at all.

 

[najaB]

My only thought is that it's a safeguarding measure in case a person proposes to collect tickets from a station that has no ticketing facilities. This would therefore alert them to this fact and make them pick somewhere that does have facilities.

That is indeed the reason.

 

[miami]

Our corporate deal with thetrainline charges £1 booking fee, plus £1 for collection. The collection fee is waived if you collect from an on-premesis trainline branded machine, but when you select that you can still collect from a normal machine. ß

 

[Joe Paxton]

Our corporate deal with thetrainline charges £1 booking fee, plus £1 for collection. The collection fee is waived if you collect from an on-premesis trainline branded machine, but when you select that you can still collect from a normal machine. ß

Hope you collect from a station TVM as much a possible just so the Trainline end up with a bit less wonga for the next generation of their 'sheep' adverts!

 

[miami]

Hope you collect from a station TVM as much a possible just so the Trainline end up with a bit less wonga for the next generation of their 'sheep' adverts!

I use all sorts of loopholes to reduce the cost to my company.

 

[causton]

Hope you collect from a station TVM as much a possible just so the Trainline end up with a bit less wonga for the next generation of their 'sheep' adverts!

No, collect from a ticket office, it charges them even more

 

[Joe Paxton]

I use all sorts of loopholes to reduce the cost to my company.

Good stuff, but I was actually encouraging you to increase the costs incurred by The Trainline! But causton's 'advice' is even better!

 

[hassaanhc]

Lots of people don't realise that after they have entered their reference number they need to hit the "Print All Tickets" button at the bottom right of the screen - they just stand there waiting for something to happen until the person behind them (i.e. me) tells them to press the button.

Also, many people grab their tickets and go without waiting for the receipt to be printed - often plenty of these littering the ticket tray.

Some machines, such as the new SWT Parkeon ones, actually print the receipt before the tickets, so you have to be careful and check you've got everything!

 

[Haywain]

Some machines, such as the new SWT Parkeon ones, actually print the receipt before the tickets, so you have to be careful and check you've got everything!

Regardless of the sequence of printing, I believe they show quite clearly on the screen what stage of printing they are at. Those who wait until printing has finished before taking tickets out of the tray are unlikely to leave without the full set of coupons.

 

[edwin_m]

Is there a time lag between when the screen says they have printed and when the final one drops into the tray?