Internet Ticket Purchase

[cav1975]

So many people report problems on this forum that I would like to make a positive comment about the internet ticket purchase system.

Yesterday I travelled from Colchester to Sheringham using NXEA advance purchase single tickets in each direction. I purchased them over the internet from South West Trains and collected them the day before from a ticket machine at my local station which is run by SouthEastern.

I was able to check the station car park location and pricing on the national rail web site too.

The trains were clean and on time and the reservation labels in place.

All in all an excellent example of the rail industry working together. Thanks to all the players.

PS - I have seen many excellent tiips on this forum, thanks too to the skilled advisors.

 

[HST Power]

Fully agree. I recently purchased a single from Newcastle-Kings Cross and the East Coast online booking system was very easy to use. It took me less than a minute to get my tickets from the station, thanks to the fast and easy to use ticket machine that recognizes your card and hence your booking. Furthermore, my journey with East Coast was both punctual, enjoyable and well worth the First Class fare. The trains were clean and the standard of service was fantastic. Couldn't ask for more.

 

[Greenback]

This is exactly what should happen, and in the vast majority of cases, it is what does happen! Ioften but tickets from EC or LM, pick them up from an ATW machine and travel on FGW with no problem at all!

It's the very nature of an online forum that people will report what has gone wrong, rather than occasions where everything has worked smoothly! So in that respect, thanks for redressing the balance a little!

 

[142094]

This is exactly what should happen, and in the vast majority of cases, it is what does happen!

Agreed.

The problem is that we 9 times out of 10 people do not have a problem with tickets/staff/railways in general and we don't hear anything about it. However when one thing goes wrong, we hear about it quite quickly. Happens in every walk of life, not just the railways.

Unfortunately then again the railways do have the habit of shooting themselves in the foot on occasions, and more often than not this is made worse by the media.

 

[codenamecuebal]

I used the XC booking to get myself cheap returns to Edinburgh. The seat reservation system worked on the way out, but on the return one family had our seats, and they happily moved when we showed our reservations, so I think it was a good £3. Collected them from a ScotRail ticket officer 2 hours after booking

 

[graham43404]

Fully agree. I recently purchased a single from Newcastle-Kings Cross and the East Coast online booking system was very easy to use. It took me less than a minute to get my tickets from the station, thanks to the fast and easy to use ticket machine that recognizes your card and hence your booking. Furthermore, my journey with East Coast was both punctual, enjoyable and well worth the First Class fare. The trains were clean and the standard of service was fantastic. Couldn't ask for more.

The other thing I really like with the East Coast booking system is you can change your seats easy as anything. Which for us is a good thing as on advance fares the system always wants to give you a table seat and we much prefer airline seats to avoid playing foot tennis with other people or having some really random person sat facing you or next to you.

 

[HST Power]

The other thing I really like with the East Coast booking system is you can change your seats easy as anything. Which for us is a good thing as on advance fares the system always wants to give you a table seat and we much prefer airline seats to avoid playing foot tennis with other people or having some really random person sat facing you or next to you.

Fully agree. I too had a single single which had plenty of leg room and space. The seat also reclined (slightly) but it was easily good enough to rest on. Like yourself, I prefer being seated individually. I was expecting to have to share a table, but I got my own, which meant there was sufficient room to eat my railway breakfast and write off my work emails at the same time!!!