Passengers Buying Split Tickets

[dmacw]

Is it just me, or is split ticketing a very confusing area, especially if its not trying to save money.

Example.

Passenger buys a day return from Weybridge to London Waterloo. Said passenger then decides to go to Woking instead of Weybridge in the evening. Passenger thinks, ah I'll buy a ticket from Weybridge to Woking at Waterloo station. Passenger then boards a non-stop Waterloo to Woking service, thinking they have a valid combination.

Combination, is of course not valid.

To the average person is the above a fair assumption of how ticketing should work?

 

[causton]

I would assume they would go to a ticket office, who would offer an excess instead

 

[Lewisham2221]

To the average person is the above a fair assumption of how ticketing should work?

In my opinion, yes, although somebody will no doubt come along and state that the passenger should ask at the booking office to check what they want to do is valid/permitted, or that they should ask the guard/platform staff if their ticket is valid, or they should know because they should have read the NRCoC thoroughly before even taking steps to locate their nearest railway station etc. etc.

I started a thread a couple of weeks ago raising the point of how confusing the fares system is. This is another example of something that isn't immediately obvious to the average member of the public wishing to travel by train. It seems fairly logical, to me, that if you already hold a ticket from A to B and then purchase a ticket from B to C that this should effectively extend your original ticket, thus now being valid A to C on any train (although it would be reasonable to expect that, routeing wise, the train would have to travel via B, although not having to stop at B) and not be restricted that you must travel A to C on a train also stopping at B.
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I would assume they would go to a ticket office, who would offer an excess instead

See what I mean (I'd obviously started my reply before this appeared).

This would surely only apply if the person logically had some reason to expect that there was some other way to extend their original ticket. As I have never seen any mention of how to 'extend' a ticket, neither on station/booking office signage/posters or in TOC literature (timetables etc.) then many members of the public may well assume that the only way to do such a thing is to purchase another ticket.

 

[bb21]

I started a thread a couple of weeks ago raising the point of how confusing the fares system is. This is another example of something that isn't immediately obvious to the average member of the public wishing to travel by train. It seems fairly logical, to me, that if you already hold a ticket from A to B and then purchase a ticket from B to C that this should effectively extend your original ticket, thus now being valid A to C on any train (although it would be reasonable to expect that, routeing wise, the train would have to travel via B, although not having to stop at B) and not be restricted that you must travel A to C on a train also stopping at B.

That is surely a dangerous assumption and one that does not necessarily apply to everyone, or even the majority of people.

Even before my days of properly understanding the fares system, I never thought that having two tickets covering the entire distance entitled me to use non-stop services throughout, as faster services can attract premiums and do in many countries.

I did though assume that I would be entitled to travel with split tickets where the train called at the change-over point, as otherwise getting off and then back on immediately seemed rather pointless.

 

[Wirral]

i am not an expert or a employee of a rail company unlike some in this forum who offer good advice. i agree though with the points in this thread. the rules regarding ticking make no sense to an average user and are purely there to maximise revenue for the train companies. the rules seem to be built up over time to force users on more expensive tickets

 

[snail]

I would assume they would go to a ticket office, who would offer an excess instead

I do lots of train travel and I can honestly say that the thought of excessing a ticket is something I have never considered.

Outside of forums like this excesses are just not publicised.

 

[ainsworth74]

Outside of forums like this excesses are just not publicised.

Which is a shame and also, perhaps, understandable. A shame because many of them aren't that complicated to understand and can offer useful savings to passengers. Understandable because it's not really in the TOCs best interest to advertise them.

 

[yorkie]

i am not an expert or a employee of a rail company unlike some in this forum who offer good advice. i agree though with the points in this thread. the rules regarding ticking make no sense to an average user and are purely there to maximise revenue for the train companies.

Not quite true. The NRCoC isn't quite worded how the TOCs would want it to be. If it was up to them, passengers would not have such extensive rights as we do, particularly in the area of Condition 19 (Combinations of tickets).

the rules seem to be built up over time to force users on more expensive tickets

Yes, most TOCs are almost always trying to make us pay more. They try to change the rules, change the routeing guide, introduce negative easements, deny us the shortest route, introduce draconian time restrictions, etc.

But, despite all that, there are some good deals, and good anomalies to be found. And there are some good people in the industry (some on this forum and some in high up positions) who do not allow everything to go against us!