Priv Holder, problems buying tickets

[philthetube]

I travel occasionally from Squires Gate to Canterbury.

The ticket has to be on card stock as it is a cross London journey, even though in reality almost everyone would walk from Euston to St. Pancras.

I cannot buy a ticket at the station, as a priv holder, nor on the train as the gurad cannot sell card stock.

I have a 10 minute connection at Preston but this is rarely enough time to buy a ticket.

on 3 of my last 4 trips I have boarded a London bound service to Crewe without a ticket, this has not caused me a problem but I can imagine it might. The Avanti staff are also unable to sell a ticket again because ccst is needed.

Crewe has been my first opportunity to purchase a ticket, I have had no issues there on 2 occasions but on the third I was grilled by barrier staff who were would not initially allow me through and it was only when I asked them to repeat the refusal while I recorded it that they relented.

I do not have access to the staff ticketing web site

Is there a solution?

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Do you have a chance to buy in advance whenever you're near a ticket office? That's the only solution I can think of.

 

[Wallsendmag]

I'm sure that on train they can sell you a ticket to ToD that you can collect form a station on route.

 

[philthetube]

Sorry, ToD?

This has not been offered.

It would take me about 3 hours return to get to a ticket office.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Squires Gate station is managed by Northern. It's unstaffed and only has a TVM, which presumably doesn't issue 'Priv' tickets. So, what help/advice have they (Northern) got to say on the matter?

It would take me about 3 hours return to get to a ticket office.

Thinking aloud, Blackpool North is not that far from Squires Gate.

 

[AndrewE]

I travel occasionally from Squires Gate to Canterbury.

I do not have access to the staff ticketing web site

Is there a solution?

Arrange access then? Either on a friend's computer or maybe using one in a public library...

 

[RPI]

Arrange access then? Either on a friend's computer or maybe using one in a public library...

I was going to suggest the same, you could then collect the tickets from a Ticket Vending Machine if it is a cross London journey

 

[philthetube]

It is far enough on a bus, or a walk which is more than I am capable of and depending on family health I may find I cannot travel so want to buy tickets on the day.

I cannot get access to the ticketing site as I am ex underground and it has not been offered, I would love to be able to buy that way.

 

[bramling]

Arrange access then? Either on a friend's computer or maybe using one in a public library...

Should people really have to be going to these sorts of lengths?

If there’s no booking office at the station then buy from the guard on the train. If that doesn’t work for whatever reason then at the first convenient point on the journey without causing a connecting service to be missed.

It isn’t really for staff to be striking up an argument on this. Providing no practicable ticket issuing facilities have been missed (ie walking straight past an open ticket office) then there is no reason for any issue to be made.

Why does the ticket have to be card stock, though? If needed for the Underground then can the OP not just show it to gateline staff?

 

[waterpoo]

Why does the ticket have to be card stock, though? If needed for the Underground then can the OP not just show it to gateline staff?

You can't physically buy tickets that have cross London journey in e-ticket form, I believe. It simply doesnt let you buy an e-ticket, which does make sense since underground stations don't have Aztec scanners.

 

[philthetube]

The daft thing is that there are 2 reasons why I don't need to use card stock, I would always walk this journey Euston to St. Pancras and I have free travel with TFL anyway.

I know I am not the only one to suffer with this issue, would it not be possible to allow initial issue on bog roll which could be exchanged when practical at any station with a ticket office.

 

[yorkie]

Sorry we can't sell PRIV tickets, but for anyone else in this situation, there is an advanced option on the forum's ticketing site, "Let me use Oyster/Contactless to travel across London"



It doesn't guarantee availability of e-tickets, and it will only work if it's cheaper to not include the cross-London transfer, but it gives you a chance:



There is no reason why RDG could not provide similar advanced options to PRIV holders, but I suspect they have no interest in doing so.

 

[waterpoo]

It's not ideal because I assume it would cost slightly more. But could you split your trip, ticket wise, and just buy a ticket to Euston, and then another separate journey ticket from KX since you walk it anyway?

 

[philthetube]

I could but this restricts my return times as a ticket from Canterbury allows off peak return travel in the afternoon.

This is something which needs solving, not working round.

 

[scrapy]

Could you but to Crewe/Euston and get an overdistance excess at the ticket office?

 

[philthetube]

I don't know. would I buy a priv return Crewe and then excess it at their ticket office.

 

[pitdiver]

I'm in a similar position being ex LUL/ TfL with a retired PTAC and my wife has a Partner version. I have to go either Worksop or Mansfield to a Booking Office if I want to use the Underground. I know I could get Priv Oysters but for the number of times we go to London it's really not worth it.

 

[MrJeeves]

It is on the railway to provide ticketing facilities which allow you to buy tickets.

If they choose not to, and don't equip their staff with the requisite equipment to sell you your ticket either, then that is not your problem.

You're doing the right thing, and you should be putting in a complaint to Avanti about how you were treated at Crewe gateline multiple times.

 

[AndrewE]

I'm in a similar position being ex LUL/ TfL with a retired PTAC and my wife has a Partner version. I have to go either Worksop or Mansfield to a Booking Office if I want to use the Underground. I know I could get Priv Oysters but for the number of times we go to London it's really not worth it.

I definitely found my priv oyster worth it... but what wasn't worth it was the annual trip to London to get the discount applied, and the lottery of finding a LUL barrier with staff who could (or would) do it. I used to allow a day for it: a ride south, several hours messing (other verbs are available) about, maybe a pint or two to make the journey worthwhile and then a trip home! (Oh, and a bagful of mixed pakhora, samosas and stuffed peppers from the Gupta shop in Drummond St.)

 

[Wallsendmag]

I know I am not the only one to suffer with this issue, would it not be possible to allow initial issue on bog roll which could be exchanged when practical at any station with a ticket office.

See my previous post , this is exactly what happens, you then collect the ticket from a Ticket Office or TVM

 

[pitdiver]

I definitely found my priv oyster worth it... but what wasn't worth it was the annual trip to London to get the discount applied, and the lottery of finding a LUL barrier with staff who could (or would) do it. I used to allow a day for it: a ride south, several hours messing (other verbs are available) about, maybe a pint or two to make the journey worthwhile and then a trip home! (Oh, and a bagful of mixed pakhora, samosas and stuffed peppers from the Gupta shop in Drummond St.)

Fortunately my PTAC last longer than a year so we don't have to go to London to get a Priv Oyster renewed. I think the PTACs last for 5 years.

 

[notspy]

I believe with TTK you can sell a ticket with a collection code, which authorises travel through barriers until you can get to a reasonable connection point. e.g. Squires Gate to Canterbury, if there is reasonable connection time you can collect them at Preston however if that is not reasonable (due to connection time being tight) you can travel to e.g. Crewe/Euston (wherever the next available collection point is. \
I've never sold one as we don't really ever sell tickets through London on the routes that I work, however I have bought Stockport to Crawley onboard an Avanti service, and collected the tickets at Euston booking office with the collection code.

 

[LowLevel]

I don't think all train operators have the ability to sell to generate a ToD reference on board enabled. Mine does, but I'd expect 99% of guards to have no idea how to do it or that it exists.

 

[philthetube]

I believe with TTK you can sell a ticket with a collection code, which authorises travel through barriers until you can get to a reasonable connection point. e.g. Squires Gate to Canterbury, if there is reasonable connection time you can collect them at Preston however if that is not reasonable (due to connection time being tight) you can travel to e.g. Crewe/Euston (wherever the next available collection point is. \
I've never sold one as we don't really ever sell tickets through London on the routes that I work, however I have bought Stockport to Crawley onboard an Avanti service, and collected the tickets at Euston booking office with the collection code.

I don't think Northern Have this enabled, it sounds as if from your post that Avanti do, I will ask if I am in the position again.

 

[gray1404]

This really does seem like an impossible situation. You are doing nothing wrong and everything right. You will unable to purchase your ticket online as you are former London Underground staff, you are offering to purchase on board but the staff are unable to print the ticket, you are reasonably not expected to miss a connection at Preston so are purchasing at the first available opportunity.

If Squires Gate has a ticket vending machine, start getting yourself a promise to pay. You shouldn't have to do this, but it just an extra insurance in case you come up against difficult staff, as you will have a printed authority to travel.

 

[notspy]

I don't think Northern Have this enabled, it sounds as if from your post that Avanti do, I will ask if I am in the position again.

I believe Northern use the Zebra machines, I can't remember if they have this feature at all as I did not use it for that long.

I don't think all train operators have the ability to sell to generate a ToD reference on board enabled. Mine does, but I'd expect 99% of guards to have no idea how to do it or that it exists.

I had to show the Avanti TM how to do it, it's simple enough but quite rarely used so would expect most to not know about it/how to create them.

 

[David Goddard]

Priv aside for a moment, does this highlight a problem where if TVMs at the station stop issuing card stock then no cross London tickets would be possible?
Sorry if this is drifting off topic but seems related enough

 

[tramdan]

I'm in a similar position being ex LUL/ TfL with a retired PTAC and my wife has a Partner version. I have to go either Worksop or Mansfield to a Booking Office if I want to use the Underground. I know I could get Priv Oysters but for the number of times we go to London it's really not worth it.

Your post suggests that you might be somewhere between the two, so I’m not sure if it’s useful for you, but EMR Guards can sell tickets to a Ticket on Departure code, for redemption at a ticket machine. They can sell cross London tickets by this method.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Thinking aloud, Blackpool North is not that far from Squires Gate.

Is it not an option to purchase the correct ticket from Blackpool North, and even to travel from there (more frequent service to Preston and onward on the WCML line, than from Squires Gate)?

 

[RPI]

Not entirely relevant here, but GWR can sell tickets to ToD (Tickets on Departure) where you would exchange for a CCST ticket at an interchange point.