Rangers and Rovers

[srg]

I seem to regularly have problems trying to buy Day Rangers at our local ticket office. I today tried to buy a Cheshire Day Ranger and was first told it didn't exist, then railcard discount wasn't valid, then it wasn't valid for use on Wirral Merseyrail.

Unfortunately the Merseyrail TVMs don't do day rangers with the exception of Merseyrail specific one.

Do others have these issues or is if just a regional problem?

Presumably if I can't get the Ranger locally, I just have to buy a single to Liverpool, then buy the Ranger from the Northern TVM at lime street, then complain to Merseyrail for the price of the unnecessary single they made me buy.

Would be grateful your your thoughts about the best way of dealing with this.

 

[WirralLine]

Ive had no issues buying Cheshire Day Rangers from the ticket offices at Bromborough and Bromborough Rake in the past, sometimes take a little while for them to find it though

 

[Sonic1234]

Unfortunately these tickets are a niche thing, so you either encounter staff who have never learnt or been trained to issue them, or staff who haven't sold one in years and have forgotten.

 

[spyinthesky]

GB RAIL ROVER GUIDE - Cheshire Day Ranger

How to find rail rover and ranger tickets on the national rail network. Rover and ranger tickets are cheap tickets for rail travel

www.railrover.org

The website is helpful to give the the correct code to any ticket office I have found without sufficient knowledge.

 

[RJ]

If someone hasn't issued something before, they may or may not be able to figure out how to do it or do the necessary research. They could at least try to be helpful and maybe ring a principal station where someone is likely to know how to do it.

 

[Haywain]

GB RAIL ROVER GUIDE - Cheshire Day Ranger

How to find rail rover and ranger tickets on the national rail network. Rover and ranger tickets are cheap tickets for rail travel

www.railrover.org

The website is helpful to give the the correct code to any ticket office I have found without sufficient knowledge.

It's not going to help at all if they don't know where, on their ticket issuing system, to use that code.

 

[ChrisC]

Unfortunately these tickets are a niche thing, so you either encounter staff who have never learnt or been trained to issue them, or staff who haven't sold one in years and have forgotten.

I was quite surprised a few months ago that the lady in the ticket office at Mansfield was able issue me a 7 Day North East Rover with no problem. I was expecting to have to purchase this ticket from the ticket office at Worksop or from the Northern TVM at Worksop. She found this ticket and correctly issued it, complete with Senior Railcard discount, almost as quickly as she found my single ticket from Mansfield to Worksop. All credit to her at a station outside the NE Rover area, and at a booking office which is only open from 0700 - 1400. I wouldn‘t think that EMR sell many Rovers or Rangers at Mansfield.

 

[WirralLine]

It might be worth adding actually, as the OP says, the staff only seemed to know about the Merseyrail Day Saver (being Merseyrail staff). If I remember rightly to issue their day saver you search for it like a normal ticket rather than a ranger (ie from Bromborough Rake to Mrail All Area Day Saver - i think some systems you still have to set it to NORTHWIRRALLINES) or something like that whereas other rangers/rovers are on a different screen and you search the name or code.

 

[spyinthesky]

It's not going to help at all if they don't know where, on their ticket issuing system, to use that code.

That may be true, but by not offering this information you may be aware of will never help