someone has just asked this on Twitter and the twitter operator said
@VirginTrains: Yes, although the RTVs can't be accepted onboard. ^RM
Rail Travel Vouchers are a regulated method of payment to be accepted by any member of railway staff who sells rail tickets. See Page 196 of the
Ticketing and Settlement Agreement (TSA). Regardless of what was or wasn't included in training course material, ticket retailers on board are not exempt from this.
The only difficulty you may have with that is that if Virgin allow you to purchase upgrades at the booking office (I can't remember if they do or do not) they may say that it should have been done there and therefore as per NRE the RTV isn't to be accepted on train as there was opportunity to purchase previously.
The National Rail Enquires page on
payment methods doesn't say this - where on their site is it?
"They also apply to paying on-train when no opportunity to purchase beforehand existed" does not restrict the payment methods available on board trains. It's about informing people that they may be able to pay for a ticket on board if they couldn't beforehand. Understandably the site doesn't encourage people to use them on board - note that while that page does say that RTVs are accepted at booking office or through telesales, it doesn't say that they are the only points of sale where they are accepted. Very cleverly worded.
Some of the listed methods of payments are not universally accepted - there is wording to this effect in the information about them on that page. These'll be Postal Orders and Traveller's Cheques, which are absent from the TSA.
It's not really much hassle. It goes through the same as a warrant. If the voucher is for more than the cost of the ticket it goes down as a surplus due to travel voucher excess on the shift sheet.
Where I work now, RTVs issued by my employer go in as a "voucher exchange" debit sundry for the full value of the voucher. Any surplus is balanced by the "Travel voucher surplus" credit sundry.
RTVs issued by other operators are processed as part or full warrant payments.
This is what is done in the ticket office - when Avantix Mobile is used, we have to fill in a carbon balance sheet.
Easy to do on an Avantix - some staff choose not to as they haven't been told that they can accept such methods of payment and they don't want to risk getting into trouble. It's a problem with the way some TOCs do their training. Recurring issues like this ought to be addressed.
