Should there be an entitlement to travel using a collection reference..

[Adam Williams]

...when the origin station has no Ticket on Departure collection facilities, to allow collection at the first realistic possibility for customers who have chosen to pre-purchase tickets but - perhaps through no fault of their own - were not permitted to purchase E-Tickets?

(In the same way that an entitlement to travel without a ticket already exists under circumstances where no ticket purchasing facilities were available.)

It would seem to me that condition 6 of the Conditions of Travel should've been updated in line with changing consumer ticket purchasing behaviour about 10 years ago. Why is it made the passenger's problem to solve when the railway is the entity that hasn't bothered to install a TVM?

And as a follow-up question, should TOCs be forced to universally provide on-train staff on routes that are not in penalty fare schemes/are on "Buy on board" routes with a mobile ticket issuing system capable of doing ToD collection? Is there any reason this isn't already a requirement for ticket issuing system suppliers to support?

TOC: Train Operating Company
TVM: Ticket Vending Machine

 

[Starmill]

Historically this was commonly done. For example the Barnstaple line stations used to have a specific policy in place to allow customers to travel to Exeter St Davids or Central to collect their bookings, or later the on train staff could issue them. At the time almost no stations anywhere nearby had machines so if you lived in North Devon and had missed the seven day posting deadline you were essentially out of luck and couldn't buy online no matter what. This was designed to ease this. EMR also had something similar I recall for the Matlock and Robin Hood services before they got ticket machines, there were even signs up at some stations.

Of course if you tried this today on either route you would be likely to receive a frosty reception indeed from revenue protection staff and maybe a Penalty Fare.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Short term, yes, this should be an entitlement where the origin station has no collection facilities or they are not working, in line with how you are permitted to purchase at the first opportunity if you aren't able to purchase at such a station. I don't think it matters if on board staff can do it (though many can), where they can't they could just issue a voucher confirming travel is allowed. It might perhaps be cheaper to have a mobile app that can just verify a collection code to check it's genuine than issuing it?

Long term we just need to sort out the e-ticketing issue so all journeys can be e-ticketed. Merseyrail needs to be told* to pack it in, as does anyone else not accepting e-tickets out of pure stubbornness (is Southeastern still at it?), while the London Underground issue needs to be resolved at some point and I think is being looked into? As a short term option it really should be possible to select to receive an e-ticket for a journey across London at the expense of losing your Tube validity - I often don't want it anyway as I choose to walk across or use the bus. I do sometimes choose the Trainsplit option that requests a split not including cross London validity, but sometimes this is more expensive which is silly!

* There needs to simply be an ultimatum here - start accepting e-tickets or withdraw from national ticketing entirely. They're unlikely to choose the latter as selling long distance tickets contributes to the viability of their booking offices at smaller stations.

 

[LowLevel]

Historically this was commonly done. For example the Barnstaple line stations used to have a specific policy in place to allow customers to travel to Exeter St Davids or Central to collect their bookings, or later the on train staff could issue them. At the time almost no stations anywhere nearby had machines so if you lived in North Devon and had missed the seven day posting deadline you were essentially out of luck and couldn't buy online no matter what. This was designed to ease this. EMR also had something similar I recall for the Matlock and Robin Hood services before they got ticket machines, there were even signs up at some stations.

Of course if you tried this today on either route you would be likely to receive a frosty reception indeed from revenue protection staff and maybe a Penalty Fare.

EMR still have plenty of stations without TOD enabled TVMs and unless it's a "via London" ticket the guards can issue tickets using TOD Recall.