Southern ticket collection

[James Wake]

Hi all

Got an advance ticket to pick up from a Southern station but now it is more convenient for me to collect from a different Southern station.

However Southern are saying I can’t pick it up elsewhere, is this right? I thought it should be compatible on any machine to pick up an advance?

 

[yorkie]

GTR (the train company who operates the Southern brand) are not correct to say that; any TOD* enabled station should be able to issue any other ticket.

In some rare cases, certain products may only be printable at certain types of machine, or machines with certain software installed, but even then it would not be tied to a specific station but merely any station that has a compatible machine.

* TOD (Ticket On Departure) is the system which allows tickets which have been booked online, to be issued as paper tickets, to be collected any time from the time of issue up to the time of departure, and the general principle is that any TOD enabled machine can issue such tickets

 

[James Wake]

GTR are not correct to say that; any TOD enabled station should be able to issue any other ticket.

In some rare cases, certain products may only be printable at certain types of machine, or machines with certain software installed, but even then it would not be tied to a specific station but merely any station that has a compatible machine.

So I should go to the other Southern station and put the reference in or if I get time go to the original station. You’ll see the tweet on the Southern feed

 

[XAM2175]

So I should go to the other Southern station and put the reference in or if I get time go to the original station. You’ll see the tweet on the Southern feed

Your booking is not tied to one particular station, or to one particular operator's stations. You will be able to print the tickets with the same reference (and the relevant payment card, as normal) at any station with ticket machines.

There are a few exceptions to this (mainly relating to ticket machines operated by Merseyrail), but these are unlikely to be relevant to you.

 

[yorkie]

So I should go to the other Southern station and put the reference in or if I get time go to the original station. You’ll see the tweet on the Southern feed

Any station with a TOD enabled machine; it doesn't have to be operated by GTR (or branded with any of the company's brands)

 

[Ccross]

Sorry to jump in on this thread. Southern ask you at the point of purchase to nominate a station to collect from, I normally choose my home station (not Southern). Does this mean that if I don’t collect them from my home station (forget, jump on a train etc) I still have the option to collect from Victoria ? Thank you !

 

[yorkie]

Sorry to jump in on this thread. Southern ask you at the point of purchase to nominate a station to collect from, I normally choose my home station (not Southern). Does this mean that if I don’t collect them from my home station (forget, jump on a train etc) I still have the option to collect from Victoria ? Thank you !

The only purpose of this is to check the station has such a facility and to warn you of any limitations (some machines may be located in ticket halls that are only accessible at certain times, for example)

 

[gray1404]

Yes you can collect from any station that offers ticket collection.

 

[Ccross]

The only purpose of this is to check the station has such a facility and to warn you of any limitations (some machines may be located in ticket halls that are only accessible at certain times, for example)

Ha, that’s really helpful . Do put know if this applies for companies beyond Southern.The things they don’t tell you!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Oct 2021 ==

It’s strange too, sometimes all I do is insert the card I paid for using the ticket with and it prints out immediately (which is what I want ) other times it demands the whole code which is a faff if the touch screen is a bit ropey . Don’t know if there’s a way of “persuading” it to do the former ?
So good to know that I’m not tied in my the nomination of collection station !

 

[alistairlees]

Ha, that’s really helpful . Do put know if this applies for companies beyond Southern.The things they don’t tell you!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Oct 2021 ==

It’s strange too, sometimes all I do is insert the card I paid for using the ticket with and it prints out immediately (which is what I want ) other times it demands the whole code which is a faff if the touch screen is a bit ropey . Don’t know if there’s a way of “persuading” it to do the former ?
So good to know that I’m not tied in my the nomination of collection station !

You can collect from any station that has a TVM. This is a network wide system and is not southern railway specific.

 

[A Challenge]

Sorry to jump in on this thread. Southern ask you at the point of purchase to nominate a station to collect from, I normally choose my home station (not Southern). Does this mean that if I don’t collect them from my home station (forget, jump on a train etc) I still have the option to collect from Victoria ? Thank you !

The advice above with regards to collection is correct, but remember that if the tickets you are picking up are for that journey to Victoria, you would be treated as travelling without a ticket during a ticket inspection/at the Victoria barriers - the collection code is not acceptable as a ticket.

 

[Wolfie]

The advice above with regards to collection is correct, but remember that if the tickets you are picking up are for that journey to Victoria, you would be treated as travelling without a ticket during a ticket inspection/at the Victoria barriers - the collection code is not acceptable as a ticket.

Absolutely. You do need the ticket before you start travelling.

 

[yorkie]

Ha, that’s really helpful . Do put know if this applies for companies beyond Southern.The things they don’t tell you!

The company is GTR in this case (Southern is one of their brand names) and it applies to all companies, not just GTR.

As I said before, there can be some exceptions with certain products being incompatible with certain machines/software.

It’s strange too, sometimes all I do is insert the card I paid for using the ticket with and it prints out immediately (which is what I want )...

Recently? Where is that? I thought this ended years ago for security reasons. Perhaps some machines are using older software.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Oct 2021 ==

The advice above with regards to collection is correct, but remember that if the tickets you are picking up are for that journey to Victoria, you would be treated as travelling without a ticket during a ticket inspection/at the Victoria barriers - the collection code is not acceptable as a ticket.

Agreed. Unless there were no working/available issuing facilities at the origin, of course.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Important point to remember is this only applies to ToD if you specify a Station for a Smartcard ticket generally you have to collect it there.

 

[James Wake]

Picked up no issue this morning at the station I wanted