The Train Line Fail

[All Line Rover]

I agree that WebTIS is much better.

One problem with Thetrainline's system is that it doesn't show Off-Peak and Super-Off-Peak fares if they aren't available on the trains displayed. WebTIS shows them greyed-out, so you just need to scroll down to load more services until the ticket is available to purchase.

Also, it's nice that you can show only Advance fares or only Off-peak/Anytime fares - unlike Thetrainline - but a slight flaw with this is that some Advance tickets can cost more than Off-Peak tickets (at least when using a Family Railcard, particularly with Virgin Trains). This happens to me numerous times when booking Crewe to London tickets for the Family in the morning peak (Remember, Virgin allow Off-Peak tickets on peak trains when using a Railcard, which makes family travel ridiculously cheap, and often means that the Off-Peak ticket costs less than the Advance ticket).

 

[junglejames]

Any evidence of that? A decent telesales operation based in Newcastle was always a nice point about GNER and I was happy that NXEC retained it.

One time many years ago I tried to call Virgin telesales (for Crosscountry, but I assume Virgin had one number for WC and XC) and it was an automated voice activated service, do they still use it? I gave up and called GNER.

If they are offshoring the call centre it's nice to see that the British government cares so much about British jobs (not to mention customer service) :roll:

Its just something i heard by someone that frequently uses ECs group travel call centre. Note its only apparently the group travel section.

 

[HST Power]

This happens to me numerous times when booking Crewe to London tickets for the Family in the morning peak (Remember, Virgin allow Off-Peak tickets on peak trains when using a Railcard, which makes family travel ridiculously cheap, and often means that the Off-Peak ticket costs less than the Advance ticket).

That's the main reason why I prefer the system. I do a fair bit of travel with the family as well.

 

[ApAp]

East Coast's telesales operation is actually still run by National Express, but they recently lost the contract to Intelenet & Atos. Although almost 200 jobs will be lost in Newcastle, there was no indication that jobs would be going overseas - more likely to Plymouth & Fort William.

Does National Express use the former GNER call centre for their other franchises? It seems odd to me how the call centre didn't transfer over to East Coast at the end of the franchise.

 

[HST Power]

I think they do, but I will look it up for you just to be sure.