Ticket Splitting Website - Now no booking/card fees

[SickyNicky]

Hi. (disclaimer - I am the author of TrainSplit, but I have got admin approval to post this here).

Some of you will be aware of TrainSplit, which is the only ticket splitting website that actually goes on to sell you the tickets.

I'm really pleased to announce that we no longer charge any booking or credit card fees on the site. The ONLY fee we charge is 10% of any saving the site finds you through the use of split ticketing. No saving = no fees. For that you get all the tickets on one booking reference, and if you need to make any changes, we'll only charge you one fee per journey (instead on one fee per ticket!)

More importantly, we have some great upcoming features including split advances (due very soon) and a brand new highly flexible journey planner (expected by Christmas). This is one of the real reasons I'm posting today. Please feel to ask questions about this and make any comments or suggestions. There's still time to add new features and I want the system to be able to cope with (almost) any requirement you might have.

Here's some examples of the features already working in our test system:

• Multiple via points
• Multiple breaks of journey (with customisable times)
• Include or exclude specific TOCs
• Exclude modes of travel (like buses)
• Calculate best tickets for routes that are not permitted
• Find slower routes that are cheaper (you choose how much slower)

What else would you like?

 

[Sammy h]

Great idea, but what is to stop people using your site to find out the best splits and then using a booking engine/ticket office which does not charge an booking fee?

 

[SickyNicky]

Great idea, but what is to stop people using your site to find out the best splits and then using a booking engine/booking office which does not charge an admin fee?

Nothing - we can't stop people doing that (they could even do it on our site without a charge), but most people (i.e. non-experts) probably prefer to have it all done automatically for them because if they try to book tickets separately it will (a) be quite complex, (b) not be all on one booking (possibly), (c) be possible to make mistakes, (d) they won't have a NR accredited itinerary with a booking reference and (e) they may find it hard to get a guaranteed chain of split advances (you don't want to get the first few and then find that a later advance isn't available any more).

Genuine experts will have ways around this, of course, but still may find it more convenient. That's something the individual must decide.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Great idea, but what is to stop people using your site to find out the best splits and then using a booking engine/ticket office which does not charge an booking fee?

Ah - I see you changed "admin fee" to "booking fee". The point is that we DON'T charge any booking fees or credit card fees any more. The only fees we have are based on any savings that you actually make by using our technology.

 

[Emyr]

Do the NR APIs (or individual TOC APIs) make information on cycle reservations available?

There are bookings which I would currently only make in person to ensure spaces can be reserved for the whole journey. Doing this for multiple passengers would be a boon.

 

[SickyNicky]

Do the NR APIs (or individual TOC APIs) make information on cycle reservations available?

There are bookings which I would currently only make in person to ensure spaces can be reserved for the whole journey. Doing this for multiple passengers would be a boon.

Good question. I have no idea (we don't do cycle reservations at the moment), but I'll put it on the list of things to query.

 

[Blindtraveler]

sounds good, Will have to make time to road test it!

 

[SickyNicky]

sounds good, Will have to make time to road test it!

Please do. I haven't tested it with JAWS so I would be interested in what does and doesn't work. PM me if you like for my email.

 

[Blindtraveler]

May do that! Even if its a bit clunky it cant be any worse than the way Jaws and most booking engines behaiv, which is badly!

 

[GarethJohn]

When will you allow Local Rail cards to be added?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
There is a simple split journey I can find a cheaper than the site, should I inform the site?

 

[SickyNicky]

When will you allow Local Rail cards to be added?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
There is a simple split journey I can find a cheaper than the site, should I inform the site?

Local railcards are a problem because of TOD restrictions, but I'll continue to see what we can do.

If you find a better split, please post it here and I'll take a look. Sometimes restrictions in the journey planner we use (we have to use it for accreditation reasons) make these difficult, but we have a new one in the pipeline.

 

[dcsprior]

Great idea, but what is to stop people using your site to find out the best splits and then using a booking engine/ticket office which does not charge an booking fee?

Nothing - we can't stop people doing that (they could even do it on our site without a charge), but most people (i.e. non-experts) probably prefer to have it all done automatically for them because if they try to book tickets separately it will (a) be quite complex, (b) not be all on one booking (possibly), (c) be possible to make mistakes, (d) they won't have a NR accredited itinerary with a booking reference and (e) they may find it hard to get a guaranteed chain of split advances (you don't want to get the first few and then find that a later advance isn't available any more).

Genuine experts will have ways around this, of course, but still may find it more convenient. That's something the individual must decide.

I travel a lot by rail, I'd value the occasional saving when your site saves me money, but I value EC reward points more.

I know I could use your site then book elsewhere, but... Can I use your site to find the splits and then book elsewhere with a clear conscience? Or do you have a 'donate' button for people like me?

 

[GarethJohn]

Local railcards are a problem because of TOD restrictions, but I'll continue to see what we can do.

If you find a better split, please post it here and I'll take a look. Sometimes restrictions in the journey planner we use (we have to use it for accreditation reasons) make these difficult, but we have a new one in the pipeline.

Machynlleth to Coventry on Saturday 13
Train split: £ 44
My split any time RTN: MCN-New ST - New ST- COV
£ 21.90 + £3.40 = £25.30 Saving £18.70

There are many other examples for East midland Towns & Cities via new st.
Also the site often splits journeys at Smethwick Galton Bridge when all Birmingham Stations is the same price.
A trip to Peterborough advises the passenger to change at SGB travel to Birmingham Moor Street then walk to new street to catch a Train to Peterborough. Would paying to New Street and then splitting at Oakham be the same and save a lot of hassle?

 

[SickyNicky]

Machynlleth to Coventry on Saturday 13
Train split: £ 44
My split any time RTN: MCN-New ST - New ST- COV
£ 21.90 + £3.40 = £25.30 Saving £18.70

There are many other examples for East midland Towns & Cities via new st.
Also the site often splits journeys at Smethwick Galton Bridge when all Birmingham Stations is the same price.
A trip to Peterborough advises the passenger to change at SGB travel to Birmingham Moor Street then walk to new street to catch a Train to Peterborough. Would paying to New Street and then splitting at Oakham be the same and save a lot of hassle?

This is all because of a problem with the Fujitsu journey planner that I'm required to use to pass accreditation. I'm finding the correct splits, but the planner isn't flexible enough to force the required trains. It keeps trying to find the fastest trains between the various split points, which often causes either (a) problems with minimum connection times which means I have to abandon the split, even though it's valid or (b) the problem of extra connections that you've highlighted.

It's not perfect, I agree. Roll on our new planner and it will be *much* better.

 

[WillPS]

Excellent - will be much easier to recommend doing it all in one place in a few clicks to "norms".

 

[Mike@Raileasy]

Hey Sicky Nicky,

Can't wait to test your new journey planner.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I travel a lot by rail, I'd value the occasional saving when your site saves me money, but I value EC reward points more.

I know I could use your site then book elsewhere, but... Can I use your site to find the splits and then book elsewhere with a clear conscience? Or do you have a 'donate' button for people like me?

Please just spread the word to rail users who might not be as knowledgeable as people on this forum.

And counter this:

there are concerns, for example from Passenger Focus, that split ticketing may give rise to further complexity in a market that is already considered complicated, thus potentially adding to passenger confusion

by commenting on the ORR Retail Review Consultation Doc (where it is from).

Some people are obviously lining up having another go at trying to get it banned.

 

[yorkie]

Passenger Focus are against it? If so, this is further evidence that they are not truly independent and are really in cahoots with the DfT (whose policies are to price people off rail and onto roads).

perhaps someone can do an FOI request to see what Passenger Focus have been up to regarding this?

They really are totally and utterly useless. Anthony Smith is paid a huge salary, for what purpose? What have they actually achieved? All they do is ask for fare rises to be minimised, they don't actually address any of the issues surrounding the erosion of passenger rights.

 

[unlevel42]

Sheffield to Cambridge.
Your site offers no tickets at all and yet there are 5 routes that I regularly use.

 

[greatkingrat]

Sheffield - Cambridge works fine here. What date are you trying? Possibly there might be engineering works on that date that are confusing things?

 

[paul1609]

It doesn't seem to work very well with cross London journeys on Network/ Gold Cards.
Example:
Headcorn to Loughborough same day return with Network Card on Saturday standard fully flexible fare.
Trainsplit fare:
off peak day return with network card discount £2.00 headcorn to staplehurst
super off peak return staplehurst to Loughborough £73.70
Total £75.70
Paul 1609 fare:
off peak day return with network card Headcorn to Bedford £26.65
off peak return Bedford to Loughborough £31.10
Total £57.75

 

[SickyNicky]

It doesn't seem to work very well with cross London journeys on Network/ Gold Cards.
Example:
Headcorn to Loughborough same day return with Network Card on Saturday standard fully flexible fare.
Trainsplit fare:
off peak day return with network card discount £2.00 headcorn to staplehurst
super off peak return staplehurst to Loughborough £73.70
Total £75.70
Paul 1609 fare:
off peak day return with network card Headcorn to Bedford £26.65
off peak return Bedford to Loughborough £31.10
Total £57.75

Yes. The live version doesn't. The version in development does, though.

 

[Mike@Raileasy]

Passenger Focus are against it?

Don't know. They could have been misconstrued. I can see them being concerned about the "average traveller" getting confused about taking different trains than they booked with their split tickets (if they have to). Maybe they are hoping the TOCs remove the "anomalies" and reduce prices?

Splitticketing.com make things pretty clear IMO.

But where I think confusion will occur is if the average traveller starts getting messages like "go to these split ticketing sites to find prices but book them with us, it'll be cheaper". I'm not talking about "experts", I'm talking about the average traveller again.

But by putting this comment in their Consultation Doc, the ORR will be potentially starting up the "ban splits" debate again.

There'll be all the nutter comments like "I don't know how to find splits so they shouldn't be allowed". Which of course is like me saying I don't know how to drive a train so they shouldn't be allowed to run.

But we need to get as many people as possible responding to the ORR by 21st Oct even if it is just countering this comment.