Weekly season ticket no longer available?

[SquireBev]

Since September I've been travelling to and from work on a weekly season ticket between Birmingham and Worcester, which I've been buying online through London Midland.

Since WMT took over, they don't seem to want to offer me a weekly ticket, and will only sell me a monthly or annual one.

Today though, I was able to buy a weekly ticket from the Virgin-run ticket office at Birmingham New Street. Will I have to do this every week from now on? Will I be penalized for having a ticket which doesn't seem available through the TOC's own website?

What on earth is going on?

 

[westv]

Why weekly tickets? Sounds an expensive option.

 

[ainsworth74]

Today though, I was able to buy a weekly ticket from the Virgin-run ticket office at Birmingham New Street. Will I have to do this every week from now on?

How odd! It does seem like the new website won't sell weekly season tickets anymore! Thankfully it is still possible to do so on other companies websites. GWR for example on their website (click here) still seem to be happy to sell weekly season tickets between Birmingham and Worcester.

Will I be penalized for having a ticket which doesn't seem available through the TOC's own website?

No the fact that the ticket isn't available through their website has no bearing on validity.

 

[Wallsendmag]

How odd! It does seem like the new website won't sell weekly season tickets anymore! Thankfully it is still possible to do so on other companies websites. GWR for example on their website (click here) still seem to be happy to sell weekly season tickets between Birmingham and Worcester.



No the fact that the ticket isn't available through their website has no bearing on validity.

Or the VTEC site will

 

[SquireBev]

Why weekly tickets? Sounds an expensive option.

I work in a school, and don't need to travel during the holidays.

 

[Nippy]

You can buy any length of season from one month to a year, so you can match term times. My dad used to do that before he retired..

 

[SquireBev]

You can buy any length of season from one month to a year, so you can match term times. My dad used to do that before he retired..

I know, but the saving is negligible, and I find that a week is long enough for a ticket before it starts to get dog-eared and upset the barriers at New Street, even when keeping it in its own wallet.

 

[Nippy]

Okey dokey

 

[AY1975]

I know, but the saving is negligible, and I find that a week is long enough for a ticket before it starts to get dog-eared and upset the barriers at New Street, even when keeping it in its own wallet.

In that case, the replacement of the magnetic strip with barcodes (or, better still, with smartcards) can't come soon enough! The existing magnetic strip tickets date from the introduction of the now defunct APTIS ticketing machines in the 1980s, and only the London Underground had ticket gates then. Mind you, annual Travelcards in London would have had to last a year of being put through the barriers!

 

[AY1975]

I've tried looking up a few random journeys on the WMT site, and it offers weekly, monthly, and annual seasons for some journeys, but nothing at all for others, so I can only assume that it was a temporary glitch in the system.

It would appear that the WMT site offers seasons for journeys starting and/or finishing outside the Network West Midlands area, but not for travel wholly within it. For example, Tamworth-Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield-Lichfield, and The Lakes-Stratford upon Avon worked OK, but not Birmingham-Coventry or Rowley Regis-Birmingham. I suspect that Centro PTE is trying to encourage passengers travelling within the NWM area to use Swift smartcards rather than paper season tickets.