MSE News: Promises of cheaper self-service rail tickets overblown

A question about : MSE News: Promises of cheaper self-service rail tickets overblown

Reforms to give commuters access to the cheapest train fares have been vastly exaggerated, MoneySavingExpert has found...

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Promises of cheaper self-service rail tickets overblown

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Best answers:

• Not surprised.
  Let's be honest, did anyone expect the machines to do ticket splits?
• Exactly, most self-service machines only sell tickets originating from that station, making split ticketing impossible.
  Even when the new code for train operators is fully implemented train operators will only be required to 'promote' all of the fares available from machines. The first step will be for machines to advise if a potentially cheaper fare is available from the ticket office. What if your local station is one of the many where the ticket office has been closed or had opening hours cut?
  Yes, this is really putting the passenger first!
• Why can't Britain introduce train ticket machines similar to the German ones, which allow you to access any train ticket that you can buy online through the bahn.de website. This includes trains to or from other stations, and future dated advance fares. If Germany can do it why can't Britain?
• MSE has been a bit slow in realising that all that is to be done on a short term basis is to direct people to ticket offices by notices, as that was included in the initial reporting elsewhere.
• 4 and a half year of Government inaction and then this. Is there an election coming up? :-)
• It's also that ticket machines are designed to be simple and fast. If you make them too slow or too complicated, large queues can build up in peak times. You don't want the people who are buying split-ticket boat-train tickets to Ireland to hold up 50 grumpy commuters behind them - better that those people do it on the web (or on a 'web ticket kiosk' in a quiet corner of the station) where they aren't in the way of everyone else.
  In some senses the sticker is a help, then... makes clear that a FastTicket machine is like a fast food restaurant - a limited selection of tickets served quickly, go elsewhere for a wider range.
  Having said that, unmanned stations or those with limited opening hours should have 'full service' machines selling all tickets.
  And as far as the fares system goes, you can have cheap or simple, pick one. In Switzerland the fares system is simple. Every (domestic) ticket is flexible, there are no 'off peak' or 'advance' fares. But they're all eyewateringly expensive. Not sure we want that here.
  Here, there are multiple companies so there is choice. For instance, both Virgin and London Midland go between London and Crewe. You can travel on a London Midland train and pay much less, but take an extra hour. This is useful if you're on a budget, and wouldn't exist in a Swiss-style system. In other countries you'd pay extra for an Intercity train - it's just the same as here, only we call the fast train 'Virgin' instead of 'Intercity'. In Germany for instance the fast trains are run by a different bit of Deutsche Bahn (DB Fernverkehr) than the regional trains (DB Regio) - which is just like Virgin v London Midland. The only thing here is we don't paint all our trains red.
• Is no one questioning why there is still no rail e-tickets system?
  Needing a piece of paper to prove you have paid should be confined to history.
  I use an unmanned station with no machine and it can take me longer to get that piece of paper at the end of the journey than the journey took! I am in possession of that piece of paper for as long as it takes to walk 10m to a ticket barrier at which point the machine retains it as proof I have left.