Buying train tickets online.

[bbishop]

I keep my Grumpy pass (aka Freedom pass) and my Oyster card in a plastic wallet.  I need the latter for occasional train travel before 09:30am.  But if I attempt to use the Grumpy pass when they are both in the wallet, the Oyster card is likely to be debited.  So I have to take the Grumpy pass out of the wallet.

 

Bill

[roundhouse]

The prblem with Oyster card type cars is that you really need to have them auto top up or auto charge your credit card to allow you to buy tickets online.

 

However due to having my Oyster taken off me at Victoria underground due to it being' stolen' when it wasn't there is no way I will trust this system again.

 

Southern have just launched a new card called 'The Key' but it is only valid in certain areas which runs out before the South London area.

 

Regarding barriers, I understand the need to protect revenue so generally I think these are for the good but they need to be more reliable.

 

Places such as Merstham have two barriers  for people getting onto and off the platform on the opposite side to the booking office and unless you are first off the train in the evening peak, its quicker to go to Redhill for us as people end up queuing for some time to get off the platform at Merstham especially if some one wants to get on to the platform or has a problem with their ticket.

 

A lot of TOCs are using the excuse that its for safety and security of passengers but this cant be the case as they are left open and unmanned just when you could do with this safety late at night. its purely an  excuse for revenue protection.

 

Coming back to the self service machines, quite often many of these are out of use. A recent Sunday I went to renew my season ticket but with only one ticket window open there was a long queue with many booking reservations queries etc that any one wanting a ticket had a long wait. Only one ticket machine was working for anyone who was happy to use them (The ticket staff at our station are very good so no criticism there). I came back later but still had to wait 20 minutes to get my season ticket again with many people with queries that the ticket machines (only one out of use by this time) cant answer.

 

I contacted the TOC but were told that only one machine was out of order all day according to their monitoring system so this was clearly not accurate.

 

Also their reply was that the revenue taken at the ticket window didn't justify o=more than one person on a Sunday. So the TOC clearly doesn't want to deal with people wanting reservations or general ticketing queries or group bookings (this person did attempt to use the ticket machines but soon gave up).

 

Ian