Thetrainline.com - Charges

David_Perks

Ever wondered why tickets you buy online seem more expensive than what the screen says? Here's why ....

To buy tickets from the train line, they make surcharges for the following.

Using a debit/credit card - £1
Having your tickets posted 1st class - £1
Collecting your tickets from a Fast Ticket machine - £0.50

It's cheaper to buy tickets from the TOC concerned (IE. Virgin Trains for Virgin West Coast). or use the NXEC site.

juno

I just use Virgin Trains for everything, even when it isn't a Virgin route. The only thing that annoys me is if you're buying several tickets at once they take the money from your bank account separately. So if you're buying 2 singles for £5 each you'll get 2 lots of £5 taken, rather than 1 of £10.

I don't know why it annoys me, but it does.

David_Perks

Well, another thing to remember (and I forgot to post earlier), is that if you book a NXEC journey through the NXEC website, then you can get a 10% discount on tickets if you don't use a railcard.

The_Hawk

Usually, I book my tickets through First ScotRail. You can book any tickets (England, Scotland or Wales), there are no credit / debit card charges, no postage charges, no fast ticket charges and the tickets are sent out very quickly (often arriving next day).

What makes this seem very strange is that tickets purchased through First ScotRail are handled and issued by Trainline.

Go here: http://www.firstgroup.com/scotrail/index.php

custardy

trainline covers loads of companies like scotrail,gner and many more
i deal with returns,complaints etc from my office

David_Perks

custardy wrote: »

trainline covers loads of companies like scotrail,gner and many more
i deal with returns,complaints etc from my office

Towards the end of their franchise, GNER developed a new ticket engine that doesn't use thetrainline. NXEC have continued to use this since they took over. In my opinion, it's a lot better and easier to use than the engine offered by thetrainline.

getting-sorted-sarah

South West trains appear to use the same search as thetrainline, but no charges. Until they start charging, or until thetrainline sees sense, I'll use them!

Voyager2002

David_Perks wrote: »

Towards the end of their franchise, GNER developed a new ticket engine that doesn't use thetrainline. NXEC have continued to use this since they took over. In my opinion, it's a lot better and easier to use than the engine offered by thetrainline.

While it is nice to use, it doesn't always show the lowest fares. I have sometimes found low fares on the FGW and Virgin websites that NXEC did not offer. In particular, NXEC seems rather bad at handling railcard bookings.

alanrowell

custardy wrote: »

trainline covers loads of companies like scotrail,gner and many more

ALL the train websites cover ALL the train companies - so you can use the Virgin website to book NXEC tickets.

HOWEVER they won't show offers - like the NXEC 10% off for it's tickets on it's trains - that are specific to that company.

Therefore the best advice is to find out who operates the route then go through that the website of that company

custardy

alanrowell wrote: »

ALL the train websites cover ALL the train companies - so you can use the Virgin website to book NXEC tickets.

HOWEVER they won't show offers - like the NXEC 10% off for it's tickets on it's trains - that are specific to that company.

Therefore the best advice is to find out who operates the route then go through that the website of that company

im refering to physica;l tickets not the sites
the actual trainline office handles many companies