advance train tickets online - need to travel at exact times booked?

robotman_3

There is a difference between advance train tickets and train tickets bought in advance.

cheers that has hit the nail on the head.

the reason I was confused at some of these replies was because I often buy tickets in 'advance' and have used them on different trains than planned, but obviously these tickets are not actually advance tickets.

When you buy tickets in advance through thetrainline.com or whatever, you select exact times, even if what you are getting is a standard off-peak return - its just a bit misleading, personally I think the difference, and limitations, between a ticket bought in advance, and an advance ticket, should be made clearer on these sites.

SandC

If you've bought an advance ticket and it has the time and date of the train on it, it will also have the price you paid.

I recently decided to chance an earlier train back from Manchester (only to Stoke). The ticket guy spotted it straight away and told me I had to pay full fare, then 'borrowed' one from a lady sitting opposite to prove that I now owed nearly £100!!!!!! Turns out she was going all the way to London from Manc and he had just seen the time and date and that it had only cost me £9. He said it was fine and apologised profusely.

Problem was then the people in front had the exact same problem, cept they were going all the way to London, swore they'd been told they could go earlier.

I think basically if you are booked on an advance fare and you take another train be prepared to have to pay. The bigger the bargain you got the more egg on your face you are likely to get. It doesn't make massive sense when there are obviously seats free but they only produce so many cheap tickets. The discretion of the ticket guy is utmost here.

chuckley

robotman wrote: »

cheers that has hit the nail on the head.

the reason I was confused at some of these replies was because I often buy tickets in 'advance' and have used them on different trains than planned, but obviously these tickets are not actually advance tickets.

When you buy tickets in advance through thetrainline.com or whatever, you select exact times, even if what you are getting is a standard off-peak return - its just a bit misleading, personally I think the difference, and limitations, between a ticket bought in advance, and an advance ticket, should be made clearer on these sites.

whys it confusing though??

each type of ticket states its advance type...

moonrakerz

dzug1 wrote: »

There is a difference between advance train tickets and train tickets bought in advance.

Come on folks ! They changed the names on all the tickets earlier in the year so that ticketing would be simplified and we would all understand them. :D

IDEA: Why don't they call an advance "advance" an APEX, this would distinguish it from an ordinary "advance" - if you see what I mean.

robotman_3

whys it confusing though??

because it is. the british rail network is sh*t. they might have tried to simplify the ticketing but personally I haven't noticed much of a difference, its still a mess. they could learn a thing or two about how to run things from Japan or Sweden.

Voyager2002

robotman wrote: »

because it is. the british rail network is sh*t. they might have tried to simplify the ticketing but personally I haven't noticed much of a difference, its still a mess. they could learn a thing or two about how to run things from Japan or Sweden.

It is really not that bad.

I appreciate the choice between flexibility and low cost. If I am willing to book in advance and commit to a specific train I can make long journeys for absurdly low prices. However, the railway could not operate if all passengers were paying so little, and so you have the option of buying flexible tickets at a higher price: ideal for business travel (when someone else is generally paying). The only other ways to do things are to charge generally low fares and subsidise the railway from general taxation (which I would like, but most people would not) or go back to the way things used to be, and make all passengers pay absurdly high fares.

The real problem is with the on-line booking system (all the companies essentially use the interface developed by TheTrainline). If you buy an 'advance purchase' ticket it clearly shows which train you have chosen. However, if you buy a flexible ticket it shows the train on which you have a reserved seat. Even worse, when you are buying flexible tickets it only offers you the trains on which reserved seats are available, and does not distinguish between (i) trains that you could use with that ticket, but not have a reserved seat; and (ii) trains for which that ticket is not valid.

Perhaps we need to get used to buying tickets from stations: I find that the booking office staff at my local station understand the fare rules and the various options.

Gavioli_UK

Voyager2002 wrote: »

It is really not that bad.

It really is when compared on how railways (and other public transport) is run in other Western European countries.

Oldernotwiser

Gavioli_UK wrote: »

Voyager2002 wrote: »

It is really not that bad.

It really is when compared on how railways (and other public transport) is run in other Western European countries.

Agreed in many ways but the bookings and conditions are rarely simpler!

robt_2

The grass is always greener on the other side eh?

Try living in rural France and trying out the train service, then come back and say it is better.

Voyager2002

Gavioli_UK wrote: »

Voyager2002 wrote: »

It is really not that bad.

It really is when compared on how railways (and other public transport) is run in other Western European countries.

I used to think so, but in many ways the UK comes out quite well of most comparisons.

For example, Italian trains cost virtually nothing, and are fast, frequent and comfortable. The tax-payer meets the cost, of course. Basic rate of income tax there is more than forty per cent, not to mention sales tax on most things you buy and a range of other taxes as well. Of course, there is lots of cheating. If you bear in mind the amount of money that each person pays in taxes towards the railway system, I am not sure that they get better value for money than we do.

Or Germany. An impressive system in many ways, and with cheap advance purchase tickets but sky-high walk-on fares. Some-one did a systematic comparison of the price per kilometre and found that on that basis, UK advance-purchase tickets (no flexibility) actually cost a little less than those in Germany. And things do go wrong there sometimes. And my experience in Belgium is that their railway system is even more clapped-out and unreliable than Britain at its worst.