Cost of trains

sailbatten

I have just booked a ticket from London to Leeds for tomorrow.
1. Booked it at the Kings Cross counter the cost would have been £84.00.
2. Booked it at the Kings Cross machine the cost would have been £54.00.
3. Booked on line at National Rail Enquiries it would have cost £42.00
4. I paid £27.70 on thetraineline.com and it is before 10.30am!
This is totally unacceptable. Why so many prices for the same journey!

Premier_2

Well done you! :T

Welcome to MSE. Hopefully you'll soon be saving more money on everything now

terryya

Next time don't book on the trainline, use a rail companies website direct, and you'll save a little bit more!

McKneff

Way of the world now I'm afraid.
Everybodys at it.

KeithP

sailbatten wrote: »

I have just booked a ticket from London to Leeds for tomorrow.
1. Booked it at the Kings Cross counter the cost would have been £84.00.
2. Booked it at the Kings Cross machine the cost would have been £54.00.
3. Booked on line at National Rail Enquiries it would have cost £42.00
4. I paid £27.70 on thetraineline.com and it is before 10.30am!
This is totally unacceptable. Why so many prices for the same journey!

You could've paid less than £27.70 at Kings Cross counter if you had done your research beforehand.
In other words, you can buy exactly the same ticket at a ticket office and, as Terryya says, avoid the trainline's charges.

Humphrey10

sailbatten wrote: »

This is totally unacceptable. Why so many prices for the same journey!

You've now got a ticket that forces you to use a particular seat (so if you are surrounded by screaming babies or noisy children or sitting next to someone with terrible BO you cannot move) on a particular train (so if you are delayed on the way to the station you've lost your money, if you get to the station early and see an empty train going to your destination you can't get on it, and you can't decide you want more time at the station because you met someone you know there or because you want to use the shop).

If I'm going on a long train journey (eg London to Leeds!) there is no way I would risk a ticket that forces me to use a specific train or seat, I don't mind paying more to get a better ticket. That's why there are different options, so everyone has a choice.

dzug1

It's not the same journey

1 is a walk on ticket - buy on the day if you wish and valid on any superoffpeak train. You don't need to decide which until you get on it.
Haven't a clue about 2 - it's not in the list of fares. Do ticket machines sell tickets for the next day anyway? I didn't think they did but ICBW
3 is an advance fare - why National Rail showed you this rather than the cheaper one I don't know - maybe a glitch, maybe you were looking at different trains which are not all the same price.
4 if that price includes thetrainline's booking fee, then you could have saved that by booking on any train company's website and you should have been able to buy it at Kings Cross booking office. Why you weren't offered it might have been because of what you asked for. Book on East Coast's website and you'd have saved another 10% off.

Altarf

Humphrey10 wrote: »

You've now got a ticket that forces you to use a particular seat

No it doesn't. A seat reservation does not oblige you to sit in that seat. You can choose to either sit it your reserved seat or any other unreserved seat on the train (and I frequently do).

moonrakerz

Altarf wrote: »

No it doesn't. A seat reservation does not oblige you to sit in that seat. You can choose to either sit it your reserved seat or any other unreserved seat on the train (and I frequently do).

You may get asked for your seat reservation on the train, but that is to check that you are on the correct train. I rarely sit in my reserved seat and have never had it queried.

Humphrey10

I thought the ticket inspectors can (not saying they always will, but they can if they want) charge you if you have an advance ticket and refuse to sit in your designated seat?

'Where applicable, you must travel in the Class and reserved seat(s) shown on the ticket(s).'
From here:
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/advance_conditions.html

DaveMacD

Generally speaking, if you have a reservation, but there are unreserved seats, you can sit somewhere else. But if you sit in a reserved seat, and the person who reserved it gets on the train, you have to move. It's also a pain for everyone else if you decide to sit somewhere else as there is then a reserved seat that no-one knows is not wanted, and stops other folk from taking it.