June 2022 Rail Strikes

daveyjp

If someone on MSE wanted to buy a ticket for a Ryanair flight and the suggestion was to buy it through a travel agent charging extra they woukd no doubt be rounded upon and told, 'why bother, just book on the  Ryanair website'.

Trainline are the equivalent of the travel agent, but slick marketing means users don't see it that way.  No one I know who has any knowledge of railways uses them.

Even my daughter who has just started using trains knows Trainline are best avoided and always books with our local operator.

johnbhoy70

I get that now. It was a genuine question. Even the original post in this thread, whom i'm guessing from what they've said are more seasoned and experienced train users than us, mentions it. I'm sure you would have been on hand to advise your daughter if she had asked you. 

Upsidedownandaround

As Davey says it's just basically the power of advertising and marketing.

You have to give them credit though they have created a billion pound company by taking a product that can be bought direct from any train operator for free then selling it to people for a fee whilst in the process allowing them to use all that data they have harvested to become one of the biggest data companies in the travel industry.