Train ticket frustrations...
pdstsp
Posts: 1,264
I'm in the happy position of having been granted a pass by Mrs pdstsp to ride from Dunkirk to Perpignan in June. Sorted the route and most accommodation and transport back on the European Bike Express so good to go. All I needed was a return ticket for me and the iron horse to get from Liverpool to Dover and back.
So a couple of weeks ago I got on National Rail Enquiries and found a train which served the purpose for the outward leg and tried to book it, but travelling with a bike wasn't an on-line option. Instead I was advised to ring the Virgin trains booking service. Got through and was told that there was only one bike space and it was subject to availability. "That's fine" I said and asked to book the train and bike space, to be told that I had to buy the ticket before they could check the bike space availability and that, if the space was not available, they would not refund the ticket price as it was an advanced ticket!! "That's b@ll@cks" I said. In the end I had to travel into Liverpool Lime Street to be told by the Virgin help desk that they could not help me and I had to go to the station ticket office and there was sold a Virgin ticket on the desired train with bike space by a man dressed in Northern Rail uniform. Very strange.
Today I booked the return ticket. Before going in to Lime Street I checked the price on line - 2nd class for the 11.45 departure from Dover was £23.50 arriving Liverpool after 3 changes at 16.10 or £70.50 for the 11.45 arriving after 2 changes at 16.15 - three times the price to arrive 5 minutes later!!
As the Bike Express cannot guarantee arrival times they suggest buying open singles but these cost £195 - or 8 times the amount of the cheaper fare on the 11.45!
Glad I don't travel on the trains too much - it would drive me nuts just buying the sodding tickets.
Rant over.
So a couple of weeks ago I got on National Rail Enquiries and found a train which served the purpose for the outward leg and tried to book it, but travelling with a bike wasn't an on-line option. Instead I was advised to ring the Virgin trains booking service. Got through and was told that there was only one bike space and it was subject to availability. "That's fine" I said and asked to book the train and bike space, to be told that I had to buy the ticket before they could check the bike space availability and that, if the space was not available, they would not refund the ticket price as it was an advanced ticket!! "That's b@ll@cks" I said. In the end I had to travel into Liverpool Lime Street to be told by the Virgin help desk that they could not help me and I had to go to the station ticket office and there was sold a Virgin ticket on the desired train with bike space by a man dressed in Northern Rail uniform. Very strange.
Today I booked the return ticket. Before going in to Lime Street I checked the price on line - 2nd class for the 11.45 departure from Dover was £23.50 arriving Liverpool after 3 changes at 16.10 or £70.50 for the 11.45 arriving after 2 changes at 16.15 - three times the price to arrive 5 minutes later!!
As the Bike Express cannot guarantee arrival times they suggest buying open singles but these cost £195 - or 8 times the amount of the cheaper fare on the 11.45!
Glad I don't travel on the trains too much - it would drive me nuts just buying the sodding tickets.
Rant over.
0
Comments
-
yes my bro booked a ticket on line for a conference thing he's going to and there was a difference of 16+£ for a train that left 3 minutes later and had one fewer stop. do they have some form of adult entertainment on board they cant openly advertise in public - is that what youre paying for
. The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns
momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.0 -
Sounds like it would be easier to post your bike with a courier to where you need to go. :roll:
A couple of years back I took Mrs Slog to Newquay for a few days on a surprise hol, train there but fly back. Because it was LOTS cheaper not to have any luggage other than the carry-on for the plane, I posted some of our stuff home on the day we left. Cost a few quid as opposed to the about £45 it would have cost to take it as plane passengers.
The trains are a bit of a joke in this country. I think when I booked the above the prices ranged from £60 to around £1000 for the two of us. How I laughed.
The older I get, the better I was.0 -
You can often half the cost of the tickets by splitting them. Eg commonly a restricted saver return from Leeds to Birmingham will cost £90 in peak hours but unrestricted returns to Sheffield, Shefffield - Derby and Derby to Birmingham will come out at £50 or less even if booked quite late. You just need to identify places that both out and return trains stop at and experiment. Yes, we have a system whereby the cost per mile increases the longer the journey......Faster than a tent.......0
-
Ticket buying is nothing compared with some of the routing options the TOCs suggest...
Hove - Leeds (for example)
The best route is to hop on a stopper to Brighton, then get the Bedford service, get off at St Pancras, wander across the road to Kings Cross and get the ECML to Leeds
I've had all sorts of suggestions - Go to Victoria and take the tube to Kings X. Go to Reading (!!!) then Paddington, then Kings X
Best one is to take the route I outlined above, but alight at London Bridge (two stops before St Pancras) then take the tube to Kings Cross St Pancras... 'kin idiots0 -
Glad they're not just picking on me then!! Have to say the staff at the station were great - all sorted in seconds - helped that he was a cyclist too and had even more complaints about the way cyclists are treated on the railway.
Rolf F - thanks for the tip - if I ever get another pass from the mrs I'll try that system - though actually I got the tickets very cheaply in the end - it was the ridiculous booking system which got to me especially the bit on the Virgin trains helpline about having to take a gamble and book the train not knowing if the bike space was taken!
Couple of years ago I did LEJoG and booked the outward train to LE and home from JoG and the whole process took roughly an hour and a half in the ticket office as each booking progressed until the train place page came up and showed no availability - the lady in the ticket office wasn't a cyclist and,I suspect, hated us all ever after.0 -
Just been booking tickets for various bits of a bike tour around France including three rail journeys for four people. A nightmare over there as well ...0
-
Just been booking tickets for various bits of a bike tour around France including three rail journeys for four people. A nightmare over there as well ...0
-
book all train trips via www.eastcoast.co.uk irrespective of who you travel with as you can book bike spaces online there, even though the company you are travelling with won't let you on their own websiteWant to know the Spen666 behind the posts?
Then read MY BLOG @ http://www.pebennett.com
Twittering @spen_6660 -
Cheers for that spen666 - if only I'd known.0
-
Some years back, I took the missus to the opera at the Royal Albert Hall, as you do.
Got off the train at Euston and headed for the London Travel / Tourist Information booth on the station, with a hope of learning the best/cheapest/least walking route.
The nice lady there then proceeded to give me an itinery that would have been worthy of the Krypton Factor.
As I struggled to bank all this information, a chap said, "Catch the No 12 bus from outside the station and it will drop you off at the door"0 -
i had a similar situation when i bought my look. cant be bought online so i had to get up to sheffield. decided to do it by train as that seemed easiest with the bike and all, but the ass ache of trying to book aretunr ticket and bike space on the train was ridiculous. in the end i gave up and we drove up in the old mand pick-up truck. which was a bit of a killer drive there and back.
the one good thing about greater anglia trains is that they are good on bikes (so long as you are not on an intercity norwich service, when i think you are restricted to the guards carraige and there is a strict limit (i think). on the non intercity type non slam door trains, there is no restrictions and its very easy and bike friendly.0 -
You get plenty of time on the train for your money on Greater Anglia too...0
-
very true, in yesterdays essex chroncile though there was an article where they claim they are the most punctual since the franchise was set up back in the 90's! unbelivable and self proclaimed. maybe for off peak. but their peak time trains are often a joke. i look forward to a hot summer with the overhead lines expanding and bringing chaos.0
-
I didn't think they could be worse than the previous franchisee but I was sadly mistaken. If the claim in the EC is true then call me Marjorie0
