I am going to Burton from London and have just had my return ticket delivered.......and it comprises of 10 seperate tickets/other things printed onto ticket shaped bits of card.
FFS.
FFS.
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Rail in this country
- Thread starter Herr Tubthumper
- Start date
Tony Meolas Loan Spell
Slut Faced Whores
Yep indeed, same here when I got my Brum, Ipswich and Boro train tix.
Think yourself lucky that it worked out cheaper than driving. I have to go to Bedford occasionally and it actually works out cheaper for me to hire a car and pay the petrol than it does to take the train.
- Thread starter
- #4
It's mental. Half of the bits of paper say 'Only valid with.....' i.e. one of the other bits of paper, the other half say 'No valid for travel'.
What's wrong with a single ticket and a receipt?
The Albion have suggested using a single integrated card for travel and getting into games. This idea seems total fantasy compared to the former rain forest which has just landed in my mit.
- Thread starter
- #5
True. And a very sad state of affairs. On a similar tip because of the ludicrously high cost of bus travel due to the recent increase it is now cheaper for me to get a taxi from Hove to the city centre if me and Frau have someone with us. 3 is cheaper, and we're onto a huge saving if there are 4 of us. Totally wrong.
Don't get me started on the buses! It now costs £16 for the four of us to get from Fiveways to Churchill Square and back. £16! The only bit of good news is I think we can save about 50p if we're anal enough to plan it weeks in advance and buy the tickets online. It makes the £5 an hour to park (which I know they charge in one of the car parks because I've paid it) look like good value in comparison.
- Thread starter
- #7
£16 for a family to go the centre of town. Jesus.
It is a direct result of 40 years of dire under-investment (prior to the last decade).
Personally, I'd have less of a problem paying the stomach churning price hikes if the service was nationalised as at least I'd KNOW that the money being raised wasn't being used to satisfy shareholders in a horrendously uncompetitive privatised industry. I'm not actually expecting noticeable improvements in the service for another decade or so, as turning around the appalling 40 years of neglect is going to take a long time - it's like turning an oil tanker.
Personally, I'd have less of a problem paying the stomach churning price hikes if the service was nationalised as at least I'd KNOW that the money being raised wasn't being used to satisfy shareholders in a horrendously uncompetitive privatised industry. I'm not actually expecting noticeable improvements in the service for another decade or so, as turning around the appalling 40 years of neglect is going to take a long time - it's like turning an oil tanker.
Barrel of Fun
Abort, retry, fail
It is ludicrous, isn't it? Will we have Lord B defending the prices as he normally does?
Go Ahead profits up as bus travel booms - Business News - News - nebusiness.co.uk - profit of £115m.
It seems Go Ahead are doing rather well for themselves.
Thankfully, due to my dodgy hearing, I qualify for free bus travel after 0930 all over the UK :smug:
On the other side of the coin the bus to Tunbridge Wells is really good value. Even after the increase it's only £6 per person, so it costs £4 to go to Churchill Square and back but only £6 to go to Tunbridge Wells and back! If just me and the wife (who was asking after you the other day) go to visit a friend who lives there it's only £12 which is probably on a par with the petrol cost.
The downside is it's an incredibly frustrating journey as the bus keeps stopping (yes I know that's what it's supposed to do) and making little detours. Plus buses aren't designed for long journeys and the seats play havoc with my back. Fortunately on the return journey I'm usually well 'refreshed' and don't notice it so much.
- Thread starter
- #11
I remember all the back slapping and 'told you so' comments after the first few years of RailTrack and their huge profits. No one had bothered to check if they had actually done any maintenance though. I'm sure I would have also made a profit if the government gave me a heap of cash and I did not spend any of it. Sadly it took a crash and a few deaths to highlight this.
- Thread starter
- #12
Anyway, my lovely black leather man-purse has come into its own carrying this heap of card which is my rail ticket.
Agree with OP, number of orange/yellow "tickets" they issue is stupid.
Going to Brum last weekend was a bargain £23 return including reserved seats from Euston and vice versa.
The ticket collector came around and I offered her my ticket and she said that wasn't the ticket only my reserved seats confirmation. (As if they would give us reserved seats if we hadn't bought tickets).
When I looked the "reserved seats ticket" said Euston to Brum and vice versa and actual tickets were Brighton to Birmingham and vice versa and also had same looking tickets for Brighton to London Bridge and vice versa.
So for two of us to Brum and back I had 12 individual orange/yellow tickets. Bonkers.
And don't even get me started with row I had with blonde piece who got on at East Croydon going up!!!!
Going to Brum last weekend was a bargain £23 return including reserved seats from Euston and vice versa.
The ticket collector came around and I offered her my ticket and she said that wasn't the ticket only my reserved seats confirmation. (As if they would give us reserved seats if we hadn't bought tickets).
When I looked the "reserved seats ticket" said Euston to Brum and vice versa and actual tickets were Brighton to Birmingham and vice versa and also had same looking tickets for Brighton to London Bridge and vice versa.
So for two of us to Brum and back I had 12 individual orange/yellow tickets. Bonkers.
And don't even get me started with row I had with blonde piece who got on at East Croydon going up!!!!
- Thread starter
- #14
We jumped on Virgin train to Brum and at the start and at Watford there was a 5 minute speech about which tickets were valid, which weren't, and which could be valid if you paid a supplement. On top of that there was lengthy announcements about a Shrewsbury bus replacement and the person on the intercom read out lists and lists of different train and bus times. It's insane. Do the people running these services ever stop and think?
sten_super
Brain Surgeon
The whole system is useless. From here you can take two routes into London - to Kings Cross or Liverpool Street. However, the services are run by different operators (First Capital Connect to Kings X and National Express to Liverpool Street) and as such have different prices. On the ticket machines all it does is says 'NX return to London' or 'Return to London' (I kid you not) - how the feck is anyone who isn't a regular meant to know the difference? On more than one occasion my missus has bought the wrong ticket and they've tried to give us penalties when getting off at Kings X, it's ridiculous.
To be fair, at least the fares to London are reasonable (£20 for a return or £14 for a day return, with a network rail card). If you want to get anywhere else on the train the fees are farcical. Going up to York should be an ideal train journey (2hr30 as preferred to a minimum of 3hr driving, and only one change) but it costs £70 per person! So for me and the missus it's a choice between c£45 petrol money or £140 on the train. Crazy. Similarly a return to Birmingham costs £50 (although you can bizarrely get a single going from here to Birmingham for £11.50 on certain trains - the return single will still cost you £32).
Uter
Well-known member
I almost missed my train to Burton because I got my ticket mixed up with the seat reservation (because they look almost identical) at the barrier. Couldn't they at least make them a different colour? It was like sorting through a deck of cards trying to find the right one.
Then I made the mistake of trying to get through the First Capital Connect turnstiles only to be told the East Coast Trains had their own seperate turnstiles. Different operators all utilise the same ticket barriers at Brighton so why is it different at St Pancras?
Enjoy the tick.
Then I made the mistake of trying to get through the First Capital Connect turnstiles only to be told the East Coast Trains had their own seperate turnstiles. Different operators all utilise the same ticket barriers at Brighton so why is it different at St Pancras?
Enjoy the tick.