You’ll be lucky!

I had to attend a funeral in Kent a week or so back. We went and collected our online tickets from the machine the night before just in case there was a queue in the morning. I asked the railway employee collecting tickets at the barrier if this ticket would take us all the way there as implied by the print out itinery but he said that tube trains are not trains? and we would have to buy a separate ticket for that part of the journey.I was shocked as I felt this was not made clear but he was adamant we would have to buy a separate ticket from Euston to London Bridge.

In all we asked about four different railway people and none really knew for definate.
My sister was convinced that we could use our ticket for the whole journey as she had done so herself a few months earlier and she was correct as it turned out.

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I think you will find that the implementation of this scheme depends on the ticket facilities which exist (or which don’t exist) at the station where you board your train. If there is a ticket office open and manned when you reach the station, then you should use it. If you don’t, then you run the risk of having to pay a surcharge when you then buy your ticket on the train.

Exceptions to this would be if the platform machine is out of order, ticket office is closed unexpectedly or there is an appalling queue.

The last mentioned situation often happens at Ludlow where some old dear decides
she wants to plan a convoluted rail journey for two months hence at 8.30am. And she’ll have her information irrespective of how long it takes. The ticket staff there don’t have the commonsense to tell her to take herself off for a cup of tea and a Bath bun; and come back when the ticket office is less crowded.

In fairness to the old dear the one causing the “jam” can equally be a selfish, spoilt sixteen year old with his mobile glued firmly to his ear, who arrived late at the station, leaving his mother to sort out train times and related matters for him at the counter – as happened this week past. Again they should have been told to wait.

If the Train Operating Companies had stations which were fully staffed with competent booking office staff, then you really would have no excuse not to purchase a ticket BEFORE you travel. But they don’t – to save money. The result is the guard on the train gets overwhelmed with passengers wanting to buy tickets and then to counter this in come the penalty surcharges,

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Short answer is it depends on the train staff and how they’re feeling that day. I regularly commute from Wellington-Telford and over the last few months I have seen one person fined on the spot, yet the same fine staff member the very next day allowed a couple to purchase tickets near me without as much as a warning. The system is a joke. Incidentally, whilst I’m ranting, local stations also leave a lot to be desired, Telford platforms, smokers regularly ignore signs, Wellington station, ticket machine slow, hence queues. Also, no indoor waiting area as the ticket office space that could be used is cordoned off and when asked, no valid reason was given from the station staff.

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