Three ridiculous rail ticket restrictions

Saturday 2nd September 2023

1. Tickets “not available“

Passengers using LNER’s website to book rail tickets will be familiar with the “not available” indicator on certain journeys when tickets have allegedly sold out.

You might be forgiven for wondering how can that be, on what is supposed to be a walk-up-and-travel railway? Because it’s not just discount priced tickets booked in advanced when the allotted number have been sold, but even flexible anytime or off-peak tickets can sometimes be marked “not available”.

And the same thing happens if you arrive at Kings Cross and try and use an LNER ticket vending machine to buy an anytime or off-peak single. You can’t just simply ‘buy a ticket’ from these machines. You first have to navigate the ticket machine’s insistence on going through its journey planning requirement, specifying your destination which then gives you train times which you then have to select and only when you come to actually press the ‘purchase’ tab does it decline to sell you a ticket stating ‘mandatory reservations are required for this train and there aren’t any reservations left’.

But here’s the thing, which my friend Geoff realised last weekend when he was trying to get to Edinburgh and his easyJet flight had been cancelled and websites and ticket vending machines refused to sell him a ticket ……. if you nip over the road to St Pancras and use an EMR, southeastern, or Thameslink ticket vending machine you can simply buy a standard anytime or off-peak single from Kings Cross (or indeed St Pancras by “any permitted route” – ie from Kings Cross) to Edinburgh and there’s none of this “not available” nonsense.

In the event Geoff popped into the ticket office at Kings Cross (aka the Travel Centre) and asked the human being for an off-peak single to Edinburgh which of course the member of staff happily sold him and when he asked which train that was for, was told “any train”. He boarded the next departing train (which had been showing the “not available” tickets – the 10:00 to Aberdeen) and easily found unoccupied seats including some marked “may be reserved later” – hardly, if tickets are all “not available”.

Geoff reckoned only around 85% of seats were taken which just makes you think most passengers would be put off buying a ticket and travelling, thinking the information on the website and ticket vending machine was the last word on the subject resulting in a loss of business for the railway and a perception among occasional travellers it’s all too difficult to travel by train.

2. A (Seat)frog in the throat

Recent experiences have left me completely disillusioned with the first class upgrade app run by Seatfrog. I blogged my concerns at the company’s modus operandi in its early days and I remain unconvinced it works in the interests of passengers rather than the app owners, not least following yet another disappointing experience on Thursday of last week when travelling from St Pancras to Chesterfield.

I made the minimum £13 bid the previous evening and noted there’s now a £3 charge that goes to Seatfrog presumably in addition to any commission from the train companies on the £13.

I was the only bidder and was “winning” right up until the auction closed half an hour before the train departure at 08:32…

… only to receive an email telling me “it looks like you missed out on an upgrade” and rubbing salt into the wound by telling me to “bid early” and “don’t wait until the auction is open“. What’s the point if the one bid Seatfrog receive is ignored?

I checked the two and a half coaches dedicated to first class (yes, that many) on the seven coach train as we left St Pancras. Absolutely no one was in any of the 202 first class seats. I saw one passenger join at Leicester. So what was the point of all that? It’s a total waste of time.

3. The Southern ticket you can only buy from another train company’s ticket office

Southern Railway offers a great off-peak bargain ticket called a Southern DaySave. It’s not valid before 10:00 M-F with evening peak restrictions from VIC/CLJ/ECR/LBG) otherwise with Rover/Ranger type ticket validity across the entire Southern network and for £23.50 represents a real bargain. There are also Group and accompanied children deals too. But the Southern Railway website advises the ticket can only be purchased online from its website and then requires at least three days notice during which it can be collected from a ticket machine. It also states if your journey starts from another train operator’s station – eg Southampton or Ashford, I assume – you have to buy it online at least five days in advance so it can be posted out to you.

But, the odd thing is the website states you can actually buy a Southern DaySave ticket over the counter at Visitor Information Centres in Eastbourne, Lewes, Seaford and Hastings but not from the rail stations in the same towns and even more oddly, you can buy the ticket from any other train operating company’s ticket office where they will happily sell you one … it’s only Southern ticket offices that are unable to sell the ticket to you.

How bizarre.

My conclusions from the foregoing are (a) LNER needs to change its ticket machines to easily sell flexible (any-time/off-peak etc) tickets rather than journey specific ones and stop this “not available” nonsense; (b) Seatfrog need to be more transparent and upfront about how many first class upgrades its offering on each journey and (c) Southern need to start selling its own DaySave tickets from its own ticket offices as everybody else is selling them (and also, heavily market the ticket too rather than hide it away on its website).

Roger French

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