On 25/02/2012 01:01, Graham Nye wrote:
On 24/02/2012 19:05, Chris Read wrote:

If I arrive at London Bridge (National Rail) at 07.14 next Wednesday,
how would you rate my chances of getting to Paddington, by cab, for
the 07.45 departure to Cardiff?

I will need to pick up my ticket from a machine at Paddington, unless
I can do that in my four minute connection at Lewes.

Can't you buy tickets for the entire journey at your initial station?
Buying a through ticket should also get you your Tube ticket (shows an
extra + on your ticket) so you won't have to buy that separately.
(At an extortionate £4 each way - Boris doesn't like non-Oystered
non-Londoners passing through his territory.) You could pick your
tickets up in advance to save hassle on the day. (You could also order
them on-line, although you are then committed to which station you
have to collect them from.)



Are you? I've just ordered some tickets on-line and the blurb says:
"Tickets will be available to collect from a self-service ticket machine
at one of 900 UK stations 2 hours after booking."

Certainly in the past, when following a spate of vandalism to the ticket
machines at my then local station it disappeared from the list for
collecting from when booking on-line, I just quoted the next station
down the line and then, having booked the tickets collected them from my
then - no longer shown - home station.


If you can make Lewes 36' earlier you could catch the 05:29 into
London Victoria. That would give you a shorter, single journey on
the Circle line to Paddington, and plenty of time to make it in.

For those favouring the avoid London option note that:
1) the Redhill to Reading service is slow (lots of stops),
2) Sussex trains bypass Redhill, so extra changes are needed to
get there (e.g. Brighton or Gatwick).




--
Moving things in still pictures

"®i©ardo" wrote in message
news
Are you? I've just ordered some tickets on-line and the blurb says:
"Tickets will be available to collect from a self-service ticket machine
at one of 900 UK stations 2 hours after booking."

Certainly in the past, when following a spate of vandalism to the ticket
machines at my then local station it disappeared from the list for
collecting from when booking on-line, I just quoted the next station down
the line and then, having booked the tickets collected them from my then -
no longer shown - home station.

That's right, you can collect from anywhere with a TVM. [1] The purpose of
the selection is solely to make sure you don't make plans to pick up at a
station without one.

[1] Apparently some SN offers must be picked up from their own TVMs.

Paul S

On 29/02/2012 16:58, Paul Scott wrote:

"®i©ardo" wrote:
[snip]
Are you? I've just ordered some tickets on-line and the blurb says:
"Tickets will be available to collect from a self-service ticket
machine at one of 900 UK stations 2 hours after booking."

Certainly in the past, when following a spate of vandalism to the
ticket machines at my then local station it disappeared from the list
for collecting from when booking on-line, I just quoted the next
station down the line and then, having booked the tickets collected
them from my then - no longer shown - home station.

That's right, you can collect from anywhere with a TVM. [1] The purpose
of the selection is solely to make sure you don't make plans to pick up
at a station without one.

Indeed.

From the Trainline's FAQ:
http://help.thetrainline.com/app/ans...ail/a_id/1437/

---quote---
Which stations offer self-service ticket collection?

You don't need to pick up your tickets from the station you selected
when making a booking - You can collect from an enabled machine at any
one of the 1000 stations in the list below.
[...]
---/quote---

It's the same for all the other ticket sites, because this is how the
underlying ticket collection system (somewhat misleadingly named "Ticket
On Departure") works.


[1] Apparently some SN offers must be picked up from their own TVMs.

Though I do remember reading somewhere that despite this supposed
restriction, people had been able to pick up such tickets at non
Southern TVMs (though I wouldn't want to count on it).

In article , (Mizter T) wrote:

On 29/02/2012 16:58, Paul Scott wrote:

"®i©ardo" wrote:
[snip]
Are you? I've just ordered some tickets on-line and the blurb says:
"Tickets will be available to collect from a self-service ticket
machine at one of 900 UK stations 2 hours after booking."

Certainly in the past, when following a spate of vandalism to the
ticket machines at my then local station it disappeared from the list
for collecting from when booking on-line, I just quoted the next
station down the line and then, having booked the tickets collected
them from my then - no longer shown - home station.

That's right, you can collect from anywhere with a TVM. [1] The purpose
of the selection is solely to make sure you don't make plans to pick up
at a station without one.

Indeed.

From the Trainline's FAQ:
http://help.thetrainline.com/app/ans...ail/a_id/1437/

---quote---
Which stations offer self-service ticket collection?

You don't need to pick up your tickets from the station you selected
when making a booking - You can collect from an enabled machine at
any one of the 1000 stations in the list below.
[...]
---/quote---

It's the same for all the other ticket sites, because this is how the
underlying ticket collection system (somewhat misleadingly named
"Ticket On Departure") works.

[1] Apparently some SN offers must be picked up from their own TVMs.

Though I do remember reading somewhere that despite this supposed
restriction, people had been able to pick up such tickets at non
Southern TVMs (though I wouldn't want to count on it).

I could believe SN imposing the restriction because other TOCs would charge
them. That's why Cross Country (with no TVMs) charge for TOD.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On 29/02/2012 16:34, ®i©ardo wrote:
On 25/02/2012 01:01, Graham Nye wrote:

You could pick your
tickets up in advance to save hassle on the day. (You could also order
them on-line, although you are then committed to which station you
have to collect them from.)

Are you?

Well, having read the other replies, apparently not.

The XC website I use, after asking which station you wish to
collect your ticket from, says:

"Collect your ticket(s) from the ticket machine at [nominated station]."

Then gives the same message on the confirmation screen. There's no
suggestion that you can use other (connected) ticket machines.
But thanks for the tip.


--
Graham Nye
news(a)thenyes.org.uk

In article ,
(Graham Nye) wrote:

On 29/02/2012 16:34, ®i©ardo wrote:
On 25/02/2012 01:01, Graham Nye wrote:

You could pick your
tickets up in advance to save hassle on the day. (You could also order
them on-line, although you are then committed to which station you
have to collect them from.)

Are you?

Well, having read the other replies, apparently not.

The XC website I use, after asking which station you wish to
collect your ticket from, says:

"Collect your ticket(s) from the ticket machine at [nominated
station]."

Then gives the same message on the confirmation screen. There's no
suggestion that you can use other (connected) ticket machines.
But thanks for the tip.

XC is an exception because they have no stations of their own. What are they
charging you for TOD?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 18:11:46
on Wed, 29 Feb 2012, remarked:
XC is an exception because they have no stations of their own.

Which results in anomalies like Burton on Trent, where every passenger
train is operated by XC, but the station by EMT. There used to be one
EMT train a day (via Derby to London) but that seems to have been
withdrawn). Stamford, on the other hand, still has three EMT trains a
day, but all the rest are XC.
--
Roland Perry

wrote in message ...

In article ,
(Graham Nye) wrote:

On 29/02/2012 16:34, ®i©ardo wrote:
On 25/02/2012 01:01, Graham Nye wrote:

You could pick your
tickets up in advance to save hassle on the day. (You could also order
them on-line, although you are then committed to which station you
have to collect them from.)

Are you?

Well, having read the other replies, apparently not.

The XC website I use, after asking which station you wish to
collect your ticket from, says:

"Collect your ticket(s) from the ticket machine at [nominated
station]."

Then gives the same message on the confirmation screen. There's no
suggestion that you can use other (connected) ticket machines.
But thanks for the tip.

XC is an exception because they have no stations of their own. What are
they
charging you for TOD?

XC only charge for TOD collection when there is a print at home alternative
available (which is free). Essentially that is for advance tickets that are
only valid on XC services. For any open tickets or tickets valid on more
than one TOC, you can still use TOD for free.

Peter Smyth

On 29/02/2012 21:44, Graham Nye wrote:
On 29/02/2012 16:34, ®i©ardo wrote:
On 25/02/2012 01:01, Graham Nye wrote:

You could pick your
tickets up in advance to save hassle on the day. (You could also order
them on-line, although you are then committed to which station you
have to collect them from.)

Are you?

Well, having read the other replies, apparently not.

The XC website I use, after asking which station you wish to
collect your ticket from, says:

"Collect your ticket(s) from the ticket machine at [nominated station]."

Then gives the same message on the confirmation screen. There's no
suggestion that you can use other (connected) ticket machines.
But thanks for the tip.



My message on ticket collection was on my First Great Western
confirmation. However, 2 -3 years ago I was collecting from other than
the station that I had nominated for that purpose.

--
Moving things in still pictures

On 01/03/2012 09:22, ®i©ardo wrote:
On 29/02/2012 21:44, Graham Nye wrote:
On 29/02/2012 16:34, ®i©ardo wrote:
On 25/02/2012 01:01, Graham Nye wrote:

You could pick your
tickets up in advance to save hassle on the day. (You could also order
them on-line, although you are then committed to which station you
have to collect them from.)

Are you?

Well, having read the other replies, apparently not.

The XC website I use, after asking which station you wish to
collect your ticket from, says:

"Collect your ticket(s) from the ticket machine at [nominated station]."

Then gives the same message on the confirmation screen. There's no
suggestion that you can use other (connected) ticket machines.
But thanks for the tip.


My message on ticket collection was on my First Great Western
confirmation. However, 2 -3 years ago I was collecting from other than
the station that I had nominated for that purpose.


Yesterday I pre-ordered a ticket for next week for collection from my
home station and today I was able to pick it up from my destination
station. So the system is indeed more flexible that the website
message implies.


--
Graham Nye
news(a)thenyes.org.uk