On Sat, 6 Dec 2008 03:52:41 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

Fleet. The ticket office times have become very erratic (they are
proposing to cut them and appear to have pre-empted their own
decision) and I don't think SWT machines sell anything other than day
tickets.

Do they really not? That's a bit poor, as the software can cope with
the sale of almost anything, as the Virgin and most[1] of the London
Midland ones offer.

[1] For some stupid reason, not at Wolverton. This might be because
most people wanting a long-distance ticket will double-back via MKC
anyway, and thus require 2 tickets.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 6 Dec 2008 03:52:41 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

Fleet. The ticket office times have become very erratic (they are
proposing to cut them and appear to have pre-empted their own
decision) and I don't think SWT machines sell anything other than day
tickets.

Do they really not? That's a bit poor, as the software can cope with
the sale of almost anything, as the Virgin and most[1] of the London
Midland ones offer.

The OP may be in that odd part of the SE where the only tickets available to
London are singles or day return tickets, but in general SWT machines sell
all the usual range, and after 1500 'tickets for tomorrow' become available.

Internet ticket collection isn't widespread yet though.

Paul

On 7 Dec, 19:27, "Paul Scott" wrote:
"Neil Williams" wrote in message

...

On Sat, 6 Dec 2008 03:52:41 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

Fleet. *The ticket office times have become very erratic (they are
proposing to cut them and appear to have pre-empted their own
decision) and I don't think SWT machines sell anything other than day
tickets.

Do they really not? *That's a bit poor, as the software can cope with
the sale of almost anything, as the Virgin and most[1] of the London
Midland ones offer.

The OP may be in that odd part of the SE where the only tickets available to
London are singles or day return tickets, but in general SWT machines sell
all the usual range, and after 1500 'tickets for tomorrow' become available.

Internet ticket collection isn't widespread yet though.

Paul

They only seem to sell singles, day returns and 7 day season tickets
(the website says you can buy monthly seasons but I don't recall
seeing the option on the machine).

After 1500 you can buy tickets for tomorrow, but you can only get
Anytime tickets, and you can't buy discounted tickets. So not much
use at the weekend. See http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/SWT...y+your+ticket/

Thanks for the info on ticket pricing. So it looks like, with the
introduction of SOP, I can no longer get the equivalent of the old
cheap day return to stations on other operators' networks. To confuse
matters further, the NRE website no longer seems to show OP and SOP
fares seperately, just OP with two different fares. But a check on a
Fleet-Rochester day return, for example, shows the price stays the
same after 11.00 am, a time when to London I can get an SOP.

wrote:
On 7 Dec, 19:27, "Paul Scott" wrote:
"Neil Williams" wrote in message

...

Do they really not? That's a bit poor, as the software can cope with
the sale of almost anything, as the Virgin and most[1] of the London
Midland ones offer.

The OP may be in that odd part of the SE where the only tickets
available to London are singles or day return tickets, but in
general SWT machines sell all the usual range, and after 1500
'tickets for tomorrow' become available.

Internet ticket collection isn't widespread yet though.

They only seem to sell singles, day returns and 7 day season tickets

What I was attempting to explain is that from Fleet to London (clearly
within the old NSE 50 mile limit) you would only expect Anytime Day and
Offpeak Day and SOP ( a day ticket). The longer period returns equivalent to
the old Opens and 'Savers', (and previously Network Away breaks) are
probably not available to London.

I assure you that returns valid for a month are available from machines
further from London where the fare exists, but you should be able to see
them by selecting a suitable long distance fare.

Another small point - are you looking at the first screen only, because it
only shows the most popular tickets from your station. Sometimes, if you
select your destination using the keyboard, other ticket types that aren't
often sold appear.

After 1500 you can buy tickets for tomorrow, but you can only get
Anytime tickets, and you can't buy discounted tickets. So not much
use at the weekend.

Try checking at a machine, you'll find on a Friday afternoon that all the
offpeak and SOP fares and railcard discounted tickets are available.
Presumably they don't want people buying and attempting to use invalid
tickets on early trains, same as if you use the machine at 0800 on a weekday
morning, Network Card doesn't appear until 1000 for instance.

Thanks for the info on ticket pricing. So it looks like, with the
introduction of SOP, I can no longer get the equivalent of the old
cheap day return to stations on other operators' networks.

Yes you can - 'Offpeak' is the equivalent of CDR as I explained before.

To confuse
matters further, the NRE website no longer seems to show OP and SOP
fares seperately, just OP with two different fares. But a check on a
Fleet-Rochester day return, for example, shows the price stays the
same after 11.00 am, a time when to London I can get an SOP.

That is because SOP is a sub type of Offpeak. Click on 'more fares' next to
the line heading 'Offpeak'. It breaks them into sub types if they are
there...

Paul S

What I was attempting to explain is that from Fleet to London (clearly
within the old NSE 50 mile limit) you would only expect Anytime Day and
Offpeak Day and SOP ( a day ticket). The longer period returns equivalent to
the old Opens and 'Savers', (and previously Network Away breaks) are
probably not available to London.

That's annoying, if you're going away from the weekend you can't buy
your ticket from a machine. It was annoying for me because I couldn't
get the ticket I wanted from LUL at St Pancras, and it would have been
even more annoying if I'd had a tight connection to get to Waterloo
and catch a train, or if there had been a serious price differential
between a single-with-tube and single+oyster. Or if you don't have an
oyster. I tried twice to buy a ticket from the ticket office the day
before - but it was closed - neither was it open at 7.45 on a Saturday
morning, not particularly early I wouldn't have thought (it's supposed
to be open at 6.10).

I assure you that returns valid for a month are available from machines
further from London where the fare exists, but you should be able to see
them by selecting a suitable long distance fare.

I will have a play with the machine sometime.

Another small point - are you looking at the first screen only, because it
only shows the most popular tickets from your station. Sometimes, if you
select your destination using the keyboard, other ticket types that aren't
often sold appear.

I often use the "any station" menu option, but again they're mostly
fairly local trips so again I will need to have a play.

After 1500 you can buy tickets for tomorrow, but you can only get
Anytime tickets, and you can't buy discounted tickets. *So not much
use at the weekend.

Try checking at a machine, you'll find on a Friday afternoon that all the
offpeak and SOP fares and railcard discounted tickets are available.
Presumably they don't want people buying and attempting to use invalid
tickets on early trains, same as if you use the machine at 0800 on a weekday
morning, Network Card doesn't appear until 1000 for instance.

I obviously need to check, but the SWT website
http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/SWT...y+your+ticket/
does say

As well as at ticket offices, you can buy most tickets from our ticket
vending machines located at most of our stations. Tickets available
include:

7 Day Season Ticket renewals
Monthly Season Ticket renewals
'Tickets for tomorrow’ allowing you to buy Anytime Single and Return
tickets after 15:00 the day before you intend to travel
A wide range of tickets to most UK destinations
London Underground tickets inside London Fare Zones Area
Day Return tickets to London, including One Day Travelcards
Daily car park tickets.

So it looks like you can't.

If you buy a ticket for tomorrow, a screen comes up saying "you can
only use this ticket tomorrow" or words to that effect. So why you
can't buy off peak and discounted tickets with a suitable warning
message I don't know. You can buy them in advance at the station or
(presumably) online, although I haven't yet tried to buy online with a
local ticket as I'm only 5 minutes walk from the station and can't
normally get discounted online tickets for the journeys I do.

Thanks for the info on ticket pricing. *So it looks like, with the
introduction of SOP, I can no longer get the equivalent of the old
cheap day return to stations on other operators' networks.

Yes you can - 'Offpeak' is the equivalent of CDR as I explained before.

I checked a fare from Fleet to Rochester. Before and after 11.00 I
got the same price, where for Fleet-London I would normally pay a
different price due to the OP/SOP differential. So what price am I
paying for the Fleet leg of a Fleet-Rochester ticket?

But thanks for your posts. Having had a season ticket to London for
13 years (and lived in London for 7 of these when I used public
transport fairly heavily) I thought I had some knowledge about how it
works. How on earth are irregular travellers to cope?

wrote:

What I was attempting to explain is that from Fleet to London (clearly
within the old NSE 50 mile limit) you would only expect Anytime Day and
Offpeak Day and SOP ( a day ticket). The longer period returns
equivalent to the old Opens and 'Savers', (and previously Network Away
breaks) are probably not available to London.

That's annoying, if you're going away from the weekend you can't buy
your ticket from a machine. It was annoying for me because I couldn't
get the ticket I wanted from LUL at St Pancras, and it would have been
even more annoying if I'd had a tight connection to get to Waterloo
and catch a train, or if there had been a serious price differential
between a single-with-tube and single+oyster.

I don't think there /are/ any period returns for distances shorter than
50-ish miles in the south east. So if you wanted to do Fleet-London on a
Friday and back on a Sunday you'd have to buy two singles, whether you did
it from the machine or the office.

(Anyone know if there are cases where it's cheaper to buy a period return to
some faraway station via London than two singles to London?)

If you're travelling by Eurostar or boat-train there are some special
tickets to 'London International', which are valid for two months and on any
train. You'd need to buy these from an office and present your Eurostar
tickets. There may also be some period returns for airports (eg
Cambridge-Stansted has a SVR-equivalent Off-Peak Return, but
Cambridge-Bishop's Stortford doesn't)

Theo

"Theo Markettos" wrote in message
...
wrote:

That's annoying, if you're going away from the weekend you can't buy
your ticket from a machine. It was annoying for me because I couldn't
get the ticket I wanted from LUL at St Pancras, and it would have been
even more annoying if I'd had a tight connection to get to Waterloo
and catch a train, or if there had been a serious price differential
between a single-with-tube and single+oyster.

I don't think there /are/ any period returns for distances shorter than
50-ish miles in the south east. So if you wanted to do Fleet-London on a
Friday and back on a Sunday you'd have to buy two singles, whether you did
it from the machine or the office.

Certainly my understanding, and the intent of my comments so far too. I
think it's important (generally) not to blame ticket machines for not
selling something that ticket offices don't sell...

However in this case, whilst checking to find a station near Fleet, such as
Basingstoke, that might have 'open tickets', when comparing the price from
Fleet I now find the NR OJP shows Fleet (36 miles) to Waterloo has:
Super Off-Peak Day Return - £13.20
Off-Peak Day Return - £16.20
Off Peak Return - £24.20
The latter is the same price as the Anytime Day Return.
Has Philip just not found the ticket on the machine after all, or not
realised that the 'Off-Peak Return' is valid for a month?

As I've implied earlier, the Off-Peak Return may not initially appear if not
many are sold, the top screen on most ticket machines only shows the most
popular tickets bought at a particular location.

Paul S

On Tue, 9 Dec 2008 16:40:03 -0000, "Paul Scott"
wrote:

As I've implied earlier, the Off-Peak Return may not initially appear if not
many are sold, the top screen on most ticket machines only shows the most
popular tickets bought at a particular location.

Bizarrely, at one point the Silverlink-only CDS and CDR from Euston to
MKC were *only* available on the summary screen and not in the station
list.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

wrote

I checked a fare from Fleet to Rochester. Before and after 11.00 I
got the same price, where for Fleet-London I would normally pay a
different price due to the OP/SOP differential. So what price am I
paying for the Fleet leg of a Fleet-Rochester ticket?

Try pricing it as two tickets ?

Just for another complication, I noted when SOP came out that the
differentials for Reading and Basingstoke were both only 10p (due to a
non-SWT route to London being available) so Fleet-Rochester may have to
figure in via Paddington as possible.

--
Mike D

Certainly my understanding, and the intent of my comments so far too. I
think it's important (generally) not to blame ticket machines for not
selling something that ticket offices don't sell...

It's a bit of a red herring, as on this occasion I needed a London
Terminals out and a Travelcard single back, it would have had to be
the TO. However, it is another reason for disbeliving SWT's position
that they don't have to open the ticket office because you can buy all
the tickets from the machines. Which is self evidently untrue.

From some time this month you are going to be able to order on line
and collect from the machine, so hopefully that will cut down the lag
in getting the tickets (will you be able to log on, buy tickets, and
collect them 10 minutes later? Somehow I doubt it)

However in this case, whilst checking to find a station near Fleet, such as
Basingstoke, that might have 'open tickets', when comparing the price from
Fleet I now find the NR OJP shows Fleet (36 miles) to Waterloo has:
Super Off-Peak Day Return - £13.20
Off-Peak Day Return - £16.20
Off Peak Return - £24.20
The latter is the same price as the Anytime Day Return.
Has Philip just not found the ticket on the machine after all, or not
realised that the 'Off-Peak Return' is valid for a month?

I haven't found it on the machine, I do plan to spend some time
checking it out. When buying "period returns" from the TO I am fairly
sure I have been sold two singles so I didn't realise it existed.
However I have checked on NRE for going out today and back tomorrow,
and as you say, an Off Peak Return to Waterloo is priced at £24.20
which is cheaper than two singles £25.40).

As I've implied earlier, the Off-Peak Return may not initially appear if not
many are sold, the top screen on most ticket machines only shows the most
popular tickets bought at a particular location.

Tks, I will check