It is unfortunate that all points of purchase other than ticket offices and on-board staff (although it's pot luck if the latter will sell PlusBus at all - I'm 1 for 2 on the last couple of attempts) require the PlusBus ticket to be bought at the same time as the qualifying ticket. That's not always practical.
For instance, on a football away day, if the ground is a long way from the nearest station, the norm for me is the decision whether to walk, take the bus or share taxis tends to be made by consensus among small(ish) groups. It is not always possible for me to know if I want the PlusBus add-on when I'm booking an Advance weeks earlier.
I appreciate why online retailers are unlikely to be allowed to sell PlusBuses as a standalone ticket, as this would often undercut day tickets and would thus be open to abuse by non-rail passengers. It would be very handy if you could buy the PlusBus add-on after the date of purchase, up until and including the date of travel, from the retailer from whom you bought it, though. You would still only be allowed to buy one PlusBus ticket for the origin, and one for the destination, per ticket, but you wouldn't necessarily have to do it at the time.
Does anybody know if online retailers could, in theory, do this compliantly with the specs? I'm not sure if it isn't offered because there's not much demand for it (i.e. not enough to justify the work involved in doing this), because it isn't permitted, or possibly because (until now) it would have required a second ToD reference and collection fee, meaning it wouldn't be worth the retailer's while? If the ToD thing is a factor, might the ability to offer the PlusBus as an e-ticket change anything in this regard?
] (is that machine still there?)
