Great Ticket Sale courtesy of Grant Shapps

[Wallsendmag]

This didn’t all happen at the drop of a hat. There was months of planning.

Seems like years

 

[trainophile]

Well if it's the best they can come up with, it's time for a change of government.

 

[Haywain]

Though seemingly still not enough planning for all operators to release their tickets at the same time - meaning a number of people will have been overcharged, thinking they were getting Rail Sale fares when in fact they were normal fares.

See my earlier comment about herding cats.

 

[Starmill]

Well if it's the best they can come up with, it's time for a change of government.

I couldn't agree more. However it seems unlikely that rail policy in general has a detectable influence over elections.

 

[Bob M]

The only services where I see overcrowding are short-formed services. All sensible services in my region are now running with full-length trains, i.e. 10 cars between Bournemouth and Waterloo, 9 cars on CrossCountry, 8 or 12 cars on the Portsmouth Direct Lines, etc.

Short trains are only used on regional services where ridership is low, such as Winchester - Poole stopping services.

1804 Birmingham to Bournemouth last Thursday was 5 cars and packed like sardines as far as Coventry. All seats full until Reading.

 

[jon0844]

1804 Birmingham to Bournemouth last Thursday was 5 cars and packed like sardines as far as Coventry. All seats full until Reading.

An 8 car train after 0100 last night was pretty packed (a good 150+ people still on it at Hatfield, and it was only going as far as Stevenage) so I think this sale needs to be mindful of creating overcrowding ahead of any new timetables in May. It is the middle of the day off peak services that are still quiet, and where people staggering work hours can benefit, but I wonder how many tickets will be sold on those trains compared to later in the day/evening and weekends?

Right now I am not entirely sure that with people going out as often as possible whenever the sun comes out (and sometimes not even needing that), this sale is running at the best time? People are booking holidays at full price and hotels are charging a fortune compared to a year ago, because they can - people are paying.

Right now the cost of living issues haven't fully hit people and a lot of people are going to go out no matter what. I have to assume the hospitality sector has seen a massive bounce back, and the amount of vomit on the trains and platforms suggests people are playing catch up on a huge scale!

I wonder what things will be like later in the year when those mortgage increases, pay cuts and energy price rises fully impact people's income. That's when people will be crying out for a sale.

 

[STINT47]

I can't help but feel that offering discounted standard advance tickets was the wrong thing to offer.

Leisure travel has recovered nicley so having even more traveling could make services uncomfortably crowded. It would have been better to aim something at people who used to make train journeys for work but now use Zoom and work from home.

A campaign saying meet your colleagues face to face and rediscover the advantages of working together would be a start. If it's then backed up with reduced price season tickets, reduced anytime tickets and eased time restrictions then it might work.

We will never see work/commuter markets return to pre pandemic levels completely but I feel if people do start meeting.face to face for work they will remember the advantages this brings. This will then lead to more commuting and business travel, something that has not recovered as well as leisure travel.

Overall a sale to help passengers numbers recover was a good idea but it's been targeted at the wrong part of the market.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Leisure travel has recovered nicley so having even more traveling could make services uncomfortably crowded. It would have been better to aim something at people who used to make train journeys for work but now use Zoom and work from home.

I'm not convinced. Along the lines of "reduce reuse recycle" I came up with "teleconference, train, Tesla". That is, most work travel is avoidable, and if travel is avoidable it should be avoided, but if it can't be then public transport, and if that's not feasible then EV (other EVs are of course available and probably a heck of a lot better value). Whereas leisure travel brings benefits in and of itself and so is less to be deprecated than travelling the length of the country to sit in a room with people and talk about stuff you could do online.

There will be some recovery of business travel, but I think the likes of Rees-Mogg just need to shut up, and the railway needs to adapt to the changing market and stop trying to be what it once was and to compete with itself. There are literally millions of people driving round the country in cars every single day - that's your market, there - in terms of feasible railway capacity it is basically an infinite market, you just need to start asking why people are NOT travelling by train and deal with that. (It's not solely price).

 

[yorkie]

Thanks. Tbh I never got around to doing that even when lockdowns prevented travel, I wasn't confident of doing it right, and in those cases obviously I wasn't buying a different ticket. Cost me quite a whack but I put it down to some people have lost a lot more in all sorts of ways.

Just out of curiosity could I claim on a standard class ticket that I've replaced with a first class one?

If the journey matches, the automatic form should work.

I had paid £25.73 for Abergavenny to Stockport (I am going to York; I will already have a ticket covering Crewe to York, but it was cheaper to book to Stockport rather than Crewe!) on the basis that TfW were not part of the sale; I then booked replacement tickets for £12.70 and completed the refund form and it worked flawlessly.

Changing the class shouldn't matter.

Journey 3 in booking [Ref] will be cancelled. You will receive a refund of £12.70. Your tickets have been scheduled for cancellation; this typically completes within 2 hours. We'll send you a final refund confirmation email when we've issued your refund. Journey No. Journey Paid Reason Refund Amount 3 Abergavenny to Stockport 21 May 2022 £25.73 Book with confidence - change of Advance fare £12.70 Admin Fee -£0.00 Total £12.70 Your E-Tickets for this journey are no longer valid. We strongly suggest that you delete all copies of them now to avoid later confusion. Please note that you must not attempt to use any tickets once they have been cancelled. The train company will refuse to accept them and you will have to pay for a new ticket. You may also be liable for a Penalty Fare or even for prosecution. If you attempt to use any of your E-Tickets for this journey, your refund request will be rejected. Yours sincerely, The Raileasy Team.

 

[gazzaa2]

And thinking they might get a seat .

Be lucky if they can get on the train at all, particularly where rolling stock is low.

Had to laugh at the Shapps video of "why not go to Cornwall for the beaches?". And stand for 3 hours in a vestibule next to an armpit to get there, that's not on the brochure though.

 

[alistairlees]

Be lucky if they can get on the train at all, particularly where rolling stock is low.

Had to laugh at the Shapps video of "why not go to Cornwall for the beaches?". And stand for 3 hours in a vestibule next to an armpit to get there, that's not on the brochure though.

All the Great British Rail Sale tickets on GWR (and almost every other TOC) are Advances, so come with a seat reservation (for the longer-distance / inter-city legs on GWR, though not for the Cornish branch lines). So no need to stand.

 

[OscarH]

If the journey matches, the automatic form should work.

For Book with Confidence the journey doesn't need to match at all

 

[Mike@Raileasy]

Thanks. Tbh I never got around to doing that even when lockdowns prevented travel, I wasn't confident of doing it right, and in those cases obviously I wasn't buying a different ticket. Cost me quite a whack but I put it down to some people have lost a lot more in all sorts of ways.

Just out of curiosity could I claim on a standard class ticket that I've replaced with a first class one?

Yes.

 

[Kite159]

All the Great British Rail Sale tickets on GWR (and almost every other TOC) are Advances, so come with a seat reservation (for the longer-distance / inter-city legs on GWR, though not for the Cornish branch lines). So no need to stand.

Until the train you are booked on has reservations suspended.
Or is so rammed you can't even get down the aisle to your reserved seat.

Or most likely the train you get booked on gets cancelled or part cancelled (using Cornwall for an example, terminates at Plymouth vice Penzance) so you have to stand on the next train which is a single 150

 

[gazzaa2]

All the Great British Rail Sale tickets on GWR (and almost every other TOC) are Advances, so come with a seat reservation (for the longer-distance / inter-city legs on GWR, though not for the Cornish branch lines). So no need to stand.

Until a train gets cancelled/short formed/overloaded with passengers etc.

 

[trainophile]

Or the seat reservation is * *** as per TfW.

 

[Rail Ranger]

TfW are part of the offer in terms of the Manchester to Llandudno and Manchester-Cardiff services.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

TfW are part of the offer in terms of the Manchester to Llandudno and Manchester-Cardiff services.

And Holyhead-Cardiff, so on the Mk4 services.
I don't know if the Valley lines have any discounts, but I booked Chester-Merthyr for just £1 over the Cardiff fare.

 

[_toommm_]

TfW are part of the offer in terms of the Manchester to Llandudno and Manchester-Cardiff services.

And on the Cambrian, and down to New Street too. I’ve got Leeds to Pwllheli return tomorrow for £33 with my railcard.

 

[Ayman Ilham]

I booked four different daytrips (one every week) from Manchester Piccadilly with my railcard throughout May on my quest to visit every city in the UK (target cities in bold):

• Sheffield & Lincoln (split ticket on Northern) - £3.80 total (95p per leg; insane!!)
• Hereford (TfW) - £15.10 total (£7.55 each way) which is decent
• Sheffield & Leicester (split ticket Northern & EMR) - £5.20 total
• Norwich (EMR) - £23.20 total (£11.60 each way) racking up the mileage here

Look forward to seeing how these journeys turn out; insane how cheap Northern are offering many of theirs (I've checked and even journeys as long as Sheffield to Scarborough are down to 95p), it's literally a steal!

 

[WideRanger]

I see that several people have encountered 'For Test Use Only'. I have just collected some tickets with it on.

Do we know conclusively whether this is going to be a problem? Have on-board staff been told to ignore it?

The tickets are for some elderly friends who don't speak brilliant English, so I'm a bit concerned.

 

[Watershed]

I see that several people have encountered 'For Test Use Only'. I have just collected some tickets with it on.

Do we know conclusively whether this is going to be a problem? Have on-board staff been told to ignore it?

The tickets are for some elderly friends who don't speak brilliant English, so I'm a bit concerned.

A brief has gone out to all TOCs which should be distributed to staff to ensure they are aware of this issue. I daresay that they will already have come across some of these tickets by now.

 

[gc4946]

I identified some Northern £1.50 offers, but when I booked them on their website they only offered e-tickets.
I'm OK with e-tickets on my mobile, but know others who prefer a physical credit-card sized ticket.
Which TOCs offer these Northern-priced tickets for collection from TVMs?

 

[trover]

I identified some Northern £1.50 offers, but when I booked them on their website they only offered e-tickets.
I'm OK with e-tickets on my mobile, but know others who prefer a physical credit-card sized ticket.
Which TOCs offer these Northern-priced tickets for collection from TVMs?

Northern itself offer this option, are you able to choose from the four options before check out? Most of the other TOCs offer paper ticket as well, but XC charges additional £1, and some First group TOCs cannot check out for baskets under £1 so better avoid if with a railcard which bring the price down to 95p.

Btw any retailer selling ticket at this price as TOD would be at a loss or have no profit

 

[gc4946]

Just found out when doing another dummy booking ...
At the payment stage, when prompted, I logged into my Northern account and was only offered the e-ticket option.
However if I used the guest option on Northern's website, I was given the choice of e-ticket, collection from a TVM or Royal Mail's Special Delivery

 

[CaptainHaddock]

I identified some Northern £1.50 offers, but when I booked them on their website they only offered e-tickets.
I'm OK with e-tickets on my mobile, but know others who prefer a physical credit-card sized ticket.
Which TOCs offer these Northern-priced tickets for collection from TVMs?

I booked all my rail sale tickets on LNER who do offer the option of collecting conventional paper tickets. You just have to remember to click on the rather bizarre "Don't have a printer or smartphone?" message and it offers the option to collect or have tickets posted out to you.

 

[trover]

Just found out when doing another dummy booking ...
At the payment stage, when prompted, I logged into my Northern account and was only offered the e-ticket option.
However if I used the guest option on Northern's website, I was given the choice of e-ticket, collection from a TVM or Royal Mail's Special Delivery

Weird. I’m offered paper ticket when logged in on their webpage. It just limits to e-tickets if I’m using the app

 

[gc4946]

Weird. I’m offered paper ticket when logged in on their webpage. It just limits to e-tickets if I’m using the app

My bookings (real and dummy) were all done from my personal laptop.
If I logged into my Northern account, or used the guest option before selecting and purchasing my tickets, I was offered e-tickets, TOD and Royal Mail.
However if I clicked on Northern's "quick buy" button, rather than "Continue", only the e-ticket option was available.

 

[Ant1966]

Well Ive just booked £13 each way on Grand Central London <> Sunderland Sat 14th May. Booked direct on GC site, didn't add any Railcards, tickets came up so bought them! Just noticed on tickets 'Only Valid with nNETWORK SEASON'. Assume that's another glitch?

 

[Mikw]

I booked four different daytrips (one every week) from Manchester Piccadilly with my railcard throughout May on my quest to visit every city in the UK (target cities in bold):

• Sheffield & Lincoln (split ticket on Northern) - £3.80 total (95p per leg; insane!!)
• Hereford (TfW) - £15.10 total (£7.55 each way) which is decent
• Sheffield & Leicester (split ticket Northern & EMR) - £5.20 total
• Norwich (EMR) - £23.20 total (£11.60 each way) racking up the mileage here

Look forward to seeing how these journeys turn out; insane how cheap Northern are offering many of theirs (I've checked and even journeys as long as Sheffield to Scarborough are down to 95p), it's literally a steal!

Enjoy your visit to Leicester - it's ace!!!! (well, quite good at least)