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Adam Williams

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2 Jan 2018
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1,782
Location
Warks
Today I've booked a trip for the end of this month Birmingham-Maidstone for £29 return (senior railcard). Easy to use, and email + calendar entries with all of the times and connections shown clearly. This was after I tried Trainpal, which repeatedly said there weren't any trains at all!
Thanks for the positive feedback!
 
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RailUK Forums

HughT

Member
Joined
21 Feb 2018
Messages
118
Location
Cambridge
Please note: This is an observation, NOT a criticism! But it's something I haven't seen mentioned in this thread thus far.

Tried to buy a couple of singles from Stansted Airport to Cambridge - with Senior Railcards. So total cost of just £15.90. No splits available, obviously. When I proceeded with the transaction the only delivery option was as an e-ticket (which we don't use). Ticket on departure not offered (this was for a journey 10 days away). The regular Trainsplit site happily provides ToD as an option. I bought the tickets there instead.

I'd be interested to know/understand the background (but it's not as though the Forum was deprived of a vast commission!)
 

yorkie

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6 Jun 2005
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67,967
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Yorkshire
Please note: This is an observation, NOT a criticism! But it's something I haven't seen mentioned in this thread thus far.

Tried to buy a couple of singles from Stansted Airport to Cambridge - with Senior Railcards. So total cost of just £15.90. No splits available, obviously. When I proceeded with the transaction the only delivery option was as an e-ticket (which we don't use). Ticket on departure not offered (this was for a journey 10 days away). The regular Trainsplit site happily provides ToD as an option. I bought the tickets there instead.

I'd be interested to know/understand the background (but it's not as though the Forum was deprived of a vast commission!)
TOD is an absolute pain and typically causes the retailer to make a loss on the transaction; it's a very dated and problematic system that is destined to be abolished (see other threads).

It sounds like Trainsplit are prepared to accept those losses but presumably not also to give the forum commission at the same time, which is totally understandable!

Not many businesses can operate on the basis that sales make a loss, but train ticket retailers offering TOD are required to do so.
 

Mike395

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23 May 2009
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Bedford
Just to clarify, we've now enabled ToD on the RailUK brand so you **can** choose it, but e-ticket is still very much the encouraged option (not just because of commission! We've introduced a screen to the booking process advertising the benefits)
 

HughT

Member
Joined
21 Feb 2018
Messages
118
Location
Cambridge
Just to clarify, we've now enabled ToD on the RailUK brand so you **can** choose it, but e-ticket is still very much the encouraged option (not just because of commission! We've introduced a screen to the booking process advertising the benefits)
OK, thanks for that. I assumed commission was a significant factor, and as this isn't a "public" booking site, you would have been perfectly entitled not to offer the option. This is clearly not the place for a discussion of the need for, or desirability of, paper tickets ;)
 

Mike395

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Indeed not, several discussions elsewhere on here if people want to read into or contribute to debates around that topic :D
 

Wallsendmag

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11 Dec 2014
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5,228
Location
Wallsend or somewhere in GB
OK, thanks for that. I assumed commission was a significant factor, and as this isn't a "public" booking site, you would have been perfectly entitled not to offer the option. This is clearly not the place for a discussion of the need for, or desirability of, paper tickets ;)
Won't be a problem for that much longer
 

Rhydgaled

Established Member
Joined
25 Nov 2010
Messages
4,568
Has the ability to choose where you want to sit become another casualty of COVID or am I just being blind?

I'm sure both CrossCountry and Trains Can Be Cheaper offered a seat selector before, but I can't seem to do this right now. If I understand correctly, TrainSplit, Trains Can Be Cheaper and the new RailUK booking engine are all linked behind the scenes, so in theory if one has the seat selector they all should, yet I can't see how to get to it here:

1665398385721.png

Similarly, the CrossCountry site doesn't seem to let me change the auto-assigned seats either:
1665398533739.png

I'd rather use the RailUK site to avoid having to pay £1 extra for a proper ticket that will fit in the railcard wallet (the print-at-home A4 tickets or the awful paper tickets Arriva Trains Wales introduced when they replaced the ticket machines the guards carry are a right pain), but if the XC site is the only one that will let me pick my seat then I guess that's what I'll have to do, but as far as I can tell neither of them allow it anymore.

TOD is an absolute pain and typically causes the retailer to make a loss on the transaction; it's a very dated and problematic system that is destined to be abolished (see other threads).
Are you able to provide a link to any such discussions? I googled - ticket on departure to be abolished site:railforums.co.uk - but nothing relevant came up.
 

Adam Williams

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Joined
2 Jan 2018
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1,782
Location
Warks
so in theory if one has the seat selector they all should, yet I can't see how to get to it here:
We've not killed it off, you need to click "Add to basket" and then visit the basket (link in the nav in the top right). Click the seat icon, then click the pencil to edit next to the seat you want to change, and the seat selector will open up inline.
 

XAM2175

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8 Jun 2016
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3,469
Location
Glasgow
We've not killed it off, you need to click "Add to basket" and then visit the basket (link in the nav in the top right). Click the seat icon, then click the pencil to edit next to the seat you want to change, and the seat selector will open up inline.
Their screenshot is showing the basket already, if I'm not mistaken?
 

Adam Williams

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2 Jan 2018
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1,782
Location
Warks
Their screenshot is showing the basket already, if I'm not mistaken?
It's showing the list of journeys on the final step before payment where the user is given the chance to view a read-only copy of their proposed purchase; not the basket where a user can make changes (remove journeys, change seats).
 

mjc

Member
Joined
26 Jun 2018
Messages
133
Is there a known issue with Apple Pay on checkout?
Very smooth search and checkout process so far so impressed but just stuck now (because I rarely use the actual card and cba go find it now!).

I click on Apple Pay and the Apple Pay ‘widget’ flashes up at the bottom of the screen but then disappears straight away and I get error message as in screenshot: Something went wrong on our end.
 

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Hadders

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27 Apr 2011
Messages
13,256
Is there a known issue with Apple Pay on checkout?
Very smooth search and checkout process so far so impressed but just stuck now (because I rarely use the actual card and cba go find it now!).

I click on Apple Pay and the Apple Pay ‘widget’ flashes up at the bottom of the screen but then disappears straight away and I get error message as in screenshot: Something went wrong on our end.
If the fulfilment method is ToD then Apple Pay can't be used because you need the physical card to collect the tickets.
 

js517

Member
Joined
4 Sep 2018
Messages
159
Location
Cragg Vale, West Yorkshire
Can you expend? It's certainly been my experience of using Trainsplit.
If you pay by Apple pay you can collect TOD using a different card. If Apple pay has been failing for you then some other error is being encountered. Are you saying that Apple Pay consistently works for you for e-ticket purchases but fails for TOD?
 

Mike395

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On the more general issue of Apple Pay not working - I can recreate this here too (when buying an e-ticket), we’ll get this looked into as soon as we can.
 

mjc

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26 Jun 2018
Messages
133
On the more general issue of Apple Pay not working - I can recreate this here too (when buying an e-ticket), we’ll get this looked into as soon as we can.
Thanks, and for avoidance of doubt this was for e-ticket.
 

Mike395

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The issue stopping Apple Pay from working has now been resolved - thanks for reporting it @mjc . We're aware that Google Pay may still not be working correctly, but will get that sorted also as soon as possible (it requires intervention on Google's side, just waiting on them).
 

mjc

Member
Joined
26 Jun 2018
Messages
133
The issue stopping Apple Pay from working has now been resolved - thanks for reporting it @mjc . We're aware that Google Pay may still not be working correctly, but will get that sorted also as soon as possible (it requires intervention on Google's side, just waiting on them).
Fantastic, thank you! Brilliant site, smooth process and I love that I can play with the seat selector to not have to move seats (which has stopped me doing splits before because of the random allocations and the train gets so busy you can’t move!). Also love the direct link to download tickets and add to Apple wallet, saves going into XC app which I used to use but is a bit clunky. And being able to add all the tickets in one go is great too, experience with work’s booking agent is you have to click in and out adding them one by one…zzzzzz
 

miklcct

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2 May 2021
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Cricklewood
I'm sorry that the journey planner on Trainsplit is very misleading that I can't rely on it showing the most appropriate journeys.

The following screenshot shows a search from Cricklewood to St Albans City on the coming Saturday, however, in the return journey, it only tells me to double-back and change at West Hampstead Thameslink (taking 19 minutes in total) disregarding the fact that direct trains run every 15 minutes (which takes 20 minutes), and it is never worth to let go of a direct train to wait for the double-back which saves 1 minute!

1665677299090.png
 

yorkie

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I'm sorry that the journey planner on Trainsplit is very misleading that I can't rely on it showing the most appropriate journeys.

The following screenshot shows a search from Cricklewood to St Albans City on the coming Saturday, however, in the return journey, it only tells me to double-back and change at West Hampstead Thameslink (taking 19 minutes in total) disregarding the fact that direct trains run every 15 minutes (which takes 20 minutes), and it is never worth to let go of a direct train to wait for the double-back which saves 1 minute!

View attachment 122085
Is this in fast mode?

What is the itinerary you expected to see and what is the itinerary (in full) provided on comparison?

Are you using the new site; I thought it shows outward and return journeys separately rather than in grid mode?
 

js517

Member
Joined
4 Sep 2018
Messages
159
Location
Cragg Vale, West Yorkshire
Is this in fast mode?

What is the itinerary you expected to see and what is the itinerary (in full) provided on comparison?

Are you using the new site; I thought it shows outward and return journeys separately rather than in grid mode?
The new site has both grid and timeline views. In this example, the grid's 'fast' tab doesn't show the results that miklcct wants to see. On the older TrainSplit site, the 'fast' tab does show some of the slower direct services.
The old and new sites logic is not identical.
 

miklcct

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2 May 2021
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4,339
Location
Cricklewood
Is this in fast mode?

What is the itinerary you expected to see and what is the itinerary (in full) provided on comparison?

Are you using the new site; I thought it shows outward and return journeys separately rather than in grid mode?
This is the best value mode.

I expect the direct trains from St Albans to Cricklewood are shown exclusively, or alongside these doubling back.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

XAM2175

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8 Jun 2016
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3,469
Location
Glasgow
Are you using the new site; I thought it shows outward and return journeys separately rather than in grid mode?
It did originally, but not long after launch it was changed to make the grid the default again.
 

Rhydgaled

Established Member
Joined
25 Nov 2010
Messages
4,568
We've not killed it off, you need to click "Add to basket" and then visit the basket (link in the nav in the top right). Click the seat icon, then click the pencil to edit next to the seat you want to change, and the seat selector will open up inline.
Thanks, I'll try to use that in future if I actually get round to making a real booking.
 

Egg Centric

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Joined
6 Oct 2018
Messages
916
Location
Land of the Prince Bishops
The Grid UI was quite dodgy when booking today but in a way that is difficult to explain (for example I got to a position where I couldn't scroll to a future time on my return journey; first class suddenly disappeared too) - I could jump on a quick video call though to demo if of interest if I can reproduce it?
 

Adam Williams

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Joined
2 Jan 2018
Messages
1,782
Location
Warks
The Grid UI was quite dodgy when booking today but in a way that is difficult to explain (for example I got to a position where I couldn't scroll to a future time on my return journey; first class suddenly disappeared too) - I could jump on a quick video call though to demo if of interest if I can reproduce it?
I will DM you
 

Llanigraham

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23 Mar 2013
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6,105
Location
Powys
Used the system for the first time today, booking a return trip to Aberdeen over the Christmas/New Year period, and was most impressed. The saving was appreciated by my partially sighted friend, and she was also very happy that the only way the tickets were offered was on paper/card as she finds it very difficult using a mobile device.
 

Watershed

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26 Sep 2020
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UK
Used the system for the first time today, booking a return trip to Aberdeen over the Christmas/New Year period, and was most impressed. The saving was appreciated by my partially sighted friend, and she was also very happy that the only way the tickets were offered was on paper/card as she finds it very difficult using a mobile device.
E-tickets are offered if they are available for all of the tickets being sold in the transaction, but most tickets for travel within Scotland can't be issued as e-tickets and thus only paper tickets will be offered.
 

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