Season ticket renewal discount?

[whole diary]

[mr_p]

Interesting stuff.  Thanks Super Tm and Zo^ for the tips.

[super tm]

This is not going  to change.  The time you touch in is the time which decides if your journey is peak or off peak.

I could just about see this being relaxed at outlying stations where the next train is not for 30 minutes. 

[Zoe]

This is not going  to change.  The time you touch in is the time which decides if your journey is peak or off peak.

I would have thought they could start charging the off peak rate once the last peak trains his departed the station.

[eightf48544]

This is not going  to change.  The time you touch in is the time which decides if your journey is peak or off peak.

I could just about see this being relaxed at outlying stations where the next train is not for 30 minutes. 

We don't seem to be able to design sensible systems anymore.

What you could do is move the smart card reader to the train and you touch in when you board. The TM^‡(resolve) or inspector would have a portable reader to check you'd touched in.

For intermediate journies you could touch out as well otherwise you get charge the for wherever the train is going. Which would be an incentive if its a Penzance train!

This is similar to the system in use on the continent where you buy an undated ticket and validate it on the platform or in the train tram or bus.

 

[grahame]

This is not going  to change.  The time you touch in is the time which decides if your journey is peak or off peak.

I would have thought they could start charging the off peak rate once the last peak trains his departed the station.

It would have to be the actual time, I fear ...
... what if the last peak train was delayed
... and what better way to get the higher rate from those not 'in the know' ("but you checked in at peak time, sir")

(sorry - I'm still very sore from the more that doubling of the fares from here for a day out in London, Saturdays excepted, and the selling of single tickets to my customers at one pound less than the cost of a return on more than one occasion!)

[Zoe]

The peak at least at some stations though ends at the time the first off peak train departs, they are going to have to allow you onto the platform before this.

[Chris from Nailsea]

The ticket machines at Nailsea won't sell you an off-peak ticket until the machine clock gets to 0930.  Problem is, the first off-peak train from Nailsea departs at 0930 - so unless you can teleport yourself aboard, you just can't do it.

Perhaps that's why our local cheery chap with an Avantix^▸ (Ticket Issuing System used on board trains) machine has taken to posting a nice hand-written notice next to the ticket machines, inviting intending passengers up to his cabin - where he is happy to sell you an off-peak ticket for the 0930, at any time from 0900 onwards!

It's just not consistent, is it?   

[thetrout]

To be honest there isn't ever going to be a way of a perfect system. (yes I sound Pesimistic )

For example, If you touch on at the Barriers at Temple Meads at say 8:20 Intending to catch an Off Peak Service at 09:00 How does the computer know that your not going to get breakfast at Bonaparts and wait for the 9:00 or maybe enter the First Class Lounge?? thus still leaving at Off Peak.

The other problem would be for example. A Stopping Train leaves London Paddington at 08:28 for arguements sake, this is during peak hours. Off Peak starts at 08:30 Anyone with the slightest common sense is going to board the Train at Ealing Broadway at say 08:38. This works on the buses with Bus Passes. If a Bus leaves a Bus Station at 08:54, you would go to a stop where the bus arrives at 09:00 normally a few hundred yards up the road which means it will be valid.

They could limit it so that the peak hours are set to when the train departs it's starting point. Take a 09:05 Departure from Weston Super Mare. This has departed for arguements sake during peak hours. Yet when it arrives at Nailsea & Backwell at 09:32 (during off peak hours) are you going to tell passengers that they cannot board the train with off peak fares because the train departed at 09:05 from it's starting point during peak hours. Can you imagine what trouble that would cause if it was 12:30 in the afternoon at Bristol, yet off peak tickets are still not valid because the train departed at 07:00 from Scotland???

Generally i'm not idea critercising. But as I work in IT you realise it's not always possible for a computer to do a humans job, simply because computers can only carry out what they are told to do, they cannot offer human discrestion. Which a human can

[Zoe]

I was thinking that if smartcard tickets were to be adopted as standard and paper tickets withdrawn there is the potential for unlimited travel season tickets to be withdrawn and passengers charged for individual journeys.

[cholsey]

Returning to the original question, given that I believe that

1) Season tickets prices to Paddington from Reading are the same as from all intermediate stations to Didcot (eg Tilehurst etc)
2) These intermediate stations still qualify for a 8% discount
3) Season tickets allow you to alight at any intermediate station on your journey

Then you could change your season ticket to Tilehurst -> Paddington, still board at Reading and getting a 8% discount on your ticket price?

[Chris from Nailsea]

Welcome to the Coffee Shop forum, cholsey!

I'm not an expert on season tickets, but as you will have seen, we do have other members here who are - and I'm sure they'll be able to offer further guidance. 

[John R]

Returning to the original question, given that I believe that

1) Season tickets prices to Paddington from Reading are the same as from all intermediate stations to Didcot (eg Tilehurst etc)
2) These intermediate stations still qualify for a 8% discount
3) Season tickets allow you to alight at any intermediate station on your journey

Then you could change your season ticket to Tilehurst -> Paddington, still board at Reading and getting a 8% discount on your ticket price?

I can't comment on the route in question, but if you change any aspect of your season ticket, you don't qualify for a discount when renewing it. So if you had an annual from Reading to London, and changed it to Tilehurst to London, you wouldn't get a discount at the time of the change. It might be worth it for monthly tickets though, as you only lose the discount for a month.

[Ollie]

Although with how performance is also improving on the LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) side, I would expect that the discount for that may go in a month or so.

[Tim]

It would have to be the actual time, I fear ...
... what if the last peak train was delayed

If a delay to a peak train resulted on people being able to use off peak tickets on it then surely that is a good thing - lower fares for the passenger and an added incentive to the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) to aviod delays

[John R]

Talking about season ticket renewals, I got my six free tickets today. Curiously, you don't appear to have to carry your season ticket with you, with the result that the restriction about non transferability seems virtually unenforceable?