National Rail Conditions of Travel - changes from 1 April 2026 (merged topics)

[whole diary]

[PhilWakely]

If you purchase a walk-up ticket (from any retailer) on or after 1st April 2026, you will no longer be able to submit it for a refund once the ticket becomes valid for travel - although 'certain exceptional conditions'  will still allow you to do so.

Just to complicate matters - if you purchase a walk-up ticket before 1st April for travel after that date, then you will still be able to submit the ticket for a refund after 1st April under the current conditions.

I understand that this is to counter ticket fraud, where unchecked tickets or tickets not put through an automatic barrier have been submitted for refunds, despite the ticket holder having travelled.

I'm guessing that the 'certain exceptional conditions' will include (but not necessarily limited to).... Disruption resulting in the ticket holder not starting or abandoning the journey; health conditions where the holder is unable to travel, etc. Whether guidelines will be published or the decision left to the discretion of the retailer, I do not know.

[grahame]

I understand that this is to counter ticket fraud, where unchecked tickets or tickets not put through an automatic barrier have been submitted for refunds, despite the ticket holder having travelled.

I'm guessing that the 'certain exceptional conditions' will include (but not necessarily limited to).... Disruption resulting in the ticket holder not starting or abandoning the journey; health conditions where the holder is unable to travel, etc. Whether guidelines will be published or the decision left to the discretion of the retailer, I do not know.

The reasoning is logical in terms of ticket fraud - though it does tell us something about the system which does not routinely check ticket validity when travelling, and leaves space for such fraud.   Mind you, there are other countries where ticket checking is not routine, but where people tend to follow the rules because either they are more law abiding, or more afraid of being putatively caught.

Whether the old refund-even-when-validity-started was correct is a different and interesting discussion.  I have only (personally) made use of it once that I can recall - having bought a ticket for someone staying with us, but on the morning she was headed for Manchester, plans were changed on a family crisis.  I was actually pleasantly surprised I could get my money back, even though validity had started.

[PhilWakely]

I understand that this is to counter ticket fraud, where unchecked tickets or tickets not put through an automatic barrier have been submitted for refunds, despite the ticket holder having travelled.

I'm guessing that the 'certain exceptional conditions' will include (but not necessarily limited to).... Disruption resulting in the ticket holder not starting or abandoning the journey; health conditions where the holder is unable to travel, etc. Whether guidelines will be published or the decision left to the discretion of the retailer, I do not know.

I have only (personally) made use of it once that I can recall - having bought a ticket for someone staying with us, but on the morning she was headed for Manchester, plans were changed on a family crisis.  I was actually pleasantly surprised I could get my money back, even though validity had started.

I guess (or would hope!), that this falls within 'exceptional circumstances' after 1st April

[ChrisB]

 Suspect not - everyone would very quickly be using it....events that coud be backed up by proof in writing like an A&E visit...

[grahame]

From yesterday - at Westbury at 19:00



and I'm a bit shocked by this:



Of an evening, why are the "popular" top level tickets the anytime ones for London (and yet off peak for Weymouth?)

Other walk up return adult no-railcard no-split fares to Paddington from Westbury - are available at £53.20, £71.20, £71.70, £77.40, £78.00, £84.00, £94.00, £94.90, £104.70, £110.40, and £226.80.  As from April 1st, if someone accidentally click on the "Popular" front fare (popular with whom?) and buys that ticket, there's no "oops - bought the wrong one" option as I read it, even if they walk across to the (open?) ticket office and admit their error.

[ChrisB]

Yes there is - reduced however from an hour to 15 minutes.

[Bob_Blakey]

The opinion of Messrs Harris & Bowker (Green Signals Podcast), and one with which I completely agree, is that if this process change is designed to fix a known issue - that of used but unscanned digital tickets being submitted for refund - then this is not the correct way to go about it; our government repeatedly tells us that the GBR^▸ (Great British Railways) run railways are going to become more cost effective and passenger customer focussed but all this does is inconvenience those whose travel plans unexpectedly change and/or, possibly, persuade people to buy cheaper Advance tickets (=less revenue) the day before a confirmed journey, or even worse make the use of the car a better option. A more sensible approach would be to ensure that, where installed, ticket gates are always active and, failing that, get the on-train staff to check tickets much more regularly than is presently the case.   

[Mark A]

The quote below is from the South Western Railways ticket selling site. Does the paragraph indicate that some circumstances that were formerly able to be addressed by the train manager now need to be sorted by either ticket office staff or the online ticket selling site that sold the original ticket?

Mark

Changes:

A ticket will need to be changed in order to travel to a destination further than where it was purchased to, change the route of the ticket, change the class of travel from Standard Class to First Class, or change the date of travel.Changes to tickets purchased online should be made by the retailer from which the ticket was bought. Staffed station ticket offices can also make changes in most cases, provided that this is done before the start of the journey.NOTE: A change to the date of travel can only be made BEFORE the date on which the ticket becomes valid for travel. Other alterations such as changes to the route or class of travel will be subject to a suitable alternative Anytime product being available. In some cases, it may be cheaper to purchase a new ticket.

[Oxonhutch]

How does this compare with the ticketting provisions of the National Rail Conditions of Travel, and if not, which is authoritative?

[Trowres]

The quote below ...
Mark

Hello Mark. Would you be able to provide a link to the web page that you quoted?

Thanks...

[grahame]

Various talks of changes to conditions of travel, on this thread and others, and yet the National Rail website where I would expect to find the definitive version - at https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/NRCOT/ includes only the current and previous version.

I will be travelling next week. Where can I read the conditions that will apply to me?

[ChrisB]

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/help-and-assistance/compensation-and-refunds/refunds-change/

[grahame]

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/help-and-assistance/compensation-and-refunds/refunds-change/

Thank you.   Yes, that tells us about the conditions on ticket refunds.    It does not tell us if there are any other changes coming up ... I was looking for a complete new set.

[ChrisB]

As they have to give 30 days notice, I suspect there aren't further changes.

I haven't yet seen a new full set anywhere either.

I'm still trying to find Mark A's quote on the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) website as I don't believe it is part of NRCoT

[Ralph Ayres]

I Googled a key phrase.  SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) are simply quoting from the NRE^▸ (National Rail Enquiries) list of changes for each ticket type on for example https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ticket-types/tickets/sdr/ (you need to expand the Refunds and Charges block).  It should therefore be authoritative, albeit a little vague ("should be made" and "in most cases" are unhelpfully imprecise) and certainly doesn't cover a change of plan after starting a journey but while still within the coverage of the original ticket.  Can you pay for the extra bit on-train if a suitable member of staff is available?

Incidentally, the NRE website continues to be an absolute mess.  I can't work out how to reach that page via a menu, and if you do instead drill down the menu layers from the front page you reach similar but even less detailed pages also mentioning the changes, so there are multiple sources to maintain.  I'm amused also to see old ticket type names still in use behind the scenes; replace "SDR" in the link with "CDR^▸ (Off Peak Day Return [ticket type] (formerly 'Cheap Day'))" for instance and you get a page about Off-peak Day tickets.  (Now I'm down a real rabbit-hole; SVR also took me where I expected it to, as did SDS, SOS and others)