watervole: (shock and awe)
Judith Proctor ([personal profile] watervole) wrote2007-10-10 12:55 pm
Entry tags:

Swearwords seem inadequate...

I've been struggling for over an hour to buy a rail ticket to Cambridge. You'd think it would be easy. Not so.

Trainline informed that there were no legal ways to travel between Poole and Cambridge on the desired dates. Another ticket site told me it could be done for £112 return.

Not believing either, I went back to the original site and split the journey into two separate return trips to London, whereupon it suddenly became possible for a mere £35.

However, this involved buying two separate tickets in succession and my debit card was declined for the second transaction. Far too many repeated attempts and phone calls later, I find that this is because it was assumed to be possible fraud. (So much for 'verified by Visa' and the extra password I correctly input for that)

I've now got to wait 10 mins for my card to be reinstated, by which time the train times I've set up on Trainline will probably have expired and I'll have to put all the data in yet AGAIN.

Nope - added ten mins later. At least I didn't have to put the train times in again. One small mercy.

Now, all I have to worry about is whether the tickets will make it safely through the postal strikes...

[identity profile] glitterboy1.livejournal.com 2007-10-10 01:24 pm (UTC)(link)
I think that, sometimes, actually going to the station in person can get better results than the online searches. That said, it's not always easy to get to the station, whereas the computer is always right there...

I'm glad you got it sorted out, though - how long have you got for the tickets to arrive?
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[identity profile] watervole.livejournal.com 2007-10-10 01:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I've got a couple of weeks, otherwise I wouldn't have risked it.

[identity profile] alex-holden.livejournal.com 2007-10-10 02:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Sometimes going to the station can result in a 15 minute argument with somebody who doesn't know how to work the ticket system and can't figure out how to get to anywhere more exotic than Preston or York without changing at Penzance.

[identity profile] johnrw.livejournal.com 2007-10-10 04:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Now, all I have to worry about is whether the tickets will make it safely through the postal strikes...

Does your station have Fastticket machines? if so you can avoid the postal hassles and pick them up direct from the machine at the station.

Also Trainline can allow you to book multiple journeys and then pay the once.

[identity profile] steverogerson.livejournal.com 2007-10-10 04:53 pm (UTC)(link)
I think given current postal strike, I'd have opted for fast ticket

[identity profile] qatsi.livejournal.com 2007-10-10 05:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Echoing what [livejournal.com profile] johnrw said, if your station has a ticket collection point it does seem to work quite well, though give yourself a bit of time to collect them, and remember to take the card and the booking reference number!
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[identity profile] watervole.livejournal.com 2007-10-10 05:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Except that Poole does not have one.
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[identity profile] watervole.livejournal.com 2007-10-10 05:09 pm (UTC)(link)
No Fastticket machine - I checked when I bought the ticket.

I needed to have two windows open at once to be able to correlate the train times for the two separate journeys - hence the two separate payments.

[identity profile] johnrw.livejournal.com 2007-10-10 08:16 pm (UTC)(link)
I've not tried having multiple windows open in trainline but I have on Amazon (well tabs in Firefox actually) and their software copes with my having four open at once.
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[identity profile] watervole.livejournal.com 2007-10-10 08:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Trainline doesn't cope well with it at all. After a while, you find the windows suddenly getting the data from the other window when you try to change something, which is a right pain.
ext_8057: nerosmaster (Default)

[identity profile] nerosmaster.livejournal.com 2007-10-10 05:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Trainline may bave been correct, depending on what day you are travelling. Cambridge is currently a train free zone from the London direction (both routes) at the weekends, so part of the journey may be by bus replacement service.
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[identity profile] watervole.livejournal.com 2007-10-10 06:21 pm (UTC)(link)
It'll happily sell you a ticket that is part rail replacement. It did that two weeks ago when I was going to Wellyn Garden City and I had to have a bus part of the way. They even put the bus details on the ticket they sent me.

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