On 22 Sep 2013 at 5:15pm How much??? wrote:
Asked for two adult and one child travel cards at the ticket office the other day. Young woman on duty says cheapest is a group ticket at £60 !!!!
I don't think so says I. Adult ticket around £24 and child travels for a quid
So whole lot for under £50
What annoys me is that if you hadn't traveled for a long time or you were a foreigner you'd end up being ripped off
I'm not suggesting she deliberately tried to rip me off or just didn't know her job. She certainly didn't apologise when I informed her of the correct tariffs
On 22 Sep 2013 at 7:16pm Agreed wrote:
£4.70 return to Brighton - complete rip-off!
On 22 Sep 2013 at 7:24pm The Old Mayor wrote:
Trouble is the Train should be a turn up and pay system, unfortunately the operators have turned the ticketing system more akin to air travel, which as we all know means some travellers have paid £1 and others hundreds !! The same is happening to buses, online tickets are cheaper than on the bus. # outofhand do we have a Transport Minister ? Oh yes # notmuchbloodygood
On 22 Sep 2013 at 7:40pm 8 miles from home wrote:
If you do your own research before you travel you can ask for the right ticket/travel card or purchase tickets in advance. Help yourself instead of keep blaming others.
On 22 Sep 2013 at 8:26pm rookie wrote:
I have had to complain twice about the ticket office staff at Lewes. Twice they have wrongly insisted that my discount card is not valid for the journey I wished to make. One of those occasions the bloke was quite rude when I suggested he was wrong. I got refunds eventually with a generic letter explaining their plans for improving staff training. I carry a copy of the relevant Southern website page with my card now ready for the next time I have problems.
On 22 Sep 2013 at 9:25pm passenger wrote:
*miles from home' yes, I do agree it is a good idea to do some research, but I do not think it is unreasonable to expect the person selling tickets to be able to sell the ticket most people require, i.e. , the cheapest, and indeed, I think it is a contractual obligation, if the cheapest is requested. The person posting hasn't blamed staff, and is rightly drawing people's attention to a problem that has been experienced. You also presume that everyone uses the internet, and a lot of people , including train passengers, do not. Passengers shouldn't need be jumping through hoops to get a simple best-priced ticket.
On 22 Sep 2013 at 10:13pm Renationalise the trains wrote:
Absolutely right.Renationalise the railways.
On 22 Sep 2013 at 10:51pm southern shites wrote:
Interestingly Norman Baker earlier this week was urging train companies to bring in season tickets for part time workers - say 3 days a week. They were selecting a company/ commuter route to trail it on. But in his own constituency, the train provider, Southern, has discontinued the dayside peak tickets allowing advance purchase of 5 tickets for unlimited travel on southern trains on separate specific days for £100 - ie £20 each. This was a godsend for part time workers who commute to London on different days (like myself) , but I haven't heard Baker complain about its withdrawal. So I now have to pay nearly £90 a week for my ticket as opposed to £60 for 3 days.
Southern could have led the way here.
On 22 Sep 2013 at 11:10pm ex lib-dem voter wrote:
Norman who?
On 22 Sep 2013 at 11:27pm D Cameron wrote:
SS - why should you get a discount just because you're too lazy to work full time?
Check it out here »
On 23 Sep 2013 at 10:28am ar10642 wrote:
For future reference, the cheapest ticket to London from Lewes (with Underground) is the Super Off-Peak at £22.10. Or just to Victoria with no Travelcard element (so walk or use Oyster card) for £16.90. No travelling in the rush hour(s) on those though.
On 23 Sep 2013 at 11:17am lewes resident wrote:
generally the staff at Lewes station are rude and unhelpful IMO
On 23 Sep 2013 at 11:32am Rookie wrote:
I disagree with that Lewes Resident. Most of them are fine. But there is one bloke there who has an attitude problem who I have crossed swords with.
On 24 Sep 2013 at 4:01am Fairmeadow wrote:
Last time I had to go to London (early 2013) you could get a one-day travelcard that allowed this from the tourist shop for £12 return (purchased the day before travel). I thought that was quite good. Doesn't cover the tube - but then I have a bus pass!
On 24 Sep 2013 at 4:06pm Earl of De Montfort wrote:
The ticket machines are designed to hide the cheap fares and present the most expensive by default. You have to hunt the cheap ones out. Also, it's cheaper to get a ticket to London from Brighton as this line is subsidised
On 24 Sep 2013 at 5:19pm ar10642 wrote:
The Super Off Peak is not particularly hidden, you just select Travelcard and it is one of the available choices assuming it's after the time they're valid. There is a strong argument that there are too many ticket choices, but be careful what you wish for - the first ones to go in any kind of "simplification" will be the cheap ones.
Also I'm not saying that the privatisation has been done in the right way, but what makes people think that some sort of new version of BR would be particularly cheaper or better? My memories of the old BR days were ancient, clapped out slam-door rolling stock, neglected stations with peeling paint and tickets that still weren't particularly cheap even at the time.
The picture in the link might bring back some memories for some.
View the picture »
On 24 Sep 2013 at 10:13pm Belladonna wrote:
The cheapest tickets are the day save - book able in advance online , or the daily ones can be bought at tourist office. Offer unlimited use of Southern trains during peak or off peak hours. The off peak is £14, the peak is £35 and the weekly peak is £87. Well hidden on the Southern website and you can't buy at the station.
On 25 Sep 2013 at 7:21am Sussex Jim wrote:
The trains in ar's picture were more comfortable than the modern ones, and would be my choice any day. Pity about the litter,though.
On 25 Sep 2013 at 9:31am Could Do Better. wrote:
doesn't the picture show privatised trains?
Norman Baker, who has access to Government we can only dream of, seems to think that the best use of his time, to improve the railways, is to prioritise his precious efforts on a pet project of 'restoring' a piece of railway that disappeared almost 50 years ago.
some people use their gifts wisely, and others.....
On 25 Sep 2013 at 10:50am ar10642 wrote:
No, those are in Network SouthEast livery, which was very much BR. Some people did prefer those old trains, but I think most people at the time were glad to see the back of them. And if you were disabled, being left in the guards van was probably not that nice.
My point was I think there's a certain amount of rose-tinted glasses going on with the railway. There was never a time people weren't complaining about them, privatised or not, and they have always been relatively expensive. The important thing is that even though there are big question marks about the structure of how the privatisation was set up and how much subsidy is being paid to the private companies, there at least has been some investment now. You have new trains, stations that aren't completely falling apart, the "BR sandwich" is thankfully a thing of the past, and we can't get away with things like "maintenance holidays" on branch lines (yes, they really did happen in the glorious BR days)
On 25 Sep 2013 at 1:35pm one way ticket wrote:
no, we are just getting the same flawed service, at higher ticket prices, still with massive subsidies, and meanwhile in a tax haven somewhere sits a load of cash.
(I think the train stock pictured was used long after privatisation, although the rubbish does have more of a turnover)
On 25 Sep 2013 at 2:33pm ar10642 wrote:
OWT - what makes you think any of that would change if it were to go back into public hands? You're pretty vague about what is flawed with the service. If you're talking about seats or frequency of service, the Brighton line is simply at capacity. Without massively disruptive and incredibly expensive upgrades to the main line you simply can't have any more trains, or longer trains.
Believe it or not, season tickets to London are already subsidised because the discounted rate on the tickets does not cover the intensive service required to shift all these people upwards of 500 miles per week (in the case of London to Brighton) at around 15 pence per mile assuming 20 working days per month. If you want better value for the tax payer you're going to need to *increase* the prices for season tickets, not reduce them.
The price is also a product of supply and demand. And since demand is high they can charge high prices in the peak. This would not change under public ownership.
The real question is why, in 2013, we need to be shifting all these people to and from offices where they are going to be sitting at a computer all day.