Thetownend.com

Right, tomorrow i have to go to rugby from slough for a training course. i will be making this journey by train. i will be leaving slough. i bought my return ticket from slough station earlier for the princely sum of £25.90. Now the person i'm going with has informed me they tried getting the same ticket and were quoted £100+. Then i got thinking that perhaps 25.90 is quite cheap for a ticket heading through london at peak time. however, as the below pictures will prove, this is what was said to me on a multitude of websites.

[url width=800 height=500]http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m290/abbottd/train.jpg[/url]

[url width=800 height=500]http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m290/abbottd/sloughtorugby2.jpg[/url]

[url width=800 height=500]http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m290/abbottd/sloughtorugby.jpg[/url]

If i have to buy another ticket tomorrow morning its not the end of the world because i claim it all back on expenses. But we dont get paid untill the end of the month, which would cause a cash flow difficulty. and im worried about getting fined a big amount if i do have the wrong ticket. Please can someone re-assure me that i am alright. thanks.

looks fine to me.

You aint got the wrong ticket...ticket prices are a lottery and half the time its just luck...my friend ordered a ticket from Swindon to Swansea and they sent him 6.....they havnt got a clue....your tik is fine.

From the pictures you will need to get the 6.59 train from slough and the 17.24 train back.

so if you are getting these trains you are fine :D

If you have the orange edged tickets read them carefully,if there is a 'valid at' subtitle & a time then you can only use the tickets on the train specified. Otherwise if the tickets just say Start date 16Jul then you can get on any train at any time from slough to rugby.

Yep, chances are you have bought tickets only valid on one specific train, saves you a lot but if you miss it you're screwed.

aye i will be departing at 6.59, and im not exactly looking forward to getting up at half 5 tomorrow morning. I have an off peak return, theres no issues there is there?

I'm surprised you can an off peak for pre-9am. Do they still give you easier off-peak times if you've got a railcard or am I remembering that wrong?

No. I've never been told my ticket is wrong and i always buy off peak returns & travel at all sorts of times.

Not too sure how strict they are though if going through london

Have your mates got 16-25 Railcards?

I just checked the prices for the same journey the same day next week - without the Railcard it is £100+ and with it the same as the price you got. So I'd say that explains the difference in prices, either they haven't got a Railcard or they didn't say they had one when they got the price quote.

The route definitely shows as going through London and on the underground as well. They are still showing the same ticket for tomorrow at the price you paid, so you can print off the route for proof if you're worried.

Peak is 7-9.30 through paddington, if you are going that way you will get problems if off peak.

that nugget of information may just allow me to sleep easily tonight. i just put in the exact same information into the exact same website without the railcard, and it offers no off peak return at 6.59, and anytime returns of £115. Thanks to all

Aye i did pretty much the exact same process as you with the exact same results, coming to the exact same conclusion!

Try and pick up someones used tickets, you'll be quids in when you claim it back .

mwahahaha

Slough and Rugby in one day. You lucky bugger!

Dave,

It's about 85 miles, why not drive?

I don't think Dave drives.

I hope he made it.

be funny if you lot were wrong!

no car.

right....my mate who was going with a railcard told me last night he could only get a £75 return. this made me panic, so i went to the ticket office with all the pieces of paper and screenshots from yesterday, whereby the man tells me the internet must be wrongand if i try to go on with the ticket i had i WOULD get fined. rather than risk this i decided to go for the safe option, and to be fair the ticket office man only made me pay 50 rather than 75.

BUT

in euston walking to get on the train, the barrier man looks at me and my mates tickets (the 75 ones) and informs us we could have got off peak ones because of our railcards



I HATE ROYAL MAIL

Write in and complain, photocopy any tickets you were able to keep hold of.

The ticketing system on the trains is so complex that none of the staff understand it, much less the passengers.

i was able to keep all of the tickets. however the ticket man told me that all complaints have been outsourced to dehli, so i dont really want to waste the stamp

How would you get fined? Aren't all the tickets checked by the machines?

Surely the worst that would have happened is the machine not letting you through, at which point you could just explain to the person on the machines. Besides, its not your fault if an official ticket seller issued tickets incorrectly - no way in hell they could hold you responsible for that.

i was thinking more along the lines of the person on the train seeing, and if not getting a fine then getting hassle which would have made me late. oh well, at least i know for next time

Dave you make me laugh, you worry too much, I honestly thought you'd wing it :D

Send it to some Newspaper or other and get them to shout at people.

I'm in between student loans/ pay cheques. moneys tight


haha the mail would have a field day

hehe I know, I just had visions of you clambering on top/underneath the train to avoid the ticket man!

Or hiding in the toilet, ala Samdy!

Do they still have people checking tickets on the train?

I thought all the stations had ticket machines now, so you couldn't get on and off without a valid ticket.

Sshh!

No doing that for Gillingham, got myself a proper ticket this time :D

Not all stations have barriers, and not all trains have ticket inspectors. its a mess



There is one brightside to today though, i got to go on the tilting train. that was AWESOME

and i almost forgot the biggest news of all


i saw TV's john snow on the train!!! woop