Ticket machines up to 154% more expensive
Online prices are lower, watchdog finds
TRAIN passengers using selfservice ticket machines face rip-off prices, an investigation has revealed.
Consumer group Which? found machines that charge up to 154% more than buying the same ticket online.
The research did not look at ticket office prices as part of its investigation, but it found a big difference between ticket machine and online prices.
A same-day, one-way ticket from Holmes Chapel in Cheshire to London cost £66 on the machine yet just £26 with a split-ticket on website Trainline.
The Mirror has previously shown how passengers get some of the best prices from ticket office staff.
It was one reason for the uproar over plans by train companies to shut almost all ticket offices in England last year.
These were axed after a campaign by the Mirror and others.
The closures would have meant passengers who were not able, or not willing, to book tickets online having to using self-serve machines at stations instead.
But as well as sometimes being out of action, or hard to use, they often fail to offer the best prices.
Most machines do not offer advance fares, which often work out cheaper.
Depending on the route, these can be available up to 10 minutes before departure. But just five of 15 machines tested by Which? offered them.
Ticket office staff are able to advise on how to get the cheapest ticket possible – often by splitting tickets for different sections of the journey.
They are also skilled in giving tips on the best routes and helping disabled passengers or those with special needs.
While the axe has been lifted from ticket offices, passengers still face difficulties using counters.
Just one in six of 1,766 stations under Department for Transport control has full-time ticket office staff.
Some 40% are staffed part-time and 43% do not have a ticket office.
Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said: “The differences we found between booking online and using station ticket machines were simply astounding. “Millions of tickets are purchased using ticket machines every year, so huge numbers of us are potentially paying significantly more than we need to. We’d recommend booking tickets online, but that isn’t possible for everyone.
“Significant numbers of elderly people don’t have internet access, leaving them with little choice but to run the gauntlet of ticket machines.”
Booking rail tickets online is the best option but it isn’t possible for everyone
RORY BOLAND
TRAVEL EDITOR AT WHICH?