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According to a study, travellers who buy tickets from station vending machines have to pay up to twice the value of an online booking.
A same-day, one-way ticket from Holmes Chapel in Cheshire to London cost £66 at the station’s ticket machine but online the same trip was £26, a 156% difference, according to consumer group Which?.
Someone buying a one-way ticket on the same day from Northampton to Cardiff would have paid £107 for their ticket at the machine, which is 148% more than buying it online, where the value is just £43.
Overall, fares purchased online were less expensive about three-quarters of the time, and on average, same-day rides charge 52% more at vending machines. In 2022, about 12% of fare tickets were purchased from a fare ticket vending machine, or about 150 million rides.
The facilities presented through other ticket vending machines can vary widely, causing passengers to face a limited selection and, as a result, higher prices.
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One of the main reasons ticket machines are more expensive is that maximum fares don’t offer “upfront” fares, i. e. less expensive fares that can be purchased before the trip. Depending on the route, you may even be able to get them. up to 10 minutes before departure.
Rory Boland, editor-in-chief of Which? Travel, said: “The differences in value we saw between booking online and the ticket vending machines at the station were simply astounding. Millions of tickets are bought from vending machines every year, which means many of us are potentially paying a lot more. of what we need when we commute to work or visit friends and family across the country.
“Wherever possible we’d recommend booking train tickets online for the cheapest options, but that won’t be possible for everyone. Significant numbers of elderly people don’t have internet access at all — leaving them with little choice but to run the gauntlet of ticket machines which either don’t offer the best prices, or make it difficult to find the appropriate fares.”
Currently, only one in six of the 1,766 stations controlled through the Ministry of Transport has a full-time ticket price; 40% work part-time and 43% do not have a ticket at all.
He also warned that exercise passengers can also be easily misled through the validity of their tickets, as many machines do not clearly indicate at what times and for which facilities certain tickets are valid.
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If there is no one at the station to call for help, passengers face a fine of £50 plus the value of a new ticket for their journey.
Using the machines can also be problematic for those looking to book their tickets electronically weeks in advance. For example, the Great Western machines at major stations, in addition to Oxford and Paddington, only sold tickets for same-day and next-day trips.
Which sent mystery shoppers to 15 stations (each operated by another exercise operator) and compared the value of 75 trips from a value ticketing device with the price available on the UK’s largest value ticketing site, Trainline.
Mark Plowright, head of Virgin Trains Ticketing, said the difference was likely to be even greater.
“It’s important to note that the report only compares Trainline and doesn’t look at prices presented through other online stores using points, prizes and other benefits, so the price gap is much larger,” he said.
“Rail retail is a developing market, and the exchange between apps like Virgin Trains Ticketing generates great prices for consumers who own a smartphone; However, all rail passengers deserve to get the best price for their trip, regardless of where they buy their tickets. ” he said. Added.
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