[Travel] Can someone explain train fares

[arfer guinness]

A family member wishes to come down to Worthing by train. As an example, Victoria to Worthing return today quotes £34.50 super off peak return, ticket can be used on all available trains. Yet if I search Worthing to Victoria today it quotes £21.20 super off peak return, ticket can be used on all available trains. I called the national Rail helpline to ask if the ticket starting from Worthing could be used in reverse but, unfortunately, the operative had English as a second language and didn't seem to understand the question. Can the great and good on NSC explain this.

 

[Stephen Seagull]

A family member wishes to come down to Worthing by train. As an example, Victoria to Worthing return today quotes £34.50 super off peak return, ticket can be used on all available trains. Yet if I search Worthing to Victoria today it quotes £21.20 super off peak return, ticket can be used on all available trains. I called the national Rail helpline to ask if the ticket starting from Worthing could be used in reverse but, unfortunately, the operative had English as a second language and didn't seem to understand the question. Can the great and good on NSC explain this.

Maybe you should go and work in their country and take calls from the xenophobes in their language and then come back with your question

 

[arfer guinness]

Maybe you should go and work in their country and take calls from the xenophobes in their language and then come back with your question

I am not prejudiced to any foreign national. I don't know if the call centre was in this country or abroad. I am merely stating the conversation was difficult because she did not seem to understand my question.

 

[Machiavelli]

In short, they've been marketised. This means they make very little sense to those buying tickets, but do so for the vendors -- for whom, supply and demand will be a, if not the, key issue

 

[sparkie]

As far as I know it is possible in practice to use the return part of the ticket before the outbound journey, even if the rules don't actually permit it.

I assume that there are separate physical tickets for the both parts of the journey as the barrier at the end of the return leg may swallow the ticket I suppose

 

[dazzer6666]

A family member wishes to come down to Worthing by train. As an example, Victoria to Worthing return today quotes £34.50 super off peak return, ticket can be used on all available trains. Yet if I search Worthing to Victoria today it quotes £21.20 super off peak return, ticket can be used on all available trains. I called the national Rail helpline to ask if the ticket starting from Worthing could be used in reverse but, unfortunately, the operative had English as a second language and didn't seem to understand the question. Can the great and good on NSC explain this.

It’s purely commercial. In the rush hour the price differential will be more or less reversed.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Maybe you should go and work in their country and take calls from the xenophobes in their language and then come back with your question

It's not xenophobic to want to be able to converse in your mother tongue on a helpline designed to help people who speak your mother tongue and be understood by ( and indeed understand ) the operator the other end. It work in a company that provides IT Support to customers. We employ people who speak fluent English for our English speaking customers and people who are fluent in French for our French / Canadian customers. All of them get written and spoken tests before being employed. It's one reason we've rejected the offshore outsoucing model so loved by so many companis in the UK - they like the cheapness and don't care about the lanuage / accent barrier.

 

[arfer guinness]

As far as I know it is possible in practice to use the return part of the ticket before the outbound journey, even if the rules don't actually permit it.

I assume that there are separate phyical tickets for the both parts of the journey as the barrier at the end of the return leg may swallow the ticket I suppose

Thank you for that, it will be two separate tickets so to any guard or inspector a valid dated ticket is available.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

A family member wishes to come down to Worthing by train. As an example, Victoria to Worthing return today quotes £34.50 super off peak return, ticket can be used on all available trains. Yet if I search Worthing to Victoria today it quotes £21.20 super off peak return, ticket can be used on all available trains. I called the national Rail helpline to ask if the ticket starting from Worthing could be used in reverse but, unfortunately, the operative had English as a second language and didn't seem to understand the question. Can the great and good on NSC explain this.

Was there a gap in the search times? Super off peak works after 09:30 so wondered if you were looking just before and just after this time?

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

It's not xenophobic to want to be able to converse in your mother tongue on a helpline designed to help people who speak your mother tongue and be understood by ( and indeed understand ) the operator the other end. It work in a company that provides IT Support to customers. We employ people who speak fluent English for our English speaking customers and people who are fluent in French for our French / Canadian customers. All of them get written and spoken tests before being employed. It's one reason we've rejected the offshore outsoucing model so loved by so many companis in the UK - they like the cheapness and don't care about the lanuage / accent barrier.

I phoned Santander yesterday and was really struggling to understand the woman I was talking to, thinking she was based overseas in an outsourced call centre. After about 30 seconds the penny dropped that she was actually a Geordie.

 

[arfer guinness]

Was there a gap in the search times? Super off peak works after 09:30 so wondered if you were looking just before and just after this time?

I've checked various dates and it always gives a higher price Victoria Worthing return. The fare I quoted was a random one today both leaving at 12.30 and returning tonight at 20.00

 

[GT49er]

I phoned Santander yesterday and was really struggling to understand the woman I was talking to, thinking she was based overseas in an outsourced call centre. After about 30 seconds the penny dropped that she was actually a Geordie.

It's strange the amount of hypocracy there is floating around these days - 'I couldn't understand a word he/shwas saying, then I realised he she was a geordie/scouser/scottish or just a bit north of Watford' and it's 'ha ha, I know what you mean'.
'I couldn't understand what he/she was saying because his/her English was not good enough to be working as a call operator for a rail company in southern England' and whoops! The moral outrage button is triggrered and 'disgusted of xxxxx' is screaming about xenophobia/racism and advertising to the world that they are against it (even when it isn't there).

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Maybe you should go and work in their country and take calls from the xenophobes in their language and then come back with your question

Ay up, someone has woke up.

 

[British Bulldog]

A family member wishes to come down to Worthing by train. As an example, Victoria to Worthing return today quotes £34.50 super off peak return, ticket can be used on all available trains. Yet if I search Worthing to Victoria today it quotes £21.20 super off peak return, ticket can be used on all available trains. I called the national Rail helpline to ask if the ticket starting from Worthing could be used in reverse but, unfortunately, the operative had English as a second language and didn't seem to understand the question. Can the great and good on NSC explain this.

Tickets were far simpler in the old days of BR. There was a single, return and a cheap day return. Prices were the same in all directions.

 

[British Bulldog]

Maybe you should go and work in their country and take calls from the xenophobes in their language and then come back with your question

The whole idea of call centers is communication, if staff are unable to communicate with customers then the system breaks down no matter which country you're in?

 

[studio150]

A family member wishes to come down to Worthing by train. As an example, Victoria to Worthing return today quotes £34.50 super off peak return, ticket can be used on all available trains. Yet if I search Worthing to Victoria today it quotes £21.20 super off peak return, ticket can be used on all available trains. I called the national Rail helpline to ask if the ticket starting from Worthing could be used in reverse but, unfortunately, the operative had English as a second language and didn't seem to understand the question. Can the great and good on NSC explain this.

Super Off Peak is not available London/Worthing the £34.50 is the off peak fare, which is the same for Worthing/London if travelling off peak. The £21,20 is the super off peak, but the restrictions are for travelling into and out of London during the rush hour. There is not the same pressure if you are starting your Journey in London as you will generally be going against the flow.

You are not comparing like for like in terms of tickets, hence the difference in price.

 

[BBassic]

Maybe you should go and work in their country and take calls from the xenophobes in their language and then come back with your question

The distance of the jump required from what the OP said to how you've responded leads me to believe you should take up the long jump. Go for the Olympics.

 

[Durlston]

Train fares before 9am are an absolute scandal AND they have the audacity to strike!

Posties work in all conditions with no shelter. I have sympathy for them with the cost of living at the moment.

 

[pure_white]

I wish we could bring back Nationalised rail it would be so much easier. The crazy things like a ticket from A to F can sometimes cost more than breaking down your ticket and buying a ticket from A to B, another from B to C and another say from C to F is madness.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Train fares before 9am are an absolute scandal AND they have the audacity to strike!

Regardless of whether you support the strikers or not - the workers on srike are not the ones that set the price of the tickets. I agree with you about pre-9am tickets though.