Great Western Coffee Shop

Look at the first 4 minutes of this shocking video:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19304801

The "expert" that comes on seems to think that there is once all the advance purchse tickets have gone, there is an "advance" fare that is availiable until midnight the night before. Umm... :-\ ???

Later she says that "sites that charge a fee often have cheaper tickets than TOC websites". Isn't that factually wrong? Basicallt she is advertising "theTrainLine". ::)

I think someone should who knows whether I am right or not should complain to the BBC and get them to make corrections.

The tips do not include splitting or starting/ending short either! >:(

Alison Rice seemed to be struggling with getting her points across and appeared flustered and muddled. Nervous at appearing on the TV perhaps, although that shouldn't be the case, she's been in front of cameras many times.

No big deal really, the bullet points were all correct. The subject is so complex that giving it just a few minutes was never going to do it justice. The BBC should give over half an hour and bring in Barry Doe as the 'expert'. Then they might just do the subject of rail tickets some service.

What she said toward the end was, "sometimes, internet booking sites, although they may charge a fee, can be cheaper than the train line sites."

Totally confused but she didn't mention TOC sites. Buying online can be cheaper from a TOC website for travel with that TOC, and that TOC website may charge a postage fee, but there won't be any other fees.

One of the biggest potential ways to save wasn't mentioned at all. Split ticketing!

Complain if you want to, Btline (why should someone do it on your behalf?), but I don't think it's worth the effort. The BBC won't broadcast any correction.

Perhaps complain to the 'expert' herself:

https://twitter.com/alisonrice
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/alison-rice/7/974/297

Ok, perhaps it's not as bad as I originally thought...

But I still don't understand what she was saying about those "advances" (not AP tickets but her own made up fare). It's really bad to make people think that Off peak retuns bought beforehand are cheaper! >:(

I once heard on the BBC (Martin Lewis, I think) that you can even phone up on the way to the station in the morning to get advances - utter rubbish.

PS: Don't use social networking sites :P And I wasn't asking someone to do it for me. ;)

The bit about railcards only mentioned a "network railcard which gives discounts on most train journeys".  Well, yes, most off peak journeys in the former Network SouthEast area.

Travel expert ...... I would do better if I had a punt at brain surgery! Why do we pay our licence fee for this?? I expected better from the bbc!!