Great Western Coffee Shop

The TVM at Melksham has now been switched on and you can buy tickets for immediate travel on credit or debit card from the front panel.   You can also collect pre-ordered tickets, ending the absurd situation that you had to make a journey to Chippenham to collect your tickets before travelling from Melksham.

As yet, the online booking system at FGW doesn't offer Melksham collection - but I have tried it out and - YES - I can collect pre-ordered tickets.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/mkm_tvm_0.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/mkm_tvm_6.jpg)

Glad it's working now. The FGW Website will be updated tomorrow to allow Melksham as a collection point.

At last!

The online booking engine offering 'collect from station x' is highly misleading. From personal experience, you can collect your ticket from ANY STATION with a TVM offering collection of pre-booked tickets. I have on several occasions picked up pre-booked tickets from a station other than that specified in the booking.

Correct. I have already collected tickets which I ordered for "Collection at Chippenham" from the machine at Melksham.

The choice is really only there to ensure a customer realises that there are some stations without TVMs. If they just provided a link to a list of stations with TVMs, then it's easy to imagine people wouldn't bother checking until they got to the station without a TVM.

Oh - I totally agree.  The corollary, I'm afraid, is that many people only order tickets for collection at listed machines. I have heard of them making significant journeys to collect when their prior-to-travel plans have changed.   

I'm assured " Hi Graham, sorry about this. It will go on in the next couple of weeks." - talking about the list - which is good news. In general, a footnote or change to "preferred collection station" might tune the system better.

Oh - THANK YOU  Ollie ... Missed this in my earlier post.

Not a problem - I sorted it out just after 1100 when I got to the office, so you can now choose Melksham :)

Fantastic - Thanks!

Wonderfully THERE and our FaceBook friends are delighted.

They had a follow up question ...

"Can tickets already ordered prior to the machine being turned on and in the system be collected from the Melksham Machine".   I would guess they can but tweeted first thing this morning for confirmation:


And got a reply within a few minutes


Which was really rather odd because it already was first thing in the morning (actually rather after first thing) but never mind.

Anyway - I have heard nowt since.

Anyone know the answer or will I have to wait until first thing in the morning?  ;D

Graham - shouldn't be any issues collecting tickets that were purchased before the option to collect at Melksham was available.

Many thanks, Ollie - that was my educated guess, but I didn't want to say something wrong.

Now there is a facility to buy tickets at Melksham, is there any good reason why it shouldn't come under the Penalty Fare Scheme? The only argument I can think of is that many passengers using Melksham are still relatively new to rail travel, and may not know the ropes (and be discouraged from future travel if they get a PF), but other than that, it would appear to be an anomaly to keep it excluded.

The new machine does not accept cash, as far as I am aware.

That's true of many, and it's an acceptable reason to board a train if you only have cash and a TVM is the only means of payment. A bit of an anomaly, although probably better than TVM's being trashed at tens of thousands each time, just to nick a couple of hundred quid.

Having only bought tickets at a TVM or from a human being, how do pre-booked tickets work - do you have to purchase a specific seat on a specific train? And how do you obtain tickets from the machine? Also what if the machine is out of order?
Thanks in advance!

I think you are merging two separate things here.   You can buy tickets 'in advance' and you can also buy an 'Advance' ticket type.  Many people still refer to the latter as an 'Advance Purchase' fare, but this name is not used on the ticket any longer.

If you buy an 'Advance' ticket type online and select collection from a TVM, then as part of the purchase process you will have selected a specific train, (or trains) and you will also be given compulsory reservations.  The latter will usually allocate a seat, but with some TOCs they will simply allocate you a specific train.

If you buy an 'Anytime' or 'Off-peak' fare online, and again select collection from a TVM, you go through the same basic process of selecting a train time, so that you can be shown the appropriate ticket type for when you want to travel, but reservations are slightly different here, because they are effectively optional.  Some TOC retail systems (e.g. SWT's to my knowledge) will ask if you wish to have a reservation or not.  You may for instance know your intended outward journey time but wish to remain flexible on the return. This would be OK.

The difference is the Anytime and Off-peak fares allow you to use different trains to those you may have reservations for. This is not a problem.

The actual process of collection is basically that you are emailed a summary of what you have bought, and it will include an 'instruction' section something like this example:


At the machine, you choose the collection option and follow the prompts, you'll have to insert your payment card for ID, and then enter the collection reference.

If the TVM is out of order, either go to the ticket office or consult the guard, or lastly staff at the destination.

Hope this helps

Paul

Hi Paul,
Many thanks for your comprehensive and knowledgable reply - most helpful!

I suppose my question relates to buy-on-the-day tickets 'in advance' as an alternative to queuing at a ticket office. At my home station (Swindon), there is a TVM (often a queue at busy times). There is also a separate machine (no queue!) for the collection of pre-booked/pre-paid  tickets, which I would like to use, but not be tied to a particular seat or train, dependant on time of day of course.

I will give it a go on my next journey!

Rob

I've been using pre-ordered walk up tickets for a few years with no problems whatsoever. (At least since 2010 given the email I found to get the example!)

The main reason I do so is that my local TOC's TVMs are set up so that the 'offpeak' fare I want only becomes available on the screen once all the earlier trains (for which the tickets aren't valid) have left.  Add to this the Network Railcard option not appearing until shortly before 1000 on weekdays, this can give a very short window of opportunity if there's a big queue at the TVM or ticket office window.

Buying before leaving home allows a much more leisurely pickup on arrival at the station, without having to wait for those delaying factors...

Paul

I almost always buy my tickets online in advance now, even if they are just walk-up fares.

I would rather know in advance how much my journey will cost and what the restrictions are, rather than have to query what you've been sold, e.g. walk up to any ticket office and ask for "an off peak return from Clifton Down to Cosham" - seven times out of ten, you'll get sold the 'Not Via London' ticket rather than the more logical (and cheaper) 'Via Salisbury' fare.  At almost every ticket office, you're guaranteed a tut from the staff when telling them the ticket they've quoted is not the one you wish to buy.

There are also Nectar points to be collected on First and Virgin East Coast; Virgin Atlantic miles on Virgin West Coast; and cashback through various sites.

The other thing to bear in mind is the possibility of losing tickets if you collect them too far in advance.  I misplaced my ticket wallet (containing my railcard, single from Cambridge to Edinburgh for next day, single from Stansted to Cambridge for later in week and a couple of Plus Bus tickets) in Wetherspoons at the weekend.  Fortunately someone handed it in at the bar, otherwise it would've been ^125.60 just to replace one of the tickets (ouch).