Great Western Coffee Shop

First Great Western in conjunction with thetrainline.com are offering Off-Peak fares starting at just ^1.


Full details and booking can be found on the dedicated webpage: http://gr8traintickets.co.uk/

These tickets are only available as 'Print@Home' or 'Mobitix'

Good to see FGW adopting the print-your-own-ticket approach.  Having this across the network would be ideal for those of us living near unmanned stations who book tickets close to the date of travel.

Some good deals to be had there.  And FGW are sensibly avoiding anything that's originated from the Cotswolds or anything already very busy like the 09:01ex Oxford.  The first off-peak train and recently downgraded to a 3-car Turbo!


It would be, yes.  Just a matter of time I'm sure.  Though there remain several issues - the website even going as far as recommending that users of iPhones and Blackberry Pearls don't use the simplest Mobitix option.

That website has been around for ages - not new at all :)

New to me.  ;) And I'm fairly sure, new to this forum.

Now I'm wondering why FGW don't link to it from the 'Special Offers' page of their website? Has there been any publicity about the offer?

Not sure how well advertised - obviously not very as you would have been aware - I'm surprised I didn't post about it when it came out - so I do apologise :(

What a contrast to all the discussion of late about the fare rises this week. On one hand it's never been more expensive to travel by train. On the other it's never been cheaper.

The mobitix/print@home/whatever they are called have been 'advertised' in themanual for a few editions now.

I have also seen people showing me a giant A4 ticket for a while now as well. Also thinking to myself what a waste of ink.

Am I right in thinking these tickets are time limited to a particular period of time (say 1001-1058) rather than to a specific service?

No.

Same conditions as an Advance type ticket.

Ahh.... that was me misreading the table of available trains on the booking engine. Must learn to read column headers!

Are the guards/RPIs on this route equipped with 2D barcode scanners or have they gone for the Megatrain method of simply printing out a list of all tickets sold and giving this to the guard?

To be honest, there's hardly ever any revenue coverage on the Oxford to Paddington fast trains.  Turbos, which form the majority of the trains within the offer run DOO.  Oxford, Didcot, Reading, Slough and most of Paddington are barriered, so there's very little revenue to protect.

I did not even know they offered a mobile phone option.  The only ones I have seen are print at home. You have to show the card you bought them with on the train.  Last four digits of which are printed on the ticket.

on the A4 tickets Revenue would rely on you carrying the identifying documentation which matches the 4 digits (your credit card).

The other style tickets have the journey details in text as well as barcode.

I know I shall need to travel to/from London at specific times/dates in the future, so was looking to buy tickets from gr8tickets, but it seems to have disappeared. Does anyone know whether this "unique?" site still functions?  Thanks.

The special offer fares via gr8tickets.co.uk are no longer available unfortunately. Standard Class Advance Purchase tickets between London and Oxford currently range between ^4.00 - ^12.50.