FGW ditch Trainline for the ATOS WebTIS 'Mixing Deck'

[whole diary]

[old original]

Received the email below from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) stating that they were changing their booking system in November and that they were taking the responsibilty under data protection for my details.


"We will be changing our online booking system during November and, in accordance with our obligations to you under the Data Protection Act 1998, we are writing to you to notify you of the change in data controller from thetrainline.com to ourselves as a result of this change.

What does this mean to you?
 Your retail contract will be exclusively with,

 First Great Western Limited
 Milford House
 1 Milford Street
 Swindon
 SN1 1HL

 Company registration number 05113733

Your account
 When you first sign back in to book your next ticket, you will be asked to acknowledge and accept the First Great Western Privacy Policy. "


Anybody have any further info?

[the void]

yes. moving over to the atos mixing deck i.e. the same as redspottedhanky.com but branded as fgw.

[vacman]

Good! trainline are awful, whenever im working a train and someone starts by saying "Umm excuse me, i've got a problem with my ticket...." then it's usually accompanied by them holding a trainline ticket envelope, then heart sinks!

[JayMac]

I've just had this news confirmed by @FGW^▸ (First Great Western) on twitter.

https://twitter.com/JustinMcAree/status/259966386955239424

Most excellent. Some nice cashback tie-in like Southern would be good as well...

[old original]

sound like good news all 'round

[bobm]

I assume that will mean changes to the iPhone app as well.

[Brucey]

I hope they don't use the new Mixing Deck interface, like Red Spotted Hanky occasionally provides.  I find this more difficult to use than The Train Line.

[JayMac]

I've found that by bookmarking redspottedhanky.com I always get the 'classic' interface.

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

Good, I'm glad that first have seen sence and decided to distance themselfs from these rip off merchants this is very very very good news for passengers

[Brucey]

I have received an email from First TransPennine Express along the same lines as the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) email.  Looks like they are switching to WebTIS also.

Any ideas who will be doing the ticket fulfilment?  I believe Southern outsource (or did outsource) theirs to a company in Gatwick, whereas East Coast do the fulfilment in-house.

[Brucey]

This came from Affiliate Window today.  They are the advertising agency who act as the middleman between myself and First TransPennine Express for advertising on my website.

First TransPennine Express - New Booking Engine

From approximately 12am until 6am on Thursday 8th November our booking engine pages will be offline and under maintenance while we undertake work to change booking engine providers.  This will effect people trying to buy tickets between these times as this won't be possible.

We have been working with the new provider to ensure all tracking is in place to make sure that tracking and sales are not affected once the new site goes live tomorrow morning.  However, we ask that publishers are patient as this is a big move and we can't be 100% certain there won't be some small bugs to iron out.

We believe the new booking engine will offer customers a far better buying experience, making it easier for them to purchase the best value ticket for their journey, increasing conversion and sales.  The main work will be complete by 6am on Thursday, however, we will be working on the site over the coming weeks to ensure that everything is working properly.

For any queries please contact

Vickie Tennant
E-commerce Manager

[JayMac]

First Capital Connect have already moved over to WebTIS Mixing Deck:

http://tickets.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/cc/en/JourneyPlanning/MixingDeck

[Southern Stag]

And so have FGW^▸ (First Great Western) now.
http://tickets.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/gw/en/JourneyPlanning/MixingDeck

Booking sleeper berths seems simpler than on The Trainline booking engine. But the most significant development in my opinion is the ability to buy Rovers online, albeit only Rovers valid in the FGW area. I believe this is a first for online booking engines, certainly a welcome improvement.

http://tickets.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/gw/en/journeyplanning/roversandrangers

[JayMac]

I was fortunate enough to see some screencaps of the new booking engine before it went 'live' and I'm glad to see that nearly all of the 'in area' Rovers and Rangers have made it onto the new booking platform.

Hopefully other areas' Rovers and Rangers will be added at a later date. It'll be nice when planning a trip to other parts of the country to be able to purchase an area specific ticket along with the necessary ticket to get you there.


Moderator Note: To reflect the confirmation of the change by FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to the WebTIS 'Mixing Deck' booking engine I've taken the liberty of re-titling this thread from the original question 'FGW Ditching Trainline?' to something more suitable.

[Brucey]

It is worth noting that rovers and rangers are not available via. ToD, only by post.