New Evening Out fare still not widely known about

[whole diary]

[PhilWakely]

Last week, my daughter needed to catch the train from Pinhoe into Exeter in the afternoon. I told her about the new Evening Out fare. When she returned home later, I asked her what fare she paid and she said 'Off-Peak Return' and showed me her Return ticket. She then told me that the Evening Out ticket was not offered on the TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine).

With a little time on my hands earlier this afternoon, I did a quick mini-survey of the twenty or so folk waiting for the 12:30; 13:30 and 14:30 trains into Exeter. Only two were aware of the Evening Out fare and both of them said that it was not offered on the TVM.

I had a look at the TVM and the front screen only offers the Anytime and Off-Peak fares on the quick selections. You only come across the Evening Out fare if you drill down through the A-Z list of stations and available fares.

Yes, I know that the fare was advertised on the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) website, but only the two pax mentioned above used the website. All other pax just turn up and go to the ticket machine.

Not good SWR!

[ChrisB]

The quicker way is to select the off-peak equivalent, then use the ‘change’ button against the fare type on the subsequent screen. It then shows all available fares for that journey.

Discoveredthis looking for the evening out fare this weekend with time to spare. Are you aware that it exists in single format as well as day return? And appears to be available all weekend too, so it out to be renamed!

Agree that it ought to be upfront, but as I understand these front screens, they can change only between peak times and off-peak times and not subsequently later in the day. This would require changes to the national programme which TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) without these type of fares obviously don’t want to contribute towards, thus leaving those TOCs that do an expensive upgrade.

That’s the explanation, I don’t think it’s right. But if the TOC didn’t bring in those fares (assuming that they had to pay for the upgrade if they did), would the customer prefer to lose out?

[PhilWakely]

The quicker way is to select the off-peak equivalent, then use the ‘change’ button against the fare type on the subsequent screen. It then shows all available fares for that journey.

Thanks Chris, I was not aware of that method. I'll investigate.

Discoveredthis looking for the evening out fare this weekend with time to spare. Are you aware that it exists in single format as well as day return? And appears to be available all weekend too, so it out to be renamed!

Yes, I was aware that it is available as a Single. Sadly, it is NOT available all weekend. There is a Sunday Out equivalent available all Sunday, but Saturday before 12noon will only give you the Off-Peak Return.

If it is 'too expensive' to update the software to allow for these TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) specific fares, then the far simpler modification of a notice at the top of the front screen to say that 'Cheaper fares may be available. <followed by suitable wording pointing the customer at the correct screen.'

[RichardB]

We've done one targeted Facebook ad re the Evening Out fare so far.  More to come.  It's a really good deal.

[Timmer]

It does beg the question how many people are not getting the best value fare for their journey if it’s not on the first screen they see once they’ve chosen where they wish to travel to.

Most just want to purchase their ticket as simply and quickly as possible. Most won’t have the knowledge of fares and ticket machines that some on this forum have.

[broadgage]

A cynic might suspect that the real purpose of "evening out" fares and the like is in order to run adverts that say "Look at our bargain fares from these destinations"

But to avoid reducing revenue, make only higher priced tickets readily available.

[Lee]

A cynic might suspect that the real purpose of "evening out" fares and the like is in order to run adverts that say "Look at our bargain fares from these destinations"

But to avoid reducing revenue, make only higher priced tickets readily available.

It's a good job there are no cynics on this forum, otherwise they wouldn't be able to run adverts saying "Look at our wonderful new trains to take you there" either.

[broadgage]

I think that there might be more than one cynic on this forum.

[JayMac]

Even I, well conversant in fares, have just been caught out.

Purchasing from the TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) at Templecombe I've just made the mistake of selecting Sherborne from the list of 'Popular Destinations' on the first screen. Wasn't concentrating hard enough. Selected my Railcard discount and paid. I've just bought an Off Peak Day Return for £3.55 when I should have purchased the Evening Out Return for £2.95. The latter is of course not offered, even after midday when it becomes valid, on the 'Popular Destinations' screen under Sherborne.

Should I complain and ask for a 60p refund?

[ChrisB]

I’d be interested in reading their response

[JayMac]

I’d be interested in reading their response

So will I. Feedback and refund request submitted.

[TonyN]

Feedback and refund request submitted.

Good luck with that I recently made the same mistake when travelling from Pershore to Reading on a Saturday. I got an offpeak insted of a super offpeak.
I went to Reading booking office and requested a refund. I had to fill in a red form and was given a super offpeak ticket in exchange for the offpeak but the refund never arrived.

A few days later when traveling from Cheltenham to Exeter the booking clerk at Cheltenham was unable to find a Devon Ranger on the system so I bought a Tiverton parkway to Exeter ticket and went to Exeter booking office. I was given an imediate refund and then bought a Devon Ranger.

A totaly different attitude.

Today when making a quick trip to Worcester from Pershore I went to use the front screen option on the machine but spotted in time that it offers a single as the default. So had I not noticed I would have paid £3.10 for a single journey (with railcard) instead of £3.20 return.

[Surrey 455]

I’d be interested in reading their response

So will I. Feedback and refund request submitted.

Did you use the "Ticket machine price guarantee" on this page? https://www.southwesternrailway.com/contact-and-help/train-ticket-refunds

In the unlikely event that you buy a ticket from one of our self-service machines, and then find a cheaper one for the identical journey, you could be entitled to a refund for the difference.
Please use the form below to make a claim.

[JayMac]

Did you use the "Ticket machine price guarantee" on this page? https://www.southwesternrailway.com/contact-and-help/train-ticket-refunds

In the unlikely event that you buy a ticket from one of our self-service machines, and then find a cheaper one for the identical journey, you could be entitled to a refund for the difference.
Please use the form below to make a claim.

I haven't. I wasn't aware of that until seeing your post. At least SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) recognise that using a TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) can lead to being overcharged. I would prefer it though if the machines offered the correct fare for the time of day without the user both knowing there's a cheaper fare and then searching for it.

I'd like to hear SWRs justification for the way their machines are programmed. That's more important to me than the 60p.

[TonyN]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are not so Helpfull.

https://www.gwr.com/help-and-support/refunds-and-compensation/unused-ticket-refunds

In the unlikely event that you buy a ticket from one of our self-service machines, and then find a cheaper one for the identical journey, you may be entitled to a refund for the difference.

Get in touch with our Customer Support team