Edmonson tickets a lost "cause" for ever?

Am I? I was replying to a comment which said “young families ... care far more about being able to book their tickets online”. That is the nonsense part. I went on to say that online booking is perfectly possible alongside traditional ticketing at stations. The idea that the ticket buying experience is more important than the visitor experience, is the bit I’m challenging. I never said online booking shouldn’t be available for those who want it. However I don’t think young families are the ones who do, either - maybe they’ll use it if it’s at a discount but as a parent to two under-fives I can tell you that the flexibility to be able to say “you know what, we’ll do that another day instead because one of the kids is ill / naughty / asleep” is worth far more to me. I actually think pre-booking is of more use to enthusiasts attending busy galas, or large groups.

Whether to swap the home printout or phone app code for a ticket at the arrival point or accept it for travel is a secondary decision. I’d prefer to former, to maintain the illusion when tickets are checked on the train, but I can see why you might not on a day when you’re handling large crowds, even if you do the rest of the year.


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Seems very true.

That makes good sense.

 

And you are also missing the point that any sort of ticket can be mailed out in response to an online booking. That can be a sheet of A4 with a barcode (unique) or an Edmondson (equally unique). It's only as hard as you wan2 make it.

A heritage railway is somewhat different to buying groceries or a visit to a theatre. The booking process is an integral part of the creation of the illusion of how things were done in times gone by. Unlike, going to the supermarket or booking a theatre ticket which have no heritage aspect to them.

The point about guaranteed income is possibly dubious. To refuse a refund on the grounds of "no refunds permitted" is to adopt the behaviour of commercial TOCs and poor customer service such as this may act against repeat visits in the future. Remember, few customers remember good customer service but they always remember a bad experience!

 

did you even read my post?

 

Indeed I did, and particularly your point about the railways only being there because of steam.


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Having to queue up and collect tickets on arrival destroys the whole point of pre-booking from the passenger's perspective.

 

Pre-booking guarantees a seat on a particular train. That is not jeopardised by "having to queue". British people are perfectly willing and able to queue. We don't all have the attention span of a butterfly. In any case, for pre-booking, the tickets are mailed out (unless the railway can't be arsed to do this!) beforehand so there can be no need to queue. The epos crowd are creating imaginary problems in order to impose their solution.

 

That'd fit with Peterborough issuing them, also the ones you could get from cereal packets (he said, wistfully)

There's always archive.org/WayBack Machine...?

 

If I may, I can see one problem, with not having to exchange your confirmation of booking, for tickets at a booking office, and that's this, Lets assume you have booked on line for a normal service day, not a special gala, Thomas etc, how long would the confirmation be valid for? lets say you could book on line and your booking was valid for one month, rather than just for that day, if you cant come on the day, you booked for you then have to cancel, you may have to pay a fee, or worse not be able to get a refund, at least if you had say one month to use it, it becomes more flexible as it only becomes expired one the booking office issues the tickets for travel. the letter needs only have a valid until note on it, its pre paid for. its easier for tti's as they only have to check the actual ticket, and date on the ticket, no confusion .

 

Drivel. Utter drivel. Typical blinkered Bluebell thinking.

 

Hear hear! I'd sooner see a blind-alley diesel prototype restored or even recreated than yet *another* mix-and-match Churchward thing.

 

There are plenty of reports of railways selling tickets online for events like galas, then requiring them to be exchanged for tickets at the booking office. Something that goes down particularly badly when the online option comes with a booking fee.

As with the “big railway”, the challenge of balancing revenue protection and customer service is proving tricky. I agree though that these are problems that relate to how railways implement booking systems rather than the technology itself.


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Sounds like there's a few railways that really can't be arsed!

A booking fee FFS!! What's that all about?!!

 

For those who like Edmonson tickets : -

 

When an organisation uses someone like EventBrite or TicketSource for online sales, they are charged a percentage. The default arrangement, which IMHO stinks, is that this is added to the cost of a ticket. So if it is 2.5%, my £10 ticket becomes £10.25.

The option is there to absorb that cost, so the customer pays the same price regardless. That requires a conscious decision by whoever sets the event up for sale (EventBrite, at least, doesn’t have the option to set that as a default), and has an obvious effect on margins. There are also some VAT implications that I, fortunately, haven’t had to get my head around!

The result is that the booking fee is charged, sometimes voiding the advertised discount for booking online. And as the fees are pretty much the same as for taking a card transaction, that leaves me unimpressed.


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The Nene Valley asks you to exchange online tickets at the booking office. No booking fee though!

Edmondson tickets mean nothing to me. Last time I had a thick cardboard ticket it was in 1986 and it was my first season ticket - it cost £1796.

 

Edmonson tickets mean nothing to you, so what? Most preserved diesels mean nothing to me but I’d be the last person to say that heritage railway should do away with them just because I don’t like them.

 

Why do some people think that card payments or online booking negate the use of Edmonson tickets? Edmondsons are perfectly compatible with the new way of doing things at the booking office.

 

I see your location, Marty, is Norfolk. The North Norfolk Railway - if that is your connection - does say on their web site terms and conditions that administrative charges may be made in some cases.
I suspect that a great many here and volunteering on heritage lines, that have never read their favourite lines T&C's.

 

Just a thought but the “big railway” still uses card tickets, albeit credit card size. I pay by card at the ticket office and I get a paper receipt along with my card tickets. Why shouldh ah heritage railway have to be so different?