Comments on: Come back GNER, all is forgiven

By: Richard Bailey

Richard Bailey — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 21:46:36 +0000

I've just given up on The Trainline because of all the new charges (for postage, for using a debit card), and have always resented that it defaults to charging you for insurance.

Compared to this, I was motivated to persist with National Express (it took me two tries to order one set of tickets).

Besides, the free wifi is a valuable bonus.

By: Richard Bailey

Richard Bailey — Thu, 22 May 2008 09:44:09 +0000

I've just given up on The Trainline because of all the new charges (for postage, for using a debit card), and have always resented that it defaults to charging you for insurance.

Compared to this, I was motivated to persist with National Express (it took me two tries to order one set of tickets).

Besides, the free wifi is a valuable bonus.

By: Simon Collister

Simon Collister — Wed, 21 May 2008 09:37:51 +0000

Hi Stuart. I often think of you when commuting from Peterborough. This is only anecdotal but it seems to be that their trains are cancelled /delayed more than GNER's used to be plus they don;t seme to run as late.

The website is atrocious - I booked a load of tickets recently and it was near impossible with the site failing half the time I used it.

Bill's points above may be true about trainline.com but GNER' site was miles better.
For more personal insights into one commuters NEX experience see http://gnercommuter.blog.co.uk/

By: Bill

Bill — Sat, 17 May 2008 11:02:53 +0000

The National Express East Coast Website makes it far easier to buy cheap tickets than the other online alternatives.

I guess that the delay between transactions is a security issue, but then why would they encourage customers to split tickets? Anyway, you can purchase twpo different journeys in the same transaction so it's not an issue (you can't do this on trainline)

As for normal tickets from A to B, I'd say they've gone out of there way to make it easier to find them.

Firstly, you can see quickly whether it's cheaper to buy a return or combine two singles.

They have a low fares finder which quickly points you to the cheapet fare on your travel dates. You can look at thw whole day in one go rather than looking at just 5 trains.

They offer 10% off on a lot of fares thorugh their site.

They don't charge fees for postage, ticket collection, credit cards or debit cards. Trainline charge for all of these.

I use it regularly, and have necer had any availability problems

By: Stephen Waddington

Stephen Waddington — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:56:03 +0000

Have you tried Trainline?

By: Simon Dickson

Simon Dickson — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:46:12 +0000

I've had no direct experience of GNER or their successor, but I'm quite prepared to buy the conspiracy theory that they're making it more difficult for you to pay the lowest legitimate price.

In my case, it's the complexity of off peak fares. First Great Western make no effort to tell you which trains count as 'peak' and 'off peak'. Tickets for the former are roughly double the price of the latter. There's no easy rule of thumb, there's no indication in timetables, and there are no posters displayed. And if you ask any staff member for advice, you invariably get a different answer.

It's not as if the policy of managing demand via differential fares is even working. I tend to take later trains whenever I can, more because I'm guaranteed a seat than because of the cash savings.