(no subject)

[neadods]

#$(#)8#*** Virgin trains won't let me buy advance train tickets because my billing address isn't in the UK, damnit.

(Anyone want to buy a couple of London-Birmingham train tickets? The advance fare appears to be only $10 a head, and I can paypal, or give cash when I get there.)


Have decided to not try for the Who reviewing post. Yeah, it would be egoboo and all, but right now I'm so tired that I just don't want Yet Another Responsibility, especially as I'm having a hard time keeping up with the stuff I owe FFN and RtE.

Comments

[mtgat]

Who reviewing post >>>>>> FFN, for the record. :)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I know. But I'm wondering if free time > Who post.

Because the one thing that can be said for not reviewing is not having to listen/read/view things that you'd ordinarily put down in 3 minutes.

[jennetj.livejournal.com]

I bought all my tickets at the gate, and only London-Cardiff was more expensive than the website quoted. In fact, London-Northampton and London-Stratford were less than the website.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

The website's saying 10 quid. I don't think we'll get that one in person, alas!

However, the "regular" ticket seems reasonable.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

You probably know this, but if you do get someone to buy the tickets for you - and I can't, for obvious reasons ;) - make sure they get the tickets posted out rather than held for pickup at the station, because the credit card used to buy them is required for collection...

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It's probably too late for that, because it's so close to time. :(

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Then they'll need to be with you to collect the tickets.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

So... buying at the gate and not getting the extra-low 10-quid fee. I can live with that.

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

Do you need to travel Virgin? I had the same problem with London-Startford and ended up buying tickets from some other train service, where the UK thing was no problem

[neadods.livejournal.com]

What we've ended up doing is buying tickets for the Virgin train from the Midwestern Rail company. And they wouldn't let us buy straight tickets, we had to start the journey on the metro about 100 feet away, because if we just got Euston tickets, they said the train was full, but if we started from Kings Cross, they said there were seats.

I'm so confused. But it's done.

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

Do NOT try to understand the British railway system. I looked at 4 different companies selling tickets for exactly the same train ride for 4 different prices...

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

That's (supposed) competition for you. :( There used to be just one train company - British Rail - which owned the tracks and the trains and the stations and set the prices. Thatcher, in her infinite stupidity wisdom, decided that none of this made sense, and she privatised the system. Flogged off the network - that's now Railtrack - and divided the country up into different, but intersecting, geographical areas. And, somehow, the most inefficient companies Virgin keep getting their franchises renewed.

The railway is now run for profit, not for passenger convenience; hence its complete lack of anything that makes any real sense :(

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, that sounds much like the German Railway - only they are still part of the government *facepalms*