A tale of two tickets

08 September 2011

Wow, I walked into that one. Usually try to travel on advance tickets for business, so you forget sometimes just how pricey walk-up travel can be in the south east. Going to cremation in Ipswich not sure which train I would get so turned up. Peak travel on the way out was over £60 – so I even thought about coming back off peak. Had to stand all way to Colchester, which some regulars did as well. Should have booked an advance ticket, but I wasn’t sure which train I would be on.

I could not understand why my dad’s ticket was 40 odd pounds. He went up to Ipswich off peak and has a senior railcard. Sounded like two thirds of the price of my ticket. He had booked online, couldn’t understand the ticket restrictions and booked a more expensive ticket than he needed. Our recent research on buying on the web showed that passengers could be paying more than they need to and I suspect this happens quite a bit.