Article in Rail Business Daily about #Bishopstone station community volunteers winning at the Railfuture RUG Awards, which were held in London on Sat 15 July 2023. news.railbusinessdaily.com/triple-awards-…

We decided to send in our submission on the Ticket Office Consultations "now", so it is available to everyone. Read it at railfuture.org.uk/Ticket-Offices. It starts “Railfuture has very significant concerns with the proposals ....” and goes on from there.

Staff at ticket offices can sell you tickets for future dates. All TVMs should be able to do this but don't. Greater Anglia is one of few operators to support this - today and the 28 days after that. Simple to use feature. Time can be changed to buy off-peak ticket early.

Cambridge North has the kind of welcome desk / help point that Greater Anglia wants to roll out to its stations. However, staff cannot (currently and perhaps not in future) sell tickets themselves, so if a TVM doesn't offer the ticket you want then, sorry, it's "computer say no"

Belgian state railway SNCB has simple-to-use but quite powerful TVMs. Anyone who has shopped using a website knows how to use an online shopping basket, and that's how their TVMs work. You can add a series of 'products' (they use single-leg pricing in Belgium) and then you pay.

In three weeks, thanks to efforts by more that 40 Railfuture volunteers, we produced a 28-page ticket offices submission to Transport Focus and London Travel Watch (plus supporting document). Two-page summary at start. Please spend a few minutes to read. railfuture.org.uk/display3418

SNCB, the Belgian state railway operator, has good TVMs but to keep queues short it wants more people to use its app. It advertises the app at the top of the TVM. Note the green light at the top: easy for passing staff to identify TVMs that have a problem (e.g. no ticket stock).

A 'nice' feature of the Great Northern ticket machines is that they tell you what you can't buy up front on the home page - saves you time trying to find them and failing. A nicer feature would be if it actually sold most of those 'not available' tickets. It's not rocket science

The new Thanet Parkway station will be served by Southeastern services from Monday (31 July) bringing the capital and the coast closer together. - London St Pancras (70 mins) - Ashford International (32 mins) - Canterbury (17 mins) - Margate (16 mins) - Broadstairs (11 mins).

Many Rail User Groups (RUGs) are affiliated to Railfuture. They remain independent of us, and make their own decisions, but benefit from our advice and support. FLUA (Cambridge - King's Lynn) wrote this in its submission about Ticket Office proposals. flua.org.uk

This Northern TVM appears to have a lot of functionality - it even does rovers. But why does it say "please wait" for so long, and appear not to work once you get to the end? Doesn't matter how many functions it has, if it takes too long and you end up abandoning your purchase.

Rail fare increases from 2024 - an indication of how much they could rise will be revealed on Wednesday 16 August when July 2023 inflation figures are announced. Below is the Railfuture view. railfuture.org.uk/press+releases BBC News (UK) Sky News Channel 4 News RAIL Magazine Modern Railways

The false impression that rail fares are high, because of the overly complex fare structure, is a real concern that Railfuture has raised in the past, and continues to raise. Of course, if you don't give ticket staff enough info they may not be able to work out the best deal.

The latest edition of the Railfuture monthly Rail User Express publication, containing highlights of rail user group activities across Britain, can be read online. View at railfuture.org.uk/display3448

Article: "Six ways to get Britain’s railways back on track" Reforming fares Sorting out the strikes Heading for net zero Putting the passenger first Investing for growth Overhauling the structure At Railfuture we agree this is a pretty good list. msn.com/en-gb/news/ukn…

The rail industry really does shoot itself in the foot, sometimes. The Rail Delivery Group wants more people to use TVMs, yet 'home page' on Great Northern machines says they do not sell Group Save when they do. Railfuture spotted this in 2017 - six years ago - and posted an image...

Interested in what ScotRail are planning for passengers? You have an opportunity to find out at the Railfuture Scotland public meeting in Edinburgh on Sat 30 Sept at 14:00, when they will be the guest speaker. Easy to find venue in the Old Town.

LNER's new 70 minutes semi-flex ticket starts tomorrow. We like that idea, but hate the demise of the Super Off-Peak ticket. That means that on some trains there is a 130% price increase. That's definitely unwanted. Read our press release at railfuture.org.uk/Press-release-…

Just over two weeks before the Railfuture mini-conference in Peterborough on Thursday 15 May - doors open at noon. We have five presentations, with some high-level rail industry speakers. Space is limited, so please book your FREE place now - see railfuture.org.uk/conferences/.

This Railfuture FREE conference has five guest speakers, two speaking about passenger matters. Martin Gilbert of First Rail on open-access services (Lumo / Hull Trains). Anthony Smith of IRR on purchasing trains tickets in the future railfuture.org.uk/conferences/