UK rip-off warning as everyone who commutes by train warned 'avoid these machines'
Briton's are being 'ripped off' at train stations across the country, according to the consumer champion Which?
Train ticket machines have been condemned as the "biggest rail rip off" by a consumer champion. Ticketing tech on Britain's railways has been given a "Shoddy" award by Which? magazine after mystery shoppers found most operators have outdated machines which don't sell the cheapest tickets.
Which? found only one in six of Britain's train stations have a ticket office manned full-time while 759 don't have one at all.
Travellers who haven't got a pre-booked ticket therefore have to rely on ticket machines which can charge more than double the online price, according to Which?.
It also found the best value fares can be unavailable or difficult to find, with same day tickets 52 percent more expensive on average. The publication said: "We think it's a massive rip off."
Which? research published in January showed ticket machines were charging up to 154 percent more than online booking options.
The consumer magazine sent mystery shoppers to 15 train stations across England on a mission to find the cheapest single fare for a journey on that day, the next morning and in three weeks' time.
According to Which?, tickets purchased online were cheaper about three quarters of the time and same-day tickets were 52 percent more expensive on average when bought at a machine.
A one-way fare from Northampton to Cardiff was £107 from a machine, but only £43 from online retailer Trainline, Which?'s research showed.
The biggest price differences included Hitchin to York, with a same day ticket costing £133 at a machine and £55 online.
A same day ticket from Northampton to Cardiff cost £107 at a machine and £43 online while the same kind of ticket from Market Harborough to Leeds was £83 from the station machine and £39 on the internet.
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Which?'s research also found two thirds of the ticket machines included in the study didn’t sell advance tickets - cheaper, non-flexible tickets available up to the day of travel on many routes, and sometimes up to 10 minutes before departure.
The cheapest fare from a machine from Canley in Coventry to Cardiff was an off-peak single for £74, but Which? found a £27 advance fare online.
Many machines also didn’t appear to sell off-peak fares at peak times, according to Which?. When a mystery shopper visited Hitchin in Hertfordshire, early in the morning and looked for the cheapest one-way ticket to York later that day, the only option was an anytime single costing £133 - £78 more than the cheapest fare on Trainline - £55.
Which? sent mystery shoppers to 15 stations in October 2023 run by 15 different operators: Oxford, Kings Cross, Euston, Holmes Chapel, Tottenham Hale, Market Harborough, Hitchin, Canley, Northampton, Grays, Marylebone, Vauxhall, Peckham Rye, Nunhead and Deptford.
