Buying train tickets - quick question

[SnotMikeUpPuffedHe]

Our local station has a ticket machine but no ticket office. There's a reference on the train company website to 'prepaid ticket collection' but no further details.

Does this mean I can buy tickets online and print them out from the ticket machine? I'd prefer that to the faff or trying to get the right railcards etc sorted in the machine and worrying the train was going to come before I'm ready!

Yes you can but I find it easier to get a E ticket then it's on my phone.

Yes. I always buy through the Trainline and collect at the station. You put a payment card in (any card, it doesn't have to be the one you paid with) and then put in the reference code and it prints your tickets. You can collect from any station too, it doesn't have to be the one you're travelling from if, for example, you wanted to collect them a couple of days before when going past all different station.

(The train stations round here don't all accept e tickets).

Use the Trainline app. You just need to show the tickets you’ve purchased on your phone as an e ticket when you’re actually on the train.

(There’s an option to add discounts with railcards etc).

Yes you can either print tix at the machine or use an eticket. Definitely buy in advance rather than direct from the machine just before you travel - DS2 was expecting to pay £9 for a single ticket back to uni but got stung for £22 when actually bought from the machine.

To print out the prepaid tickets you need the card which bought the ticket and a code to enter into the machine.

I always go and pick the tickets up early so I’m not stressing on the day if there’s a problem.

This has never been true for me. The emails say any valid payment card is fine and I've never had any issues I just use whichever card I pick out first. Could depend on the ticket I guess (mine is usually a return to London or two singles). Definitely best to check though.

This is great, thanks. I usually buy tickets further in advance at a station with a staffed office but this is a but more short notice.

There's a family group of us starting at the same place but with different destinations and railcards so I want paper tickets rather than trying to get them onto the right phones!

E tickets take all the hassle and stress out of it. Either buy through Trainline, or using the app of the company you're travelling with.

There won't be a station you can't use them at. There might be stations where the barriers don't scan them, but you just show them on your phone.

You can download to a Google/Apple wallet if you use that. But no need to do so if you don't want to.

Ah - messages crossed. In that case, paper might be easier!

I think you can book and print at home, possibly. But I may be imagining that!

I recently got a travel card (through the Trainline to London) and it wouldn't let me download it as an e ticket. Typical I lost it just before we got he train home and the single back was even more than the travel card had been!

I use the print at the station option a lot. Having a paper ticket makes it less of a problem if your phone battery runs out on the last leg of the journey.
Some journeys do print out a comedic number of tickets though. Separate tickets for each person for each leg of the journey, and for each seat reservation then a few extra to tell you which trains don’t have reservations. It’s lucky they make such good bookmarks.

Just use the phone? I never print tickets

Oh I see. Family. Why did you buy the tickets?!