Tried using the Great Western Railway site to buy 2 tickets for train on Sept. 17th from London Paddington to Bath Spa. I am successful with the time, date and seat choice and then when I get to delivery method and I choose the "print at home" option, I cannot advance to the next screen for payment. It "processes" a bit and goes right back to the delivery method choices. I have checked and re-checked my input and it is all correct & complete.
Is there an issue with the site or is the print at home option really not an available option?
Are there any other choices or sites for printing tickets at home?
Thank you for any help and/or suggestions.
We did this trip last December, and indeed there was no way to print the ticket at home ahead of time.
The only option available is to pick up the ticket at the station from any of the self service machines. Very easy, you just need your confirmation code and maybe the credit card that was used to buy. Enjoy the trip!
I haven’t printed out tickets for years using U.K. trains. You get a booking reference, which you tap into the ticket collection machines at the stations and you put your credit card in to verify the data. It has always worked smoothly for me.
Not all routes offer "print at home". It requires the staff to be equipped with the latest scanners to check the ticket. On some routes they are not so equipped. It also requires the station turnstiles to be suitably equipped.
"Print at the station" is the easiest option, it only takes a few seconds.
Most of the main stations of GWR have barriers that can read print at home tickets, as they are used by other operators, and the same code is used by the GWR app, but they have decided not to offer this in favour of use tickets downloaded to the app, or their own smartcard.
Note that my colleague and I could not get a selection of US credit cards to work on the GWR site a couple of months ago. You'll need a 3D-Secure system like Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode. If it doesn't work for you, the US agent Rail Europe has tickets from $21.
All British train companies can sell tickets on the behalf of other companies - at the same price. Although GWR (Great Western Railway) is the company for London (Paddington) to Bath, you may like to try booking via Virgin Trains if GWR won’t accept your Debit/Credit Cards. If this works, perhaps you can verify that this is the case? https://www.virgintrains.co.uk