UK National Rail

There are several questions here, so let's deal with them one at a time: 1. You can buy tickets ahead of time via www.nationalrail.co.uk, usually 12 weeks before the date of travel. Note that the cheapest tickets are on the 'Advance' tariff, which are only valid on the specific train they are booked for. If you miss that train then you will have to buy a new ticket at the price that applies on the day, which will be more expensive. The rules are different if a preceding late train makes you miss a connection, but I won't go into that now 2. Tickets purchased in advance are normally collected from ticket machines at a station. Note that not all stations have machines, but you can check whether there is one at any particular station by searching for it here - http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations_destinations/ and then clicking on the section headed 'Ticket Buying and Collection'. In that section you will see a sub-section titled 'Collection of pre-purchased tickets' and there it will tell you whether you can collect from a machine or from the ticket office as well. For example, search for London Victoria (station code VIC) and you will see it offers both facilities. Even some quite large stations only offer collection from machines, but you can collect all your tickets for your whole visit in one go, from a ticket office at a station offering that facility if you so wish

3. Collection from a ticket machine requires you to put in the credit card you used for the purchase. This is for identification purposes only, and a number of American visitors have reported that it worked just fine with their non-chip & pin credit card. Others reported problems. If the machine doesn't work for you then you need to be at a station where you can collect from a ticket office - see the explanation above. 4. Alternatively, you can buy from a ticket agent called The Trainline, www.thetrainline.com. They will charge you a fee of £1.50 for up to 10 separate journeys, and £7 to mail your tickets to you in the US. If you do use thetrainline.com or any other 3rd party ticket agent, check the prices against nationalrail.co.uk and make sure you understand the fees (I think they charge extra for payment by credit card) 5. Finally, on some routes there may be automatic discounts applied if you are travelling in a group of 3 or more. Often you only get these discounts on the individual train company website for that route

You can also get advance rates with no card fees or booking fees at www.virgintrains.co.uk. The Seat 61 website notes it as the easiest place for purchases from the US. You can print at the station as noted above, or they can also mail them to you in advance (for a fee). I was able to use my Virgin Atlantic Amex, so I got points for purchasing with it, and double miles per dollar spent for being a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club member.

That is really useful information Nancy. Do you remember if you had to sign for your tickets when they were delivered? This is what Virgin Trains say about the service: International Delivery (£7.50): Tickets are usually delivered within 7 working days from the dispatch of the tickets. If you book before 5pm GMT, tickets are dispatched the same day. All tickets are insured for up to £500 and you will need to sign for your tickets on delivery.

I recently booked tickets for London-York and York-Edinburgh at eastcoast.co.uk and was able to print my own tickets.

Good point Tim. East Coast, Virgin, Crosscountry, Grand Central, Greater Anglia and some other train operating companies offer the facility to print your own ticket. Others offer it on some of their routes but not others (First Great Western, East Midlands) and some don't offer it at all (South West Trains, probably others... I should compile a proper list). What we really need in this country is a properly integrated ticketing system that would let you book everything in one place, guarantee the best prices including group discounts without going to the individual TOC websites, and allow you to print all the tickets at home. I'm not sure we will get that any time soon. For some people with itineraries that cover several TOCs, like Sue from Stevens Point who came here recently for advice about travelling from the Cotswolds to north Wales and then on to Whitby and then presumably back to London, if they don't want to take a chance with a station ticket machine and they won't be near a station that offers ticket office collections, or if they don't want the admittedly very small amount of uncertainty of all that, then the Virgin Trains facility is worth thinking about. I'm keen to know if Nancy had to sign for her tickets when they arrived, which sounds like a hassle for people who go out to work. Amos, if you come back and see this, we can give you better advice if we know your intended destinations.

I'm keen to know if Nancy had to sign for her tickets when they arrived, which sounds like a hassle for people who go out to work. Typically, when something requires to be signed for (by UPS, FedEx, DHL, even U.S. Postal service), if the delivery person doesn't find the recipient at home, s/he leaves a little form for you to sign on which you authorize them to leave the parcel. The delivery person then returns the next day and leaves it. The U.S. Postal Service sometimes makes you go into the branch Post Office to collect the item.

First, thanks to all for sharing their knowledge. Kevin, Using your first advice about "Collecting Tickets" I determined that there is one "problem" station. My travel plans are Coventry to Wrexham (General), Wales to Porthmadog, Wales to Cardiff to London, with a stay of several days in each. All these have ticket windows and machines, except Porthmadog. If I understand correctly I should be able to collect my Parthmadog-Cardiff tickets at the Wrexham (General) window when I arrive there. Thanks again to all.

Yes, Kevin, you have to sign for the tickets. Mine just arrived today (I booked on Jun 13). If I had not been home, I could have collected the tickets at the post office or they could have redelivered it, if I preferred.

Amos, you can print all your tickets at the first station you use which has that facility, Coventry in this case. It only has ticket collection machines. As you have discovered, Wrexham General offers collection from the ticket counter as well as from a machine. Nancy - thank you, so the information on the Virgin website is correct. I suppose the signature is a requirement because the package is insured.

It does say on the NR website that Coventry only offers machine collection for pre-purchased tickets. I'm not sure that that is completely accurate. It may be - I've never collected tickets there - but I can say that Virgin Trains have provided a full set of customer help there. There is a Travel Centre which sells tickets for travel beyond today (open limited hours), several (usually very busy) ticket windows for immediate travel, several Virgin FastTicket machines, an excellent customer assistance counter on Platform One, and always lots of staff about. If there were any problems with the machines I know that one of the staff members would assist as well as they could. I'd always been under the impression that there is very little they couldn't achieve at Coventry Station.

I recently, last Sat. as a matter of fact, used the ticket machine @ Paddington Station. It was very fast and simple. First, swipe a card with a magnetic strip to "wake up" the machine. Second, key in booking number, and tickets print out. All our tickets printed at one go. Don't be concerned,similar to using airport check in, read the screen and follow directions. If I could do this, anyone can! You may read the official directions via the rail site, which might help. I hope you have a great trip!

It does say on the NR website that Coventry only offers machine collection for pre-purchased tickets. I'm not sure that that is completely accurate. It may be - I've never collected tickets there I haven't either, so I thought I would check. According to National Rail my local station has the same ticket collection facilities as Coventry, by machine only, so when I was there this morning I asked what would happen if someone had a problem with an overseas credit card, or if the machine was broken. I was told that they could get their tickets printed at the ticket counter. However, they much prefer it if people only use that as a last resort, because there is only one counter, it's a busy station for its size, and in any case the machines are very reliable. So, the message is don't worry about not being able to get your pre-printed tickets one way or another. Except of course if you don't check in advance and you turn up at an unmanned station with no ticket collection machine. In that case use the help point intercom on the station to speak to a customer service person.