In article , (Mizter T) wrote:

On 29/02/2012 16:58, Paul Scott wrote:

"®i©ardo" wrote:
[snip]
Are you? I've just ordered some tickets on-line and the blurb says:
"Tickets will be available to collect from a self-service ticket
machine at one of 900 UK stations 2 hours after booking."

Certainly in the past, when following a spate of vandalism to the
ticket machines at my then local station it disappeared from the list
for collecting from when booking on-line, I just quoted the next
station down the line and then, having booked the tickets collected
them from my then - no longer shown - home station.

That's right, you can collect from anywhere with a TVM. [1] The purpose
of the selection is solely to make sure you don't make plans to pick up
at a station without one.

Indeed.

From the Trainline's FAQ:
http://help.thetrainline.com/app/ans...ail/a_id/1437/

---quote---
Which stations offer self-service ticket collection?

You don't need to pick up your tickets from the station you selected
when making a booking - You can collect from an enabled machine at
any one of the 1000 stations in the list below.
[...]
---/quote---

It's the same for all the other ticket sites, because this is how the
underlying ticket collection system (somewhat misleadingly named
"Ticket On Departure") works.

[1] Apparently some SN offers must be picked up from their own TVMs.

Though I do remember reading somewhere that despite this supposed
restriction, people had been able to pick up such tickets at non
Southern TVMs (though I wouldn't want to count on it).

I could believe SN imposing the restriction because other TOCs would charge
them. That's why Cross Country (with no TVMs) charge for TOD.

--
Colin Rosenstiel