Anyone who has read this blog before will know about the trouble I’ve had attempting to get a legitimate refund from Virgin Trains – or their website operator The Trainline.com. Well, I’m likely to have to travel to London and Southampton a number of times over the next few weeks, so I’ll need train tickets, which got me thinking … Remember – You can buy a train ticket from ANY rail operator for any UK journey.

So, I’ve started work on a list of those Train Operating Companies (TOC’s) that do and do not use The Trainline.com for their booking agent. I tried to find this information myself earlier today, but couldn’t, so I figured I’d go ahead and work it out for myself.

It doesn’t claim to be a particularly scholarly piece of research; I went to each operating company’s website and tried to buy a ticket, then searched the source of the page to see what system they use. To be honest, once you’ve seen a few, it’s pretty obvious.

Here begins my semi-definitive list of where to book a train ticket without having to go anywhere near The Trainline.com. I can’t guarantee that the others are any better, but they surely couldn’t be any worse …

So, do they or don’t they?

• Anglia Railways – RailEasy
• Arriva Trains Wales – They use TheTrainline
• c2c – They use TheTrainline
• Chiltern Railways – ATOS Origin
• Cross Country – They use TheTrainline
• DirectRail.com - RailEasy
• East Coast Trains  - ATOS Origin
• East Midland Trains – wasn’t working when I tried to use their system
• Eurostar – No, but you can only book Eurostar tickets
• First Capital Connect – They use TheTrainline
• First Great Western – They use TheTrainline
• First Hull Trains - They use TheTrainline
• First Trans Penine Express – They use TheTrainline
• Gatwick Express – No, but you can only book a Gatwick Express ticket
• Grand Central – They use TheTrainline
• Island Line (South West Trains) – They use TheTrainline
• London Midland – ATOS Origin
• Merseyrail -  RailEasy
• MyTrainTicket - Assertis
• National Express – They use TheTrainline
• National Express (East Anglia) – They use TheTrainline
• National Rail Enquiries – connects you to the relevant TOC website
• Northern Rail - RailEasy 
• QJump – They use TheTrainline
• RailEasy.co.uk - RailEasy
• Rail Saver - RailEasy
• (First) Scotrail – They use TheTrainline
• Southern Railways - ATOS Origin
• South West Trains - They use TheTrainline
• Virgin Trains – They use TheTrainline

There are two alternative booking systems to The Trainline in common use (thanks to the commenter below for allowing me to update this post) – RailEasy and ATOS Origin.

The list is nearly complete , but as I’m not totally obsessed and I do have other things to do I’ll finish it off over the course of the week. I could extend the research too, it occurs to me, by spending time working out who is cheapest for an identical journey. Hmmm, this could be time-consuming … but useful.

… of a “Service Status” ticker, right on the top of your website, that isn’t reliable (ignoring for a moment the fact that you can’t even run a reliable rail service for the commuters of Merseyside)?

There are no trains running on the West Kirby line this morning, thanks to a track failure at Meols, yet the Merseyrail website ticker says “all services running normally” …

… yet they Tweeted earlier this morning that there was a problem …

 Which kind of implies that someone at Merseyrail at least knows roughly how to use a computer, and indeed if you follow the Twitter link, you get to this message below …

For F**** sake chaps, it’s not that difficult. If you’re going to suggest that you’re website provides up to date travel information that passengers can use to plan a journey, then do so. Either that or just admit that you don’t know your arse from your elbow and leave us all in the dark.

It’s utterly pointless.

Now I have to work out how to get a suitcase and a large toolbox into work, in the pouring rain, with no trains running. Thanks Merseyrail/Network Rail, great timing boys.

Oh, and thanks to my girlfriend for the phone call about the problem – maybe she should start her own “Service Status” website, although it might be tricky to update standing in a freezing cold bus stop

UPDATE: Jane just called again, and described Birkenhead North station as “Hell with extra Demons”, and said that a woman on the ‘rail replacement bus’ had waited over half an hour for it to turn up. I’m taking the car …

UPDATE: 9:20, I’ve just got into work and they’ve finally made sure their website reflects the current situation. Nice of them to bother …

This has nothing to do with me at all, but it was brought to my attention this morning – there is a Miseryrail Facebook group:

Miseryrail Facebook group

I’m so sick of Mersey Rail – their treatment of the people who use the train service and the way that they con us into paying hard earned money for a rubbish service!!

There are only a few members so far, but I don’t know how long it has been going, or who runs it. It might be worth joining though to see how it progresses.

This is what the Merseyrail website said last night, at 5 o’clock, some 30 minutes after chaos descended upon the Wirral line and it’s hapless commuters thanks to a broken down train somewhere in the vicinity of Hamilton Square.

The Merseyrail website this evening

Luckily, someone called and warned me, so I managed to avoid the worst of it, but there was no warning to commuters as they entered Hamilton Square, so my girlfriend wandered unwittingly into the middle of it. You’d think they would at least provide passengers with the info they need to make a decision, before diving underground.

So never, ever believe their website status ticker, because it’s bullshit (probably so the regulator doesn’t get to see).

As an aside, it would be interesting to know how many trains technically ran late last night (which count against Merseyrail’s performance figures) and how many they cancelled (which, somewhat strangely, don’t count). So late is poor performance, cancelled isn’t – go figure!

I see on the new-look Merseyrail website that they’ve changed their policy on ticket refunds …

If you hold a daily ticket and you are delayed for more than half an hour we will refund the price of the ticket. If you hold a weekly or monthly Railpass ticket you will be entitled to a percentage of the cost. To make any claims on daily tickets, send in the details of the journey you could not make along with the original ticket to Customer Relations, Rail House, Lord Nelson Street, Liverpool, L1 1JF.

You can read the more on this page of the Merseyrail website.

Probably more useful, and to their credit, they have also created a page for service updates, rather than the somewhat useless ticker they used to have. The Merseyrail service updates page is here.

Mind you, their ‘environment’ page makes no mention of their apparent policy of sweeping their litter out onto the streets. Maybe they just forgot that bit …