TRAIN TICKET REFUNDS

I had to get a refund for some train tickets today. It’s weird this system - almost as though it’s been deliberately designed to put you off from bothering.

I don’t want to be cynical. I just don’t really understand why it’s so difficult - it’s probably the result of a privatised rail network. Or, at least, a fragmented one. On the one hand, a handy app brings together all the rail franchises and shepherds your money to them; on the other, retrieving that money using the same app is a bit like trying to make water flow uphill. But, I suppose, it’s all we’ve got.

Basically my day in London this week is cancelled, and so - even though I’d used the trainline app, I’ve had to post my printed tickets plus a printed version of my email confirmation… in an envelope… with a stamp… to Edinburgh.

It just all seems a bit old-fashioned. We haven’t fully transitioned away from an old world yet; we have QR codes but we still have ticket inspectors with hole punchers. We have apps but we still have lose-able, rippable, leave-in-an-Italian-restaurantable paper tickets.

By the way, I can highly recommend Enoteca in York. The bolognese with dairy free parmigiano is tasty, especially with a swirling merlot. I digress.

So yay, no London. But also boo… complicated refund. I’m only thankful that it’s not quite as challenging as getting your money back when you’ve already travelled. The disruption last month on my way to St Andrews was technically refundable but at several points online and on calls with LNER, I seriously wondered whether it was really worth the effort.

Perhaps it’s all still evolving into the digital age. Maybe the barriers and the handheld devices will all someday be upgraded to remove the need for paper tickets all together. Perhaps undoing a transaction online will just be really easy? Or perhaps until it is we need to embrace the past with our paper tickets, take them into the station and ask the attendant behind the screen (don’t know why but I’m picturing Bernard Cribbins) to simply give us our money back while the 4:15 from London Paddington squeaks to a halt in a cloud of shiny steam.

Well. At least I got to use a postage stamp I suppose. Who knows when I’ll need one of those things again.