GNER makes ticket buying easier
UK East Coast rail operator GNER has launched a new website which features an improved booking engine. Prior to this all UK rail operators used a branded version of thetrainline which is looking a bit dated these days. This new site raises the bar as to what to expect from a rail booking engine.
Although this site is GNER branded you can purchase tickets for any UK rail service and there’s no credit card surcharges or booking fees. As well as Visa, Mastercard and Maestro this booking engine also accepts Solo and Electron which are not currently accepted by thetrainline or in most ticket offices. The only downside is American Express does not seem to be supported, if you want to pay with this card then you’re stuck with thetrainline or GNER’s excellent telesales department.
The main problem the thetrainline is the time taken to load each page, if you’d like to look for later trains or change any other details it takes a while for the pages to load up. This is because this site hasn’t changed much since launch and does not take advantage of AJAX to selectively load portions of the page.
The new GNER website is definitely web2.0 buzzword compliant, but more importantly the changes made make booking train tickets quicker and easier. It starts when you enter the station name, it will automatically show an autocomplete drop down showing the station options, this also supports the 3 letter station codes should you know them.
Once you select the departure and arrival stations as well as the dates of travel the web site will load the fares and train times into the main section of the window, as this is done via AJAX the full page does not need reloading, this means that you see the results faster than before. Along the top of the screen you see a list of possible fares for this journey, along the bottom is a list of times you can choose from.
If you choose a fare it will grey out the journeys that are not valid for that fare so you can then select a time that suits your budget, alternatively if timings are more important to you then you can select a service first and it’ll show the fares available for this service. If you select the ‘i’ icon next to a service it will show you details of the service including train operator (e.g. GNER), facilities available on the train (e.g. buffet, restaurant, first and standard class), journey time and ultimate destination. Clicking an ‘i’ next to the fare description will show the full terms and conditions of the fare.
Once you select your fare and the trains you wish to travel on (this step is optional if buying a flexible ticket) it will load a new page where you can select additional options. This site offers a great deal more choice over your seat selection than thetrainline, you used to be only able to select forward or backward facing, with the new site you can select a seat in the quiet coach, restaurant (only first class can reserve here, standard class can use if space available), window, aisle, near the toilets, etc. It also allows you to reserve space for bicycles and request assistance for disabled travellers, none of this is available on thetrainline.
Another useful addition to the GNER site is the ability to buy useful additions to your ticket such as GNER buffet vouchers (to save money on food and drink purchased on-board) or London travelcards. You can choose the regular delivery options, I’d recommend collection at the station if the option is available at your station, there’s also the option of regular mail (free) or special delivery at a fee.
The next page is the payment page, if you’ve registered before you can enter your username and password at this point if you’re not already logged in, if you’re not registered you can simply complete your details on this page and choose a password, you don’t need to navigate to a different page to create an account. Once you’ve entered your payment details you’ll be taken to the appropriate card verification page if appropriate and once payment has been authorised then your transaction is complete and you will be given your reference number.
I tried the site under Firefox 2, IE7 and Safari 3 and all worked fine. Due to its heavy reliance on AJAX you may be better off with thetrainline if you have to use an old browser at work for any reason, however, if you’re using any web browser made in the past five years you should be fine with this new site and it’s a big improvement to what else is available.
December 4th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
If your browser is old or you simply do not like web 2.0 bling… please note that there is “text only” version of the site located at:
http://tickets.gner.co.uk/gner/en/JourneyPlanning/Wizard/
December 7th, 2007 at 2:11 am
[…] Although I think most of us would agree that overall the new GNER booking engine is a big improvement over the old one that was based on thetrainline.com. However, it does have one drawback - it does not currently accept American Express. You can use the regular trainline.com booking engine but the 10% discount is not applied there (and they charge a credit card booking fee). There is a work around (for the moment) if you want to pay with Amex, you can access the old booking engine using this link. It’s ugly as most of the graphics have been removed, but everything still works as expected including the 10% discount on advance purchase fares and of course there’s no booking fee. If you’re using Visa, Mastercard or Maestro then you’re better off using the new engine. […]