LIB DEM CANDIDATE CHALLENGES FCC OVER FAILURE TO MAKE SUPER SAVER FARES AVAILABLE AT STATION TICKET MACHINES

3.54.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 9th Oct 2009

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate Sandy Walkington has uncovered yet another ticketing confusion from rail company First Capital Connect. The FCC "super saver" promotion, which was launched in the summer offering a 20 percent discount on the standard day return for weekend travellers, has not been available all that time at the station ticket machines but only at the ticket office.

"This is really extraordinary," Sandy Walkington said. "Passengers have every right to assume that they pay the same whether they buy at the kiosk or at a machine. With ten ticket machines at St Albans City Station, of course people will use them to save time.

"I was alerted to this through a friend using the FCC Welwyn Garden City service. He discovered that he and a companion had paid two different prices at the same time for the same weekend journey on the same train."

Sandy has challenged FCC about the anomaly and has been told that it is because the ticket machines are recoded centrally and it is too complicated to do this for special promotional fares. "The least they can do is put up a notice alerting passengers to buy super savers at the booking office," Sandy said. "I was assured that notices would be put up at the station by the end of this week - but as of today (Friday 9th October) no notices are visible.

"It's not the first time that FCC has been sharp in its ticket sales. It's exactly for this reason that I proposed the motion on rail fares at Liberal Democrat conference calling on future franchise conditions to focus more on the customer experience and less on stealth taxing hard-pressed commuters."