Train ticket nonsense

I've only got today and tomorrow left at work this week and (annoyingly) my train ticket ran out yesterday, so this morning we left the house a little early in order to make sure I was at the front of the queue (not having anything like this happen again if I can help it), when I finished my little walk from the main road where Flyingpops drops me off, the ticket lady was just setting off to do her rounds with a bin bag to pick up all the coffee cups and discarded drink cans, which takes her a while as the platforms are quite long, so I thought I would try my luck with the ticket machine at the front of the station...now, to put this is context, my usual weekly ticket costs about £50 (with my new super sneaky route) but the cheapest ticket possible to purchase from the machine (I spent a while poking around the various options) was a daily zone 2-6 travel card priced at £22...if that were right it would mean my travel today and tomorrow would set me back £44, or only £6 cheaper than what I normally cough up for *seven* days fare, which made me frown quite hard, so I thought I would be patient and query it at the ticket office...

After a bit of experimentation (once she had finished doing all the sweeping up), it turned out that there was a cheaper option, but one that wasn't available on the public ticket machine (bit naughty that), if I opted for two daily returns to Coulsdon South (£6.50 each) and then bought two anytime Day Travelcards from Coulsdon to London zones 2-6 (£9 each) then it would work out costing £31 in total (or £15.50 per day) - better but still a bit of a hike from my usual daily rail fare (which works out around) £7.14 (when you take the weekend into account)...

So not a total fail on my part, but I honestly think it's a bit of a con - shouldn't there (arguably) be a button on the machine to calculate the best value tickets for the journey (it shouldn't be that difficult to code up), I think it's just slightly immoral to only present you with the most expensive option for each journey, I bet most people just blindly push the button and never even think twice about it...

Long queue at Earlswood Station

So I get to the station this morning, thirteen minutes to go, to be honest a bit later than I would have liked thanks to both of us being in a bit of a flap (a busy day to come for reasons too numerous to go into) and Thomas (little blighter!) not wanting to wake up this morning, even though whenever we have plenty of time (Saturday and Sunday for example) he seems to be ready to be up and bouncing at about half past five...I turn and jog down the hill from where Flyingpops and Thomas have waved me off and (sh1tsh1tsh1tsh1t) find myself at the end of a queue of ten people waiting for tickets *face+palm*...

I check the time - eleven minutes to go - the odds are not good, but it's not impossible...the queue, keeping me hopeful, moved fairly quickly - five minutes to go and only three people ahead - three minutes to go, two people...I shuffle uncomfortably, clutching ticket and bank card in hand...

Then *finally* the very last (very old) guy in front of me steps up to the window and (to my horror) in a thick Eastern European accent begins a very long, and almost impossible to understand sentence about something that happened in 1988 (Why??? Why me!) - the train is announced on the tannoy system, I glace at my 'phone - less than one minute remaining...!

The ticket lady answers the conclusion to the old gentleman's question with "Sorry love?" (rather than something useful like "that'll be eleven fifty please") and it is at this precise moment, as the train pulls up on the platform (and I almost explode with frustration) that I remember I had last Monday off as holiday, flick open my ticket (like Kirk from Star Trek opening his communicator) and realise it's still valid today!

Where I was previously standing, a swirling dust cloud and the sound of a banging ticket office door are all that remains...

*Phew*!