According to research by consumer advocacy group Which?, same-day rail tickets were on average 50% more expensive at stations.
On numerous machines, the most affordable fares were either inaccessible or concealed among multiple choices.
Following a public outcry, plans to close hundreds of rail ticket offices in England were abandoned in November.
Prior to the government deciding to ask train operators to rescind the plan because it did not meet high passenger standards, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had declared that closing ticket offices was “the right thing for the British public and British taxpayers”.
Industry figures indicate that currently only one in six of the 1,766 government-controlled train stations have a full-time ticket office.
“Absolutely amazing” Which? dispatched mystery shoppers to fifteen stations, each operated by a different train company, and compared the cost of seventy-five journeys from ticket machines to the website of online retailer Trainline.
An identical trip from Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, to London was found to cost £66 at a machine, but it was only £26 on Trainline.
The machine found that the cost from Northampton to Cardiff was £107, but only £43 when purchased online.
These were options for purchasing tickets at roughly the same time of day, not a direct comparison.
The editor of Which? Travel, Rory Boland, described the price disparities as “simply astounding”.
There are a number of reasons why tickets purchased at machines might cost more. Some might not make off-peak fares less noticeable or offer split-ticketing or less expensive advance fares.
Five strategies to get cheaper train tickets
England’s rail fares could increase by as much as 4.9% in March.
“Huge numbers of us are potentially paying significantly more than we need to when we commute to work or visit friends and family across the country,” said Boland.
“Significant numbers of elderly people don’t have internet access at all – leaving them with little choice but to run the gauntlet of ticket machines which either don’t offer the best prices, or make it difficult to find the appropriate fares,” he stated.
