Printing UK train tickets.
 

Can anyone advise me if any of the rail booking agents operating in the UK allow you to print out your own online tickets (in the way Bahn de does)?

I just picked up southern railway tickets at a station. No problem. You are given a code when you buy, then put in your credit card and code and retrieve the tickets.

Not sure if you can print your train tickets online in UK, but most major stations in UK have vending machines where you can print off pre-booked tickets.

When you book your tickets online you are usually given a unique reference number using which you can print your tickets on the vending machines.

as above, no need to print and lose the ticket, just print off at the station when you get there.

You can with Virgin Trains if your journey is wholly within its network, i.e. no connecting service by another train operator. So you can print out your own Glasgow to London Euston ticket, but not if you have to get a connecting service from Fort William to Glasgow (which is run by Scotrail). Of course you can get two separate tickets and pick up the connecting ticket in Scotland, but often there is a discount for through ticketing.

Not all stations offer facilities for printing off pre-booked tickets. In that case you have to collect it from a larger station with such facilities, but it doesn't have to be on the same line you are using. So in my above example, you can print off Fort William to London Euston ticket via Glasgow in Edinburgh, for example, provided you specify it at the time of buying your ticket online.

East Coast now allow self-print tickets if bought at www.eastcoasttrains.co.uk for journeys wholy on their own trains eg London to York, Edinburgh, Leeds, Inverness.

But almost all operators do ticket collection at stations using the self-service machines, which are easy to use and installed at almost all stations of any size now.

Yes, if you print your ticket ahead of time, you then have to bring it with you and protect it from loss. Easier just to collect it at a station ticket machine some time before your trip. Note you must present the same credit card that you used to buy the ticket.

And if you no longer have that credit card or there is some other problem -- you can get tickets printed at a staffed window.

If you do use the machines be warned that you get several pieces of card - the booking itself per person per journey, the seat reservation per person (where applicable & multiple if there is a change of train) and the receipt.

Check you get them all as they are all needed

Thank you so much, all of you! A wealth of information - I can't go wrong now. I rally appreciate your replies.