Great Western Coffee Shop

An interesting development.

Have not received a confirmation EM for ages, so this might not be new. I travelled by train on Thursday for the first time since the unpleasantness started, was pleased to get a confirmation EM on this occasion, moreso to get a pdf version of the mobile tickets that were also issued to my mobile phone attached.

Is this new or has my failure to receive these confirmations masked this development for a while. It's very useful if it's now been added as a matter of course. I do hope it's retained if it's a temporary C-19 addition.

I'm going to suggest that GWR started including printable QR code tickets as a pdf attachment on 12th or 13th February. The reason I can be that precise is that I'm looking at my email confirmations.
A mobile ticket bought on 11th Feb got me a confirmation email but no pdf. Two days later another mobile ticket and I get a pdf with the confirmation.

I have been using the West Midland trains APP since last year. It sends me a confirmation email and a seperate email with a pdf ticket as well as the mobile ticket on the app.

This seems odd to me. Firstly, if there's a hard copy can it really be called a mobile ticket? Secondly, if you've chosen a mobile ticket, presumably it's either because you're buying it on the go, or you just find it easier to wave your phone at a barrier than to fish a piece of card out of your wallet. So what is the purpose of a printable copy?

I think that GWR originally only sold electronic tickets via the app and confusingly referred to them as 'mobile tickets', which are something rather different with some operators, requiring them to be activated before use for example.

It is now possible to buy tickets via the app and load them onto an ITSO card if your phone is suitably equipped. Although for example off-peak day returns cannot be loaded, only Anytime so limits usefulness.