Progress of shift from paper to smart tickets - RDG

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Smart train tickets reach tipping point as paper tapers off from Rail Delivery Group

More passengers than ever before are opting for smart tickets, tipping the balance away from paper.

The days of rail passengers clutching handfuls of orange paper tickets are numbered as new figures from the rail industry show that just half of all journeys (50%) are now taken using paper tickets, down from over six in 10 (63%) last year.

The data shows the monthly number of journeys taken with paper tickets dropped by 13.3 million year on year, saving over 1,100km of paper – equal to the distance between London and Barcelona.

etc

Train companies are running Smart Week this week (14 - 20 October). Working together, staff will help people make the switch from paper to smartcards and mobile phones, with competitions and giveaways at stations. There will be 134 events at 73 stations across England, including Leicester, London Bridge, Plymouth, Cambridge and Manchester Airport. More information about Smart Week including a full list of stations taking part is available at https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/smart.

[Red Squirrel]

Interesting to see the unit of saved paper is km - I would have thought an area measure, or better still a weight might have made more sense.

That aside, are they saving paper? When I booked a forthcoming trip to London, I noted that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have started charging £1.50 to deliver paper tickets; this was enough to persuade me to accept electronic tickets on my phone. However, I've also just booked a trip to Nottingham - and rather than install another app, I have printed the tickets on A4 sheets of paper (I don't have any other size to print on).

Overall, for the two trips, allowing for envelopes and so on, I reckon I'm probably about quits!

[Bmblbzzz]

I confess I've so far stuck with paper tickets, at least for train journeys. But it does seem that all sorts of money-handling operations: tickets, payments, other banking operations – are moving to to phones for more and more people, so it's probably inevitable that tickets end up there too. What's more, this seems to be a worldwide movement.

Interesting to see the unit of saved paper is km - I would have thought an area measure, or better still a weight might have made more sense.

I wonder how much it is expressed in double decker buses? 

[lordgoata]

Only time I used my phone with a ticket, the reader at the gateline didn't want a bar of it, but the staff just waved me through. My smartcard usually works - sometimes it plays up but eventually opens. One thing I wish we had was the ability to read it in the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) app to see whats on the card.

Oddly when I had to renew at Maidenhead the other week (ticket machine was OOO and office closed at Goring), they refused until I produced my old paper photo card (the pink one), which was just weird as you dont need it when you buy at the machines, and I dont recall every having to show it at Goring when I have bought a weekly at the desk. Luckily I managed to find it, but did strike me as somewhat odd, given there is a (completely different) photo on the back of the smartcard anyway.

[infoman]

Did any one visit any of these smartcard workshops?

[Adrian]

I had a bad experience with buying an e-ticket using the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) app a couple of months back.

I was entering the details for my journey while waiting for my train on the platform, and had just pressed the 'pay now' button as the train rolled into the platform.  Unlike previous times I have used it, I was asked to answer several multiple-choice security questions, after which there was an unusually long delay followed by a message to say it had been unable to collect payment.

By this time I was already on the train and the conductor was doing his rounds.  So I bought a ticket from him, of course (I had joined at an unstaffed station without a ticket machine, so no issues there.)  A minute or two later, I discovered that GWR *had* taken payment, *and* issued my e-ticket - so now I had two tickets for the same journey!

GWR subsequently gave me a full refund for my ticket - I wasn't sure they would. since this type of issue isn't listed as a valid reason for a refund - so all ended well.  However, it didn't do much at the time for my confidence in the GWR mobile app as a good way to buy and use tickets.


One other (unrelated) point on mobile e-tickets.  I find the barcodes scan more readily at ticket barriers that the ones printed on paper tickets.  Sometimes it takes me 2 or 3 goes to get a paper ticket to open the barrier, whereas the one on my phone normally works first time.  Has anybody else found that?

[Bmblbzzz]

I've never had a problem with paper tickets opening barriers. Is this something you've noticed a specific station?

[Surrey 455]

I had a bad experience with buying an e-ticket using the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) app a couple of months back.

I was entering the details for my journey while waiting for my train on the platform, and had just pressed the 'pay now' button as the train rolled into the platform.  Unlike previous times I have used it, I was asked to answer several multiple-choice security questions, after which there was an unusually long delay followed by a message to say it had been unable to collect payment.

By this time I was already on the train and the conductor was doing his rounds.  So I bought a ticket from him, of course (I had joined at an unstaffed station without a ticket machine, so no issues there.)  A minute or two later, I discovered that GWR *had* taken payment, *and* issued my e-ticket - so now I had two tickets for the same journey!

GWR subsequently gave me a full refund for my ticket - I wasn't sure they would. since this type of issue isn't listed as a valid reason for a refund - so all ended well.  However, it didn't do much at the time for my confidence in the GWR mobile app as a good way to buy and use tickets.


One other (unrelated) point on mobile e-tickets.  I find the barcodes scan more readily at ticket barriers that the ones printed on paper tickets.  Sometimes it takes me 2 or 3 goes to get a paper ticket to open the barrier, whereas the one on my phone normally works first time.  Has anybody else found that?

On my PC at home I have had several occasions where the GWR website tells me my purchase has been unsuccessful. I have been about to start again when I get a confirmation email with my ticket code

[Adrian]

I've never had a problem with paper tickets opening barriers. Is this something you've noticed a specific station?

To be clear, I'm talking about paper tickets with barcodes, not the ones with magnetic strips.  They seem more temperamental when the print is blacker.
Bristol Parkway is the station I'm most often passing through the barriers with one of the things.

[ChrisB]

I was entering the details for my journey while waiting for my train on the platform, and had just pressed the 'pay now' button as the train rolled into the platform.  Unlike previous times I have used it, I was asked to answer several multiple-choice security questions, after which there was an unusually long delay followed by a message to say it had been unable to collect payment.

By this time I was already on the train and the conductor was doing his rounds.  So I bought a ticket from him, of course (I had joined at an unstaffed station without a ticket machine, so no issues there.)  A minute or two later, I discovered that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) *had* taken payment, *and* issued my e-ticket

I get this error message about payment *every* time I buy through the app & have learnt to wait for the email, which usually is only 90 secnds or so to arrive - and the ticket arrives in the app even quicker.

Seems like an app problem....been going on for a while now.
No other TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) app has this problem in my experience - and I use most of them.

[Bmblbzzz]

For the first time ever, I'm using e-tickets tomorrow. Going up to Yorkshire, back on Tuesday. My mind, inevitably, is full of possible breakdowns: what if my phone dies? what if I can't open the pdf on my phone tomorrow? etc, etc. Was it worth it just to save £1 for picking up tickets at the station? But I'm sure it will be fine. If not, I'll let you know next week!

[bobm]

E-tickets could be all well and good if you are buying for yourself.  However what if you are organising travel for your proverbial aged aunt?

[paul7575]

For the first time ever, I'm using e-tickets tomorrow. Going up to Yorkshire, back on Tuesday. My mind, inevitably, is full of possible breakdowns: what if my phone dies? what if I can't open the pdf on my phone tomorrow? etc, etc. Was it worth it just to save £1 for picking up tickets at the station? But I'm sure it will be fine. If not, I'll let you know next week!

If you can print them as well I’d do so.  Apparently prints of the e-ticket pdf are valid for travel. 
However I understand this is not possible with the badly specified “m-tickets” which were only valid if shown within an App.

Paul

[Bmblbzzz]

I have pdf but no time to print now, unfortunately.

As for my Aged Aunt, she (84) would be fine with e-tickets. However, my young middle-aged friend (45) with terrible vision has real problems using the websites to buy tickets; has to zoom in to 175% and still the colours cause her problems. But buying at the station is also a problem, due to deafness. 

[plymothian]

I have pdf but no time to print now, unfortunately.

As for my Aged Aunt, she (84) would be fine with e-tickets. However, my young middle-aged friend (45) with terrible vision has real problems using the websites to buy tickets; has to zoom in to 175% and still the colours cause her problems. But buying at the station is also a problem, due to deafness. 

As an aside, if you use GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), at the top there is an Accessibility Tools link that allows the user to alter the site layout and saves those preferences for every visit (so long as cookies are accepted and kept).  This includes zoom level and colours.  You'll probably find other websites have the same.