New GWR mobile app

[whole diary]

[Surrey 455]

Yesterday, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) updated its mobile app on Android phones and tablets. Maybe they updated Apple and Windows as well. There's an awful lot of complaints about the update. It appears to have lost existing mobile tickets, tickets on collection details, functionality etc. The old version of the app no longer works even if you have not yet updated. I can't comment myself as I have not yet updated and have no plans for train journeys in the next few weeks

Details and user comments below:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.firstgreatwestern

[chrisr_75]

Apple version was also updated. Seems ok to me although I've only just checked some trains times and priced up a couple of journeys

[TaplowGreen]

I've updated it, not impressed...previous version was far superior and much more user friendly.

[ChrisB]

I can't update - not yet on ios9 - but the mobile ticket stored still seems to be accessible.

On these reports, I don't think I'll bother yet if/when I upgrade to ios9. Shame as I was collecting Nectar very nicely booking most tickets through it. But why deactivate the old version? Madness, there are some iphones not able to upgrade to ios9 still in use

[bobm]

I haven't pressed the final button to actually purchase a ticket yet, but it seems on the new version you can now make bicycle reservations and buy Plusbus tickets which you couldn't on the old one.

Had a brief look at the journey planner and for two sample journeys it provided accurate bus connections each end.

One thing neither app had/has is the ability to add a journey to your calendar which I would find a useful feature.

[chrisr_75]

I can't update - not yet on ios9 - but the mobile ticket stored still seems to be accessible.

On these reports, I don't think I'll bother yet if/when I upgrade to ios9. Shame as I was collecting Nectar very nicely booking most tickets through it. But why deactivate the old version? Madness, there are some iphones not able to upgrade to ios9 still in use

The met office also recently did that with their app, but they didn't give any prior warning at all, the old one just stopped working with no indication it had been replaced.

Not sure if this is becoming a thing amongst app developers?

[bobm]

Strange - I had a message flash up on the old Met Office app giving a month's notice of the change.

There is certainly a move to force the updating of older apps, certainly on ios.  There are warnings that older apps will no longer work when the next major software upgrade takes place in the autumn.  I am sure some will not be replaced as they were written a long time ago and the authors have moved on to other things.

The GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) app is not one of those - the old version *would* have worked on the new software.

[bobm]

Now had a chance to use the new app.

I suspect one of the reasons the old app was disabled is that the new one caters for Verified by Visa and the like - banks are less willing to help companies with fraud if the extra layer of security is not in place.

Two things I did note however. 

• The new app requires you to log into your account each time. It doesn't remember your username nor store your password.
• You can still only buy one ticket at a time.

[ANDYMO1962]

The main beef [with the Apple version, I'm guessing it's the same with Android] is that, although there's a nice folder for m-tickets, the list of tickets booked online to be collected at a machine has disappeared.
This was a massively useful feature as it made it really easy to locate that pesky reference code while fiddling with your credit card at the ticket machine; Now you have to rummage around in your emails for the right one and then expand the screen to be able to read the number. From the comments this sounds like one of the main things users really liked about the app. This feature worked at account level and the app kept you logged in so, regardless of which device you used to book a ticket, the reference was always there at the tap of a button.
I'm hoping that the pile of negative comments is causing GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) app developers to scramble to restore this feature; Meanwhile, I for one am checking other train company apps to see if they have this feature. [The trainline app does it very well but of course if you book via them you end up paying entirely unnecessary booking and credit card fees.]