an idea to stop tickets being produced?

[whole diary]

[infoman]

I know that this idea must have been thought of before so here goes.
Train tickets are not recyclable.
Could we have a plastic card issued,like the oyster card and season tickets for train only journeys.
So if you turned up at the station with your card and purchased a ticket to where ever.
and then keep using the card for any future journeys.
You would then be able to look at journeys that you have made.
I know the railway world is changing(slowly) with the phone now being used for a lot of journeys.
Thoughts any one?

[plymothian]

Erm ...  https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey/tickets-railcards-and-season-tickets/touch

It'll take a long time to get everybody to change to paperless unless you stopped issuing paper tickets today and forced everybody to change.

[ChrisB]

Then you need to educate people to not use these cards as disposable & carry them for each journey....

And the Rail Delivery Group need to make any TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) ITSO card available across all TOCs, rather than needing one for each TOC. Grrrr

[infoman]

Sorry plymothian didn't see the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) info.
Having said that,if you obtained the smart card
and went to (say) Bristol Parkway can they sell you a Bristol Parkway to Birmingham
ticket using ther smart card?

[plymothian]

Then you need to educate people to not use these cards as disposable & carry them for each journey....

And the Rail Delivery Group need to make any TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) ITSO card available across all TOCs, rather than needing one for each TOC. Grrrr

A GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) smartcard is valid on any other TOC, just like any other TOC's smartcard is valid on GWR.  It is the ticket stored on it that is important.  Which brings us to the current sticking point...

Sorry plymothian didn't see the GWR info.
Having said that,if you obtained the smart card
and went to (say) Bristol Parkway can they sell you a Bristol Parkway to Birmingham
ticket using ther smart card?

not at the moment as that is a Crosscountry ticket flow, and they don't have smartcard enablement at the moment.

Every TOC is at different stages of implimentation, so a lot of cross TOC ticket flows are not compatible with smartcards yet.  Even a lot of in-TOC ticket flows are not yet compatible such as when travelling between non gated stations.

[ChrisB]

Even when fully enabled, I will *not* be able to load a Different TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) season onto my GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) touch smartcard. It should be possible, by every TOC being able to 'see' any other ITSO rail smartcard.

RDG^‡(resolve) could issue the smartcard (just like they issue railcards) and then you should be able to register it with any TOC you choose to use it with.

[Reginald25]

Remember that some of us oldies don't trust the technology and like a piece of paper that can be read without difficulty, or power supplies!

[stuving]

Given that paper/card tickets are: 1. small, 2. largely biodegradable, 3. largely sustainable, and 4. did I mention they are not very big? - and plastic ones are 1. also small, 2. not eternal, 3. will be produced continually in significant quantities, and 4. not remotely sustainable - I think we can set the priority for this change at zero. In fact I can foresee future campaigns for smart tickets to be made of paper, too, if they still need to exist as any kind of object.

[Bmblbzzz]

Stuving has probably hit on the solution; the future of the ticket is not as paper or plastic but as something on your phone. It's just we're taking some time to work out whether it's an app, an email/text message, or what. Physical tokens of the right to a particular journey will still be needed in some circumstances and I expect they will continue to be made of paper, though not necessarily in the current form.

[plymothian]

Even when fully enabled, I will *not* be able to load a Different TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) season onto my GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) touch smartcard. It should be possible, by every TOC being able to 'see' any other ITSO rail smartcard.

Why not?
A ticket office has to sell any ticket that is available.

Remember that some of us oldies don't trust the technology and like a piece of paper that can be read without difficulty, or power supplies!

You trust your ITSO bus pass...

[rogerw]

The ITSO bus pass does not contain anything I've paid for so that my money is not at risk.  Yes I have an Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) card but but that is simple compared with the complexities of national rail tickets.

[Reginald25]

The ITSO bus pass may fail electronically, but its still got readable info, such as the photo, and as such should still be acceptable.