Progress of shift from paper to smart tickets - RDG

[whole diary]

[Fourbee]

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.

The badly publicized National Rail Smartcard App can read the tickets on a smartcard (available on the App Store or Google Play). It can also activate passes on Flexi Season Tickets.

[Fourbee]

I'm not a fan of Paper Roll Ticket (PRT), it's seems like a bit a throwback to the SPORTIS era, but without the perforations to separate your return ticket portions. It's quite an unsubtle way by the RDG^‡(resolve) to shove people to smart fulfilment methods, especially when 7 day seasons are issued on them.

[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. 

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.

Thanks, I'll pass that on.

[Sleepy]

  I refuse to use e-tickets, why should I do something DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) think is best thing since sliced bread for no real benefit to me. Just an excuse to say look how many people use them - lets shut ticket offices ! If they were that bothered they'd force Tfl to accept them on tube for cross London journeys ??

[IndustryInsider]

I tend to hold out for as long as possible with such things. Automatic checkouts in shops being one example.  But eventually I bow to ‘progress’ and grudgingly accept!

[Bmblbzzz]

My e-ticket trip to Yorkshire went well. I didn't actually get to open the barriers with my phone, because we made impromptu extra journeys at each end (Redland to Temple Meads, then Leeds to Shipley) (getting printed tickets, but those stations don't have barriers anyway). In fact, my QR^▸ (QR Code - Quick Response code) code only got scanned on the return journey – on the outward leg the conductor just looked at it.

Nevertheless, I've opted for printed tickets for my trip to sunny Cornwall later this month. Why? Mostly just because the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) site offers either for free, whereas XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) charges (albeit only £1) to pick up a printed ticket. Also because this journey is planned well in advance, the trip to Yorkshire was somewhat last minute and mostly planned by someone else.

[PhilWakely]

..... I've opted for printed tickets for my trip to sunny Cornwall later this month. Why? Mostly just because the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) site offers either for free, whereas XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) charges (albeit only £1) to pick up a printed ticket. Also because this journey is planned well in advance, the trip to Yorkshire was somewhat last minute and mostly planned by someone else.

I sincerely hope that the £1 fee is then paid to the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) that runs the ticket office/TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) where the ticket is collected from!

[Bmblbzzz]

As it's charged at time of purchase that seems unlikely, though there may be some accounting later. But perhaps XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) has to pay other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) an annual fee to let their tickets be collected from other TOCs stations? Which would have to include NR^» (Network Rail - home page).

[grahame]

As it's charged at time of purchase that seems unlikely, though there may be some accounting later. But perhaps XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) has to pay other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) an annual fee to let their tickets be collected from other TOCs stations? Which would have to include NR^» (Network Rail - home page).

My understanding is that the other TOCs all run stations with TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) and have an agreement that it balances out when customers pick up from someone else's machine. XC don't run any stations (not even the ones at which they provide all the services) and so are not part of this agreement.

[Richard Fairhurst]

I've started using e-tickets on the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) app more now that Charlbury ticket office is closed more often than not, and there are often long queues at the ticket machine.

I am, however, not entirely happy about the surveillance implications. The app operator can (and, from reports elsewhere, does) keep a travel history keyed to your user account. I don't like Google or Facebook recording what websites I visit, when; by the same token, I don't like GWR recording where I visit, when. So when the ticket machine is free, I'll continue to use it.

[1st fan]

I have had to revert to a paper annual travelcard instead of an Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) card one because……
The ticket machines can’t do one,
The Tube ticket offices are all shut,
The Overgound/TFL^▸ (Transport for London) Rail ticket offices can’t do it,
National rail ticket offices can’t do Oyster.

The paper ticket stopped working in the barriers a day or so after I got the blasted thing. As a result I have to have staff let me through manually. This can add a few minutes to my journey which is not good. I am going to get staff at my local something for Christmas for all the times I’ve been helped through the barriers. I was told that I might find it cheaper to use contactless rather than a travelcard. I asked if I would still get 1/3 off my rail fares doing that and they said no an annual travelcard will be better in my case.

[Surrey 455]

I have had to revert to a paper annual travelcard instead of an Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) card one because……
The ticket machines can’t do one,
The Tube ticket offices are all shut,
The Overgound/TFL^▸ (Transport for London) Rail ticket offices can’t do it,
National rail ticket offices can’t do Oyster.

The paper ticket stopped working in the barriers a day or so after I got the blasted thing. As a result I have to have staff let me through manually. This can add a few minutes to my journey which is not good. I am going to get staff at my local something for Christmas for all the times I’ve been helped through the barriers. I was told that I might find it cheaper to use contactless rather than a travelcard. I asked if I would still get 1/3 off my rail fares doing that and they said no an annual travelcard will be better in my case.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and others can do an annual travelcard on Smartcard. GWR's is called Touch. You order the smartcard and ticket online. Select which station you will be activating your smartcard at, tap at the barrier or validator of that station. They'll then send you your paper Gold Card Record card to get your rail discounts.

If you're only buying a weekly or monthly travelcard, you can also activate by using the NFC chip on your phone.

[1st fan]

I have had to revert to a paper annual travelcard instead of an Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) card one because……
The ticket machines can’t do one,
The Tube ticket offices are all shut,
The Overgound/TFL^▸ (Transport for London) Rail ticket offices can’t do it,
National rail ticket offices can’t do Oyster.

The paper ticket stopped working in the barriers a day or so after I got the blasted thing. As a result I have to have staff let me through manually. This can add a few minutes to my journey which is not good. I am going to get staff at my local something for Christmas for all the times I’ve been helped through the barriers. I was told that I might find it cheaper to use contactless rather than a travelcard. I asked if I would still get 1/3 off my rail fares doing that and they said no an annual travelcard will be better in my case.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and others can do an annual travelcard on Smartcard. GWR's is called Touch. You order the smartcard and ticket online. Select which station you will be activating your smartcard at, tap at the barrier or validator of that station. They'll then send you your paper Gold Card Record card to get your rail discounts.

If you're only buying a weekly or monthly travelcard, you can also activate by using the NFC chip on your phone.

Yes that’s true, except I live in London and use the Tube and London buses daily. I can’t use anything except an Oyster card with a travelcard loaded on it on the those. So staff would still have to pass me through the barriers each time on the tube.

[Surrey 455]

Oh, sorry to hear that. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) tickets page suggests that it does seem possible to get what I think you want. Away from London & TfL^» (Transport for London - about) stations you would use the validator or ticket gates at a nominated station to load the ticket to your GWR Touch smartcard. I don't know if it works the same inside London.

See the attached screenshot. The £2164 price quoted is just West Drayton to Paddington without travelcard. The £2812 is a zones 1-6 travelcard. I also played around with Hayes (Zones 1-5) and Ealing Broadway (Zones 1-3).

[Ralph Ayres]

TfL^» (Transport for London - about) are resisting allowing Travelcards entirely within Zones 1-6 on TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) Smartcards. The technology isn't anywhere near as clever as Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) and has at least one fraud loophole which I won't go into here as it doesn't yet seem to be common knowledge judging by a quick Google search I've just done.  1st fan could have ordered an Oyster one online from the TfL website to pick up at a gate, or a few of the TfL Visitor Centres still do them on the spot, but too late now as I don't think you can swap from paper once you've bought it.  TfL seem to have stopped doing telephone sales.