Tickets & Railcards: problems with fading ink/magnetic strips (merged topic, ongoing discussion)

[whole diary]

[Boppy]

Hi,

I regularly buy my season ticket in periods lasting between 1 and 2 months for many years now.  Over the last 6 months (and maybe longer) I have noticed a substantial reduction in the quality of the (blue coloured) tickets in terms of both wear and visibility of the information on the ticket!

I'm currently 3 weeks into my current ticket and already half the print is nearly invisible!  I guess my first question is what is my responsibility here - do I need to get a replacement for it?  Any time it's been faded badly I've still shown it to the Train Manager at any ticket check - they usually have a good squint and accept it - I've never actually had any issues due to this problem but it's almost completely illegible by the end of 2 months!

A few years ago these tickets were much more robust:

• they had a plastic centre which meant you couldn't tear it in half accidentally whereas now it just appears to be paper
• the print quality is now much worse - it simply doesn't last long enough anymore.  What this is due to I'm not sure - I guess either the ink is now different or again it's due to the ticket it's printed on being different

I thought I'd mention it in case anyone is experiencing similar difficulties!

Cheers,

Boppy.

[Ollie]

Star machines have been with FGW^▸ (First Great Western) for nearly 3 years or so now and to my knowledge the stock hasn't changed.
The type of stock used is thermal, so it shouldn't fade so quickly.
But if it has happened, just go to a ticket office who will replace it for you.

[inspector_blakey]

Even the STAR machines are somewhat inconsistent in their print quality. They are printing on a thermal ticket, but some machines produce a very bold print that is slow to fade and others produce print that is much more feint and prone to fading. Shades of the old APTIS^▸ (All Purpose Ticket Issuing System) machines where most of the tickets issued from Oxford were semi-legible because no-one ever seemed to change the print ribbons!

[Tim]

I found a pile of used thermal tickets in pocket of a fleece that I hadn't used for a while and most of the print on most of them had disappeared completely.  On a couple of tickets the errasure was so complete that they looked like blank stock - albeit a bit dog-eared at the corners.

[devonian]

I had the same problem on monthly season tickets and also on D&C Railcard. Always stored in the same place, not in sunlight or near any heat source and in the wallet that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) provide. When I enquired about replacements as they were illegible, I was told no and to look after them better. Quite how, I'm not sure.

[inspector_blakey]

I was told the same with my Y-P railcard a couple of years ago (i.e. that they could not re-issue due to the faded print). A nice helpful lady in the ticket office at Oxford wrote on the expiry date in biro then stamped and endorsed the rear of the railcard to indicate why the expiry date was handwritten. Although I expected this to be a problem in fact no staff ever queried it.

[eightf48544]

Another case of sloppy management thinking. Railway tickets have been issued for over 150 years you'd have thought someone would have got it right by now!

[plejaren]

as ive said before
in railway customer services

its all about the people providing the service nobody else

we (the cattle) should be happy just to get onboard

sad but oh well

[Boppy]

I got my ticket replaced nice and easily this morning at the ticket office at Reading.

I've got one now that says "Replacement" over it and to get it done it looks like a form has to be submitted with the old one attached - I had to give my address.

No problems though I'm pleased to say with getting it done.

The state of my old ticket was about 50% completely faded - after 5 weeks use.  I've been trying to think what other factors could be causing the fading to occur on my tickets:

- I've always kept it in a FGW^▸ (First Great Western) ticket wallet in my back trouser pocket - this hasn't changed.
- There are more barriers the ticket gets passed trough now due to the addition of barriers at Paddington station - not sure if this contributes towards the fading?
- Does the thermal ink stay on certain types of paper better than others - going back to the old tickets that had plastic in - were the surfaces of those tickets different?

Boppy.

[Tim]

I- Does the thermal ink stay on certain types of paper better than others - going back to the old tickets that had plastic in - were the surfaces of those tickets different?

Boppy.

My understanding is that thermal printing doesn't use "ink" as such.  The paper is coated with a heat sensitive chemical by the manufacturer.  The printer heats parts of the ticket to make the coating turn black.   

If you have ever brought a meal from Burger King at paddington they will have given you a similarly printed receipt.  If it is put into the bag with hot tea or chips, parts of the recipt will turn black.

the advice to keep your ticket awy from heat and sunlight is presumably to stop it going completely black.  I can't see how heat would cause fading.     

[inspector_blakey]

Correct - the paper is heat-sensitive and there is no actual ink. It's not heat that causes the print to fade, it just does of its own accord over time. Certain things seem to exacerbate this, like getting a ticket wet.

[Tim]

Correct - the paper is heat-sensitive and there is no actual ink. It's not heat that causes the print to fade, it just does of its own accord over time. Certain things seem to exacerbate this, like getting a ticket wet.

...or rubbing it with a piece of fleece.  The problem with thermal printing is that the printing is only on the surface coating which can wear off.  I suspect that if you wanted to you could rub it off deliberately.  A fraudster would probably have more problem printed the new information back on the ticket though because the thermal coating would have gone and ordinary ink wouldn't look quite right so there is a fairly straightforward anti-conterfieting feature to the extent that they can only be printed on once (and how many peole have a thermal printer at home?).   The older tickets used ink which soaked some distance into the paper and was therefore more durable.  I guess that they switched to thermal printing because it does give a nice black image when newly printed and doesn't rely on a ribbon being correctly inked.  I aslo imagine that the printed is simply and therefore lower mantainance and lighter (good for portable equipment).  The stock itself must cost a bit more though and because the paper is shiny, when it is stamped with ink rather than punched by an inspector, the ink doesn't sink in and stays on the surface and smudges which rather defeats the object of printing the reporting code on the ticket rather than just punching a hole. 

I word of warning to those using day tickets which have been stamped with a Ziffco machine.  Do not put it in a wallet until it is dry or wiped dry.  Otherwise you will end up with a wallet that marks unstamped tickets and makes them look stamped or defaced.   

[inspector_blakey]

Zifa do actually supply quick-drying ink ribbons for use on thermal tickets, it's just that none of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) seem to use them!

[Oxman]

I once met a guy who had decided to preserve his car park season ticket by laminating it.

[Btline]

I once met a guy who had decided to preserve his car park season ticket by laminating it.