[Closed] Why can’t trains use e-tickets?

Well, you need to get a lot of people in and out of those gates very quickly.  If you had to us a phone app like you do at airports there'd be huge blockages.  Trains need to be simpler and easier to use than planes otherwise people will just fly on the long distance routes.  What would be nice is a card that you beep in, like an oyster card, but it's tied to you - and you load it with tickets instead of money like Oyster.

Along those lines though - train companies reserve far too many seats on trains.  It makes it really hard to travel spontaneously, which is one of the train's big advantages.  Of course I know why they do it - they'd much rather we all booked.

You can, trainline does them

ScotRail has them

It's design and the information on it is set up centrally so that it can be used in any franchise. So a ticket bought in Glasgow will work in a ticket machine in Penrith or Penzance.

There is nothing in principle stopping a universal usage of e-tickets, apart from not everyone has a mobile.

I've used them loads of times via Trainline.

Germany has them, along with double decker trains, and people employed to inspect tickets on the trains rather than barriers at the stations. The tickets have a qr code that the inspectors can scan, though few seem to have the equipment.

Heathrow Express uses them.

What we do need (as we already have e tickets) is a universal public transit card that works across all cities and networks

They are e-tickets

Lick one, then enjoy your trip.

I suppose the problem would be you'd have to add another 'reader' to all the station gates as well as the oyster card and magnetic strip readers. It would probably work fine out in the sticks though where stations don't have barriers.

In the oyster card area at least I think you can use your phone in the same way you can use a contactless card? Which seems like a better solution to roll out, just add card readers to every station, buy tickets in advance tap in, and tap out at the other end (or just use gps location on the phone).  The practical problem with that is, you're bored on a train, you watch Netflix till your battery dies, and then you don't have a ticket!

The advantage the orange tickets have is they work everywhere, an inspector can see it, the barriers can read them, all the infrastructure is already there, and its only a minute or so to put a card in and type the code to collect tickets.

I guess this thread proves how many people don't read a thread before replying

As noted above a number of train companies do now have e-tickets, but not all of them.  This presents a problem of interoperability - ie if your journey involves more than one train company, and one of them doesn’t accept e-tickets then you have no choice but to use a real ticket.

As above, they exist so in answer to the OP, there is no reason at all as they already exist.

I was (pleasantly) surprised to see that Arriva Wales do them. Shrewsbury have a scanner thingy to open the barriers and I just waved my phone at a bloke at Manchester as they don't seem to have barriers for the Shrewsbury line.

I reckon in some instances train operators want to be better than national rail will allow them.

train companies reserve far too many seats on trains.  It makes it really hard to travel spontaneously

This ^ a reservation should be a little bit extra - its always annoying getting onto a carriage of empty seats with place markers all over

In the oyster card area at least I think you can use your phone in the same way you can use a contactless card? Which seems like a better solution to roll out, just add card readers to every station, buy tickets in advance tap in, and tap out at the other end (or just use gps location on the phone). The practical problem with that is, you’re bored on a train, you watch Netflix till your battery dies, and then you don’t have a ticket!

Your phone works just like your bank card, it’s just tap and go, in fact more and more people are using their Watch, although I tend to use my card because occasionally the phone doesn’t read properly, although having said that contactless cards don’t read properly either. I see no reason at all why, just like on the Underground I can just walk into any mainline station, or bus, tap my bank card, phone or Watch on a little yellow plate and get onto a train or bus.

You can use e-tickets on trainline but only on their rubbish app - you can't add them to your Wallet, and IIRC after use they disappear so you can't get the information you need if you want to claim for a delay (though the compensation is so little there's no point doing that anyway).

At Leeds station all the barriers now read old card tickets, paper roll tickets, QR codes on mobile tickets for the likes of the Trainline and Northern app, and oyster card style cards like my annual pass. The buses have all recently been upgraded with card readers that take contactless payments (not used it as my annual train card also works on the buses).

It's for the best, as transport/traffic in Leeds is pretty awful for such a big city!

@DrJ I can see all my tickets on my Trainline app, from when I downloaded it last August (Android)

@ahsat - just had a quick check. I can see the trains I took but not the tickets with eg ticket numbers on. IPhone app. Unless there's somewhere else to look...

At Leeds station all the barriers now read old card tickets, paper roll tickets, QR codes on mobile tickets for the likes of the Trainline and Northern app, and oyster card style cards like my annual pass. The buses have all recently been upgraded with card readers that take contactless payments (not used it as my annual train card also works on the buses).

It’s for the best, as transport/traffic in Leeds is pretty awful for such a big city!

I have a metro card, works very similar to London, there's 7 zones, Leeds being the centre,or zone 1.

I pay an annual fee, but through my work, it's deducted on a monthly basis from my wage.

So that’s what Trainline are charging more for!

the big ‘innovation’ I want is multi ticket journeys. Not a season ticket per se, I want to be able to buy “20 journeys” And use them as I want, rather than unlimited journeys for x period.

Yeh the oyster system seems more advanced, as in your not locked into a season ticket, and if you only do one journey in a day, that's all you get charged for, and if you do multiple journeys, it's capped at a certain price.

@DrJ I got @p20 to look on his iPhone version and under the ticket date, click manage my booking and you get the date, price paid, transaction ID etc.

Currently don't have a paper ticket to hand to know how this differs from a ticket number?

Edit: I also have all my Trainline purchases come through to my emails (as sometimes I need to claim them as expenses so it's just easier) and the ticket number is on those emails, but your right, doesn't seem to be in the old app ticket.

It's almost like having a scattered privatised rail system is a bad idea

Not a season ticket per se, I want to be able to buy “20 journeys” And use them as I want, rather than unlimited journeys for x period.

I think Metro in West Yorkshire do a kind of version of this - you can load £20 or whatever on your card and use it like a pay as you go phone. (Different to the ones mattyfez and I have).

Almost? I'd say exactly lol! 😉

I used Trainline and at no point have I seen it offer me an eticket.

@jam_bo by which can we deduce that you live in backwards southern England? Or Scotland?

https://www.thetrainline.com/information/mobile-tickets

I think Metro in West Yorkshire do a kind of version of this – you can load £20 or whatever on your card and use it like a pay as you go phone.

If they offered season ticket journey prices on that it could work. My ticket is £42 a day or £105 a week, so you need to do 3 journeys a week to make a weekly worthwhile. This week I’ve WFHd twice and ridden in once, so only got the train twice. What I want is to say the season ticket price is £21/journey, so that’s what you get charged (plus 10% or whatever is fine) whenever you use it. Rather than paying £84 for 2 days travel.

If they offered season ticket journey prices on that it could work.

Yeah I know what you mean. I don't think it does work like that.

I work from home 1-2 days a week, and if I am not going into work for a month, I risk paying over the odds with my 12 month ticket. But I do use the buses/trains etc as a result to get to physio, doctors, friends etc as a result. And therefore we sold our second car. I haven't overly thought through the maths, but I think I'm better off in my personal case with my year pass.

@jam_bo by which can we deduce that you live in backwards southern England? Or Scotland?

Sunny West Country, but travelling to Heathrow.

At that's the problem you went to the SE...

(I grew up there, I feel allowed to mock)

It’s only to escape to somewhere better.