Train E-Tickets

[Worsdell forever]

Recently booked a trip to Edinburgh and this time for the first time opted for e-tickets rather than physical ones. The email with the tickets talks about printing them but I thought the whole point was they were on your phone/tablet and the guard/TI could scan that? I booked through LNER but the journey starts on Northern, can Northern cope with this modern technology?

 

So, the question is do I need to print them or not?

[Pete the Elaner]

I have used them before (& bought some just this morning).

All the guards who have checked mine seem to have seen them before. Many of the gate lines now have optical readers; it used to be necessary to go through the manned gate.

My concern is if the phone was to develop a fault while I am out.

[Worsdell forever]

5 minutes ago, Pete the Elaner said:

I have used them before (& bought some just this morning).

All the guards who have checked mine seem to have seen them before. Many of the gate lines now have optical readers; it used to be necessary to go through the manned gate.

My concern is if the phone was to develop a fault while I am out.

 

Ta, the plan is Mrs WF will have them on her phone too.

 

 

[Edwin_m]

I've used them a couple of times and they seem to work fine.   Apparently you should avoid the M-ticket, which will only download to a special app and is then not transferable, so if the phone breaks or runs down the ticket can't be used.  But an E-ticket can be downloaded as often as you like and presumably the scanners must check some database to confirm that the ticket hasn't been used already.  

 

The main restriction is that the barriers on the Underground don't have scanners, so any ticket that involves (or could involve) Underground travel can only be issued as orange card.  

[Ron Ron Ron]

3 hours ago, Worsdell forever said:

Recently booked a trip to Edinburgh and this time for the first time opted for e-tickets rather than physical ones. The email with the tickets talks about printing them but I thought the whole point was they were on your phone/tablet and the guard/TI could scan that? I booked through LNER but the journey starts on Northern, can Northern cope with this modern technology?

 

So, the question is do I need to print them or not?

 

E-tickets have to be downloaded to Apple or Google Wallet apps on your phone, or to a TOC specific app..

You can print out the ticket to have a hard copy, in case the phone fails or runs out of battery; or if you prefer to use a paper ticket.

 

For those who prefer to print out and carry the paper version, the benefit is being able to book online and not have to...

...rely on tickets being posted,

or having to collect pre-booked tickets from a machine at the station, or from over the counter.

 

Usually, the email containing the confirmation of booking and E-ticket, is not considered a valid ticket to travel in itself, even though a Q or barcode may be visible to scan.

There have been a couple of well publicised incidents reported in the nation press, of people being charged a penalty fare for travelling with only the booking email, either in printed form or visible on a phone.

In one case, where the passenger changed trains at New St., the guard on the first leg of the journey had accepted being shown the email (containing the E-Ticket) on the passenger's phone, but the guard on the 2nd leg refused to accept the email and issued a penalty fare, which apparently was correct according to the T&C's.

 

.

[John M Upton]

I reccomend a printed copy as a backup.  Phones fail through faults and battery power loss.

 

Unfortunately a certain element of travelling societly cottoned on very quickly to the 'I have a ticket on my phone but the battery has just run out' excuse for not paying they way...

[Bernard Lamb]

15 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

 

 

For those who prefer to print out and carry the paper version, the benefit is being able to book online and not have to...

...rely on tickets being posted,

or having to collect pre-booked tickets from a machine at the station, or from over the counter.

 

 

 

.

Benefit?

It would take me longer to print out the ticket at home than it would to get it from the machine at the station.

Bernard

 

[Edwin_m]

1 hour ago, Bernard Lamb said:

Benefit?

It would take me longer to print out the ticket at home than it would to get it from the machine at the station.

Bernard

 

You might find the machines at the station were out of order, or had a big queue, or you were delayed for some reason and didn't have time to get your ticket before catching the train.  Obviously less important if you can easily get to the station beforehand.  

 

My employer uses a ticket booking system that can print them in the office or send them for printing at the station, but there is an extra charge for either service.  It was recently enhanced to include e-tickets (on routes where the relevant operator allows them) and we are now being encouraged to use them to avoid this charge.  

[Ron Ron Ron]

1 hour ago, Bernard Lamb said:

Benefit?

It would take me longer to print out the ticket at home than it would to get it from the machine at the station.

Bernard

 

Really?

 

I simply click print at the end of the booking online process and my printer dutifully chucks out a printed sheet of A4 within seconds.

I can then (at my leisure) neatly fold it up and have it ready to put in my coat pocket before I leave for the station.

 

Conversely, if after booking online, we elect to collect tickets from the machine at the station, which we do 95% of the time, we have to go through a process that takes several minutes to complete - put credit/debit card in, type in booking reference on a slow and often unresponsive touch screen, confirm the booking is correct and then wait while the machine produces the tickets, which seems to take ages.

Often there’s someone ahead of you and you have to wait your turn to access the ticket machine. In the case of our local station, both machines are in exposed places, so there’s a chance of getting wet while at the machine.

The screen of one of the machines cannot be read in full sun. A real nuisance.

This is a much less convenient and more time consuming process than printing the ticket at home.

Not to mention, as Edwin has said, the risk of ticket machines being out of service.

 

Each to their own. 
My wife and I personally prefer to book online and collect our train tickets from the machine at the station, often a day or two before the day of travel, if we happen to be passing the station.

We’ve started to use electronic boarding passes for flights, following our grown-up kid’s example.

We always have a paper copy of the boarding pass, printed off at home when we check-in, just for “insurance purposes”, in case our phones pack up. It takes no effort at all to print these off.
I suspect that many using E-tickets on the railway, might do the same.

 

Ron

Edited January 1, 2020 by Ron Ron Ron

[Edwin_m]

When travelling on business I always have the laptop with me so download the e-ticket to that as well as to the phone.  I'd probably look a bit silly trying to present it at a ticket barrier but it's a backup for the unlikely circumstance of the phone packing up or running out of battery.