Passenger-unfriendly downsides of e-tickets?

[Bletchleyite]

It depends on which retailer you book your tickets with.

I did exactly the same thing with TPE not so long ago- bought the ticket for the day before the one I meant to. I could amend the ticket for free. The day after was cheaper and sadly there was no refund, but at least I wasn't charged a tenner for nothing.

There are such apps, though they don't usually offer splits or a seat selector, both of which I consider important features when using Advances.

 

[DarloRich]

Absolutely not! I've not even mentioned that I managed to book the right train on the wrong day and was able to amend the ticket online with no admin fee and because the correct train on the correct day was cheaper I was refunded the difference in fares within 48 hours...

Couldn't possibly allow that sort of thing over here!

Blady frogs. What in earth are they playing at? Next you will tell me their ticketing system is affordable and straightforward

Change is only good if it makes life better. Change for change's sake, such as making everyone totally reliant on their mobile phone doesn't make anyone's life better.

It has no impact. Why do people here overthink everything?

I admit I have on occasion, used an e-ticket at short notice when there's been no ticket collection option available, but i much prefer the convenience of a paper ticket.

What convenience does a paper ticket offer over any other form of ticket

 

[TUC]

Change is only good if it makes life better. Change for change's sake, such as making everyone totally reliant on their mobile phone doesn't make anyone's life better.

It does make life better in terms of only needing to take one thing with you when you go out, instead of a wallet stuffed with multiple items.

There is also the benefit that, in the unlikely event of you losing your phone, the ticket still exists to be recovered on a new device, whereas a lost paper ticket is simply lost.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

What convenience does a paper ticket offer over any other form of ticket

It fits perfectly in your wallet, right next to your credit cards and, as you keep your wallet in your pocket, you're very unlikely to lose it.

Conversely most people who use smartphones have them constantly on display and are constantly distracted by them , which makes them easy to misplace or have stolen.

And it's not just the fear of running out of battery; you may be unable to access your e-ticket if there's no internet signal, or if your phone crashes or it your phone has saved it to an obscure folder you can't find.

 

[TUC]

It fits perfectly in your wallet, right next to your credit cards and, as you keep your wallet in your pocket, you're very unlikely to lose it.

Conversely most people who use smartphones have them constantly on display and are constantly distracted by them , which makes them easy to misplace or have stolen.

And it's not just the fear of running out of battery; you may be unable to access your e-ticket if there's no internet signal, or if your phone crashes or it your phone has saved it to an obscure folder you can't find.

Ah yes. These issues that none of the large number of people for whom one can hear beeps during ticket checks appear to experience.

 

[NeilCr]

What convenience does a paper ticket offer over any other form of ticket

My partner is partially sighted

She'll always get a paper ticket. Stored in her wallet/purse she can easily find it

Scrolling through her phone for an e ticket would take ages and I know she''d be very embarrassed

 

[TUC]

My partner is partially sighted

She'll always get a paper ticket. Stored in her wallet/purse she can easily find it

Scrolling through her phone for an e ticket would take ages and I know she''d be very embarrassed

That is a different issue, for which in terms of my wife I am very aware of. It is however a separate issue to that the vast majority of the sighted population.

 

[NeilCr]

That is a different issue, for which in terms of my wife I am very aware of. It is however a separate issue to that the vast majority of the sighted population.

Okay. I understand that

But I do think it's worth mentioning. Had quite a battle (with others) on the forum about this when the ticket office closures were discussed

If it's completely off topic then I'm sure the mods will remove. If so - my apologies.

 

[MrJeeves]

Ah yes. These issues that none of the large number of people for whom one can hear beeps during ticket checks appear to experience.

I simply never understand the people who will fight tooth and nail to insist that CCSTs are better than E-Tickets or vice versa.

Simply understand that both have big benefits and equally big drawbacks and allow people to have their preference.

I use CCSTs for the vast majority of my journeys, and that's partly because I live on GTR where if I want to go 90% of places, it involves crossing London (and partly also because they seemingly hate setting up E-Tickets for flows correctly).

I do enjoy simply having a piece of paper for a ticket where I (theoretically) always know where it is and don't need to think about quickly closing whatever's on my phone screen and opening up Google Wallet to show my ticket. Despite this, though, there are times where I'll still choose an E-Ticket instead purely for convenience. For example, I did a journey with something like five splits a couple of months ago, which was more easily used as E-Tickets rather than paper in my opinion.

 

[Haywain]

My partner is partially sighted

She'll always get a paper ticket. Stored in her wallet/purse she can easily find it

Scrolling through her phone for an e ticket would take ages and I know she''d be very embarrassed

But she could equally use a printed eTicket, couldn’t she?

 

[TUC]

But she could equally use a printed eTicket, couldn’t she?

You could, but if you are visually impaired, especially if you have no useful vision, knowing whether you have successfully opened the e-ticket, and whether it has printed properly, is a challenge.

 

[Wallsendmag]

You could, but if you are visually impaired, especially if you have no useful vision, knowing whether you have successfully opened the e-ticket, and whether it has printed properly, is a challenge.

Could she not use Siri and simply say show train ticket? May even be easier (less useful phones are also available)

 

[Adam Williams]

You could, but if you are visually impaired, especially if you have no useful vision, knowing whether you have successfully opened the e-ticket, and whether it has printed properly, is a challenge.

One of Raileasy's API partners, Railboard, was featured on a Royal Institute of Blind People podcast as an example of good practice - the host of their Tech Talk show is blind, so technology in itself is certainly not a barrier to (partially or totally) visually impaired customers benefitting from the advantages of E-Ticketing.

I keep banging on to Rail Delivery Group about this (their shiny new reservation system is substantially worse for visually impaired people vs what we had before), but those sorts of industry-wide limitations aside - if you put in the effort as a software engineer, you can create an experience that's accessible to blind, partially sighted and e.g. colour-blind individuals. You just need to care about it.

A lot of time is invested into testing the TrainSplit apps in this same vein, I've gotten quite familiar with TalkBack on Android over the years!

 

[Haywain]

You could, but if you are visually impaired, especially if you have no useful vision, knowing whether you have successfully opened the e-ticket, and whether it has printed properly, is a challenge.

That would surely apply to any sort of ticket. The issue raised was about finding an eTicket on a phone.

 

[NeilCr]

Could she not use Siri and simply say show train ticket? May even be easier (less useful phones are also available)

I think the paper tickets give her more certainty and confidence. Having seen some of the translations/answers of what she’s said/asked Siri/whatever I can see her point

She’s not a regular train traveller and with the paper she’s sure she’s presenting the right thing

Doesn’t own a printer!

Should add that she would still have go through the process of buying/finding the e ticket to print in the first place

Completely get Adam’s point about technology but for an irregular train traveller like my OH buying a paper ticket from a ticket office is definitely the easiest and preferred option

 

[TUC]

Could she not use Siri and simply say show train ticket? May even be easier (less useful phones are also available)

Just opened an email with a train ticket attached to it and asked Siri 'open train ticket'. It just offered me links to NRE and a couple of other sites.

Also tried 'open attachment' and got the reply 'it doesn't look like you have an app called 'attachment'.

 

[MrJeeves]

Just opened an email with a train ticket attached to it and asked Siri 'open train ticket'. It just offered me links to NRE and a couple of other sites.

Also tried 'open attachment' and got the reply 'it doesn't look like you have an app called 'attachment'.

I think the point was for a ticket added to Apple Wallet.

 

[yorkie]

Okay. I understand that

But I do think it's worth mentioning. Had quite a battle (with others) on the forum about this when the ticket office closures were discussed

If there is no open ticket office, then they can simply board without a ticket. No need to queue, simply board the train. But I don't understand how that has anything to do with this thread, but feel free to create a new one if anyone requires any advice regarding that.

As for the merits of e-tickets vs paper tickets for blind people, that is a whole separate debate and is best posted in a new thread.

If it's completely off topic then I'm sure the mods will remove. If so - my apologies.

If anyone wants to go on a tangent about anything else, we do welcome any spin-off discussions, but we just ask that a new thread is created for these (you are welcome to link to the new thread from the original and vice versa). Messages for moderators, or about moderation matters, mustn't be posted in any forum thread and instead the report button should be used, where appropriate (or the Contact Us form used, if the query doesn't relate to a specific post) and there can be no expectation that moderators will take any action unless a report has been submitted.

Hopefully that clarifies

 

[talldave]

One of Raileasy's API partners, Railboard, was featured on a Royal Institute of Blind People podcast as an example of good practice - the host of their Tech Talk show is blind, so technology in itself is certainly not a barrier to (partially or totally) visually impaired customers benefitting from the advantages of E-Ticketing.

I keep banging on to Rail Delivery Group about this (their shiny new reservation system is substantially worse for visually impaired people vs what we had before), but those sorts of industry-wide limitations aside - if you put in the effort as a software engineer, you can create an experience that's accessible to blind, partially sighted and e.g. colour-blind individuals. You just need to care about it.

Getting people to care is the hard part. I'm a great believer in including accessibility as part of the mainstream and not as some niche exotic add-on/upgrade. I was involved in the early incarnations of the IEC62731 Text to Speech specification that helped bring speech into TVs and it was challenging to get people to contribute the time/effort needed to get to a published standard.

(@yorkie this response would fit in a new thread if its spun off this one)

 

[yorkie]

I think we're probably done with the original topic, so I am going to lock this now.

However, as always, if anyone has an important update to this thread, that hasn't been previously posted, feel free to report this post and include a draft or summary of what you wish to post, and we will consider unlocking it.

As mentioned before, if anyone wants to discuss any spin-off topic from any existing thread, please create a new thread. Feel free to post a link to the original thread from the new one (and vice versa, where applicable)