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Reissuing an e-ticket as a paper ticket
- Thread starter Dirty_Mac
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At least now sTicket is added we don't need to add mTicket, since they're the same thing just rebranded
xotGD
Established Member
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Are there still "Scratch and Flash" type day rover tickets in use anywhere?
Or handwritten excesses from a ticket inspector?
Probably, and all sorts of other types of authority to travel as well, but we’re starting to get extremely niche.
If the industry would use the sort of terminology I’ve suggested, I think it would be a significant improvement.
Wallsendmag
Established Member
I think only TfW is wedded to those things
They exist in West Yorkshire, though only if you buy Bus & Train tickets from one of the 5 remaining outlets. Most people will buy them on their phone, smartcard or as CCST.
I would much prefer it be called a "QR ticket" over a "Barcode ticket". I know it's an Aztec code, but everyone thinks it's a QR code, and it's certainly not a barcode! Some PRT stock has barcodes printed on the back, and plastering "Barcode ticket" over all the scanners is causing people to scan the back of their ticket.
If you don't like "barcode ticket", calling them Aztec tickets seems better than something that's incorrect.
Both QR and Aztec codes are types of barcode.
I believe the popular understanding is 2D barcode = "QR code", 1D barcode = "barcode". I am aware this is not really correct.
Haywain
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Everybody knows that an Aztec or QR code is a barcode, so why try to complicate things?
Adam Williams
Established Member
Perhaps this was a silly thing for the industry to have done
Interesting, I don't think most people I know would call it that: they would first describe it as a QR code. Maybe if asked they would say it was a type of barcode but I agree with @saismee's experience that most people on hearing "barcode" will assume you mean a 1D one they are familiar with from shops.
That's my experience. After showing people where the scanner is a lot of them will turn around and say "why does it say barcode reader when it's a QR code?" I think calling Aztec codes barcodes is incorrect as it's... not made of bars.
walkingsophie
Member
I think calling them "Aztec codes" is unambiguous, and technically correct, so the railways should push for that language to be used.
That relies on people within the industry knowing the difference between Aztec and QR codes themselves - in all probability, very few of them do! Fewer still are likely aware that most 2D symbologies (including those two) are actually a type of matrix code - I for one didn't know that before finding it on Wikipedia.
In all the industry-issued literature I've seen almost all references to eTickets label them as barcodes or QR codes.
On that note official policy on barcode tickets changed just a couple of weeks later, albeit only where ticket acceptance during disruption (engineering works etc) is concerned.
Here's the relevant info from TfL's Ticketing and Revenue Update #160 (my bolding):
Adam Williams
Established Member
This is good to see.
It's an internal staff brief within TfL, so sadly not. (or at least, not without a FoI)
redreni
Established Member
One would hope the "routes published in Section 4 of the Hot Issues Bulletin" and the "dates and times specified" would align with advertised ticket acceptance during planned engineering work, though.
This does seem to imply barcode tickets won't be accepted when acceptance is put in place in reaction to disruption, though, as there wouldn't be time for that to go in the bulletin. Getting TfL to accept valid tickets can feel like pulling teeth at times - every little bit of progress feels like they think they're doing everybody a massive favour by (sometimes) not double-charging people who have already paid.
I'm still not happy buying tickets with routings such as 'London not Underground' on anything other than CCST until TfL rolls out support for checking barcode tickets more widely.