E-ticket no longer offered

[TallJohn]

Last October I purchased an open return from Boundary Zone 6 to Colchester with a senior railcard from the Forum ticketing site. Fulfilled by e-ticket and used with no issues. Yesterday I purchased the same ticket for the same price but it could only be fulfilled by paper tickets. There was an explanatory note that retailers are restricted by the train companies in what tickets they can offer, understandable. This is not a major issue for me, apart from the minor inconvenience of collecting the tickets from my local station (though it transpired that the one and only machine was out of action but the ticket office was staffed and the staff member helpfully printed my tickets). I was under the impression that the railways were moving to e-tickets and I wondered why Greater Anglia would revert to paper tickets. My first thought was maybe it was something to do with nationalisation but, on checking, my journey last year was post-nationalisation. Idle curiosity only but any thoughts?

 

[John R]

e-tickets are sometimes withdrawn where the operator thinks that the station selected is a common one for people to use when short-faring and "doughnutting". So making them collect the ticket removes the possibility of them just using their e-ticket to exit the barriers, having not paid for the full journey.

Though how that would apply for a boundary zone ticket I'm not sure, as by definition, you're not boarding at the boundary zone.

 

[saismee]

This may well be related to the recent ticket changes caused by the failed introduction of contactless. What was the exact ticket you were trying to purchase?