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My idea for Mobile ticket and oyster add on using GPS

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pethadine82

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I was annoyed with SWT as my other half who was travelling at 11am was not sold the cheapest day travel card and sold an anytime travel card.
That got me thinking.
In the world of smart phones which have GPS, and a lot of rail tickets have QR codes.

1) buy a paper ticket to get you to boundary zone 6, this has a QR code
2) Scan the QR code into a TFL / Oyster ap. App tracks you and knows that you have entered zone 6 and then acts either as PAYG or as a travelcard depending on how many journeys you make in London.
3) You leave London, once you leave zone 6 (the app knows via GPS) It means that you don't have to get off the train and touch out, wait and board the next train.
4) Your paper ticket then covers you from boundary zone 6 to your destination.

I can see this being the future. This will stop short faring as well, as everything is tracked. If an RPI believed someone has short fared, they could just asked them to open google maps and you can see where people have been!

Any thoughts?
 
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Wallsendmag

Wallsendmag

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pethadine82 said:
I was annoyed with SWT as my other half who was travelling at 11am was not sold the cheapest day travel card and sold an anytime travel card.
That got me thinking.
In the world of smart phones which have GPS, and a lot of rail tickets have QR codes.

1) buy a paper ticket to get you to boundary zone 6, this has a QR code
2) Scan the QR code into a TFL / Oyster ap. App tracks you and knows that you have entered zone 6 and then acts either as PAYG or as a travelcard depending on how many journeys you make in London.
3) You leave London, once you leave zone 6 (the app knows via GPS) It means that you don't have to get off the train and touch out, wait and board the next train.
4) Your paper ticket then covers you from boundary zone 6 to your destination.

I can see this being the future. This will stop short faring as well, as everything is tracked. If an RPI believed someone has short fared, they could just asked them to open google maps and you can see where people have been!

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Good luck getting TfL to try anything apart from Oyster and contactless.
 
C

Clip

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Wallsendmag said:
Good luck getting TfL to try anything apart from Oyster and contactless.
Click to expand...

To be fair they do do apple pay and android too so theres no reason they cant use the other functionality of a modern smart phone
 
Rover

Rover

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Jordeh said:
What happens if you lose a paper ticket?
Click to expand...

You've answered a question with another question!

The OP is suggesting that you use your smartphone as a tracking device, the question I was asking is if the battery fails in your smartphone or you lose it how are you then tracked?
 
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pethadine82

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The onus is on the user to keep charge.
I carry a charging cable and have a spare portable battery pack.
There are a number of places to charge a phone.
Lost phone well same as lost ticket.
Dispensation for stolen phones. There seems to be a lot of snatch and go robberies in london, by gangs on bikes or Mopeds.

I can really see something like this taking off.
 
maniacmartin

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What's to stop you lending your phone to your partner?

I don't like this proposal and I don't think it will see the light of day. GPS causes battery life issues on phones, and it'll mean that TfL have to invest a lot of money build and maintain apps when they've already invested knowledge and money in the Oyster/CPC model. I also don't like the idea of more companies tracking where I am all of the time and all of the places I've ever been accessible to every RPI.

The biggest issue is that TfL aren't really that interested in making life easier for people travelling from outside the capital. Their whole philosophy is geared towards making it easier to travel within the zones, as these are the people they are ultimately accountable to.

There is fewer downsides with using a paper outboundary travelcard which many people manage with just fine, even if the wrong one was sold in this instance.
 
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paddington

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Your phone's GPS can easily be spoofed.

One solution would be to connect via wifi to the train, which could use GPS to report its location, but as maniacmartin says this would require a lot of money to develop.
 
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wibble

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pethadine82 said:
I was annoyed with SWT as my other half who was travelling at 11am was not sold the cheapest day travel card and sold an anytime travel card.
That got me thinking.
In the world of smart phones which have GPS, and a lot of rail tickets have QR codes.

1) buy a paper ticket to get you to boundary zone 6, this has a QR code
2) Scan the QR code into a TFL / Oyster ap. App tracks you and knows that you have entered zone 6 and then acts either as PAYG or as a travelcard depending on how many journeys you make in London.
3) You leave London, once you leave zone 6 (the app knows via GPS) It means that you don't have to get off the train and touch out, wait and board the next train.
4) Your paper ticket then covers you from boundary zone 6 to your destination.

I can see this being the future. This will stop short faring as well, as everything is tracked. If an RPI believed someone has short fared, they could just asked them to open google maps and you can see where people have been!

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

If this is "blue sky thinking" why would you bother with a paper ticket? Surely it would be easier to have an app that tracked the date/time/location you start and end your journeys? This would then track which train you travelled on and could offer a cheaper fare if you took a quiet stopping service, rather than a faster and (usually) busier train. You could also have automated delay repay, link the app to a bank account/credit or debit card....

As the wheels of the rail industry move incredibly slowly, I don't see it happening any time soon!
 
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