Why I avoid e-tickets

[Haywain]

People overwhelmingly still travel with walk up tickets.

And the vast majority of people make short journeys for which Advance tickets are not available.

 

[Adam Williams]

I avoid e-tickets like the plague, as they always cause me problems

For some balance: ToD can and does fail. Print errors happen regularly, and many of the issues customers run into appear to be unable to be resolved by station staff (if there even are any!). Many machines fail to properly allow "self recovery" of a booking in the Print Error state, despite there being no good reason why this shouldn't be possible.

At least once an E-Ticket is generated, you know it's been issued.

Unfortunately this forum's site only seems to offer e-tickets, which is why I rarely use it.

This is just nonsense; 30 seconds to try and make a booking would've disproved it.

 

[Bletchleyite]

They don't. People overwhelmingly still travel with walk up tickets.

The latest ORR stats show this:
View attachment 204224

The table above shows 35.9m advance ticket journeys in Q4 2025, compared to 147m anytime ticket journeys and 215m off-peak ticket journeys.

That applies mostly to long distance travel. Local travel is still mostly walk-up (and most journeys are local - the vast majority of those Anytimes will be shortish distance journeys) though Northern do sell a lot of short distance Advances.

 

[Tetchytyke]

And the vast majority of people make short journeys for which Advance tickets are not available.

That applies mostly to long distance travel.

Absolutely, but the refund issue on e-tickets (especially when Trainline stopped charging a fee) was on these lower-value local tickets.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Absolutely, but the refund issue on e-tickets (especially when Trainline stopped charging a fee) was on these lower-value local tickets.

Certainly, which is why I thought simply mandating the application of a higher refund fee (say £20) on the day would have wiped it out without the need to be telling people with unused £300 Anytimes that they've lost their money. It was mostly youngsters making short journeys and hitting refund to see if it would refund or not just as a matter of habit, some of whom we saw on here in Disputes and Prosecutions.

 

[Essan]

Try replacing a normal off peak CCST when you've lost it. I rest my case for eTickets

It was that which persuaded me to switch to etickets - I always used to prefer TOD. I like having a physical ticket on me.

Then, on one journey north, which involved split tickets, I discovered one of the tickets missing, just before I started my journey. No idea whether it hadn't printed or I had lost it myself (I'd collected the tickets the previous day). But it meant I had no option but to buy a new standard single for that stage of the journey, negating all the savings I'd made by splitting the tickets. And, of course, as I realised then, with etickets I can print off as many as I want (obviously not applicable to someone who doesn't have a printer)

 

[snail]

It was that which persuaded me to switch to etickets - I always used to prefer TOD. I like having a physical ticket on me.

Then, on one journey north, which involved split tickets, I discovered one of the tickets missing, just before I started my journey. No idea whether it hadn't printed or I had lost it myself (I'd collected the tickets the previous day). But it meant I had no option but to buy a new standard single for that stage of the journey, negating all the savings I'd made by splitting the tickets. And, of course, as I realised then, with etickets I can print off as many as I want (obviously not applicable to someone who doesn't have a printer)

There's also the problem of mislaying the printed ticket if you want to claim delay repay. Or letting a barrier swallow it! (I know it can be retrieved but not easily in a busy station)

 

[blimmo]

I recently bought tickets in advance for a rail journey after a trip abroad. I was slightly worried about losing the tickets while on the trip so chose etickets... then promptly realised that the better option here would have been ToD since I would just need to contact a friend to retrieve the collection reference if I'd lost/broken my phone whereas accessing etickets without a phone is much more challenging.

 

[Royston Vasey]

I still use paper for a number of reasons. Are Trainline and other e-Tickets able to manage a mixture of "Mandatory Reservations" and "Optional Reservations". There was a report a couple of years ago now that all legs on an advance were listed under "Mandatory Reservations" whether they were reservable or not, e.g. Birmingham Stations to Stansted Airport via London.

I am also highly disturbed by the ability of poorly trained staff to scan an e-Ticket and demand to know why it wasn't "validated" at the origin when there is no such requirement. I also feel the Railway can overreach in interrogating scan data to investigate irregularities that are not there.

While there is still an option for a clear printed set of mandatory reservations on a piece of cardboard and only 8 bits of information being read, recorded on the ticket and probably immediately forgotten by the gate line, I will still use it.

 

[jon81uk]

I recently bought tickets in advance for a rail journey after a trip abroad. I was slightly worried about losing the tickets while on the trip so chose etickets... then promptly realised that the better option here would have been ToD since I would just need to contact a friend to retrieve the collection reference if I'd lost/broken my phone whereas accessing etickets without a phone is much more challenging.

Although if you have access to your own printer you can have both a printed copy and one on your phone if using eTickets.

I've lost more wallets than I have phones, so I always feel better with eticket, but for long distance stuff I try to take a printout as a backup.

 

[35B]

They don't. People overwhelmingly still travel with walk up tickets.

The latest ORR stats show this:
View attachment 204224

The table above shows 35.9m advance ticket journeys in Q4 2025, compared to 147m anytime ticket journeys and 215m off-peak ticket journeys.

That's the number of journeys. What's the breakdown by journey distance?

 

[blimmo]

Although if you have access to your own printer you can have both a printed copy and one on your phone if using eTickets.

I've lost more wallets than I have phones, so I always feel better with eticket, but for long distance stuff I try to take a printout as a backup.

My point is that with literally nothing at all except my ability to prove my identity to my friend over the phone I can get tickets home with ToD.

 

[Haywain]

I am also highly disturbed by the ability of poorly trained staff to scan an e-Ticket and demand to know why it wasn't "validated" at the origin when there is no such requirement. I also feel the Railway can overreach in interrogating scan data to investigate irregularities that are not there.

You should read this forum less. The reality is that sort of things happens very rarely, and investigating scan data to investigate irregularities will only happen to people who have been stopped for an offence.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 May 2026 ==

My point is that with literally nothing at all except my ability to prove my identity to my friend over the phone I can get tickets home with ToD.

And with the log-in details for my account, which I can't avoid carrying, I could easily retrieve an eTicket.

 

[superkopite]

My point is that with literally nothing at all except my ability to prove my identity to my friend over the phone I can get tickets home with ToD.

How would this work? If you lost your printed tickets, how would your friend help you retrieve them?

 

[kkong]

How would this work? If you lost your printed tickets, how would your friend help you retrieve them?

I assume the friend would buy the tickets and read out the 8-character CTR.

After a short (unspecified, but seemingly variable) delay, you go to a TVM, enter the CTR and collect your tickets.

 

[Sonic1234]

They don't. People overwhelmingly still travel with walk up tickets.

Does this include Oyster?

But surely the companies need to provide ticket machines anyway? At least judging by the queues I've come across at my local station (SAC) they are popular at the entrance opposite the main station building and the ticket office therein.

GTR is very much a walk up railway. They do offer some Advances, mostly on Southern services, but most of their custom will be season tickets, Oyster and day returns.

A lot of stations are 1 TVM and one ticket office. You can't remove the former, or at least not without opening a big opportunity for people to travel without paying and the latter can not be removed due to politics.

 

[MrJeeves]

GTR is very much a walk up railway. They do offer some Advances, mostly on Southern services, but most of their custom will be season tickets, Oyster and day returns.

This may have been the case previously, but much of GTRs advertising is focused on Advances. Even from St Alban's City.

 

[Belperpete]

This is just nonsense; 30 seconds to try and make a booking would've disproved it.

As I have already posted, this was not my experience:

the last time I tried using the forum's site, I couldn't see any way to change the delivery method. Thinking I must have missed it earlier in the process, I aborted and started again, but again with no success. It just showed the delivery method as e ticket, with no option to select an alternative delivery method. Whereabouts in the process are you given the option to select an alternative?

 

[AlterEgo]

As I have already posted, this was not my experience:

You need to select "show more options" under the delivery method:

 

[Adam Williams]

As I have already posted, this was not my experience:

Okay, but nothing has changed in terms of the logic here. The site has never prevented selecting Ticket on Departure (one obsolete edge case I feel like I have to mention: I am aware of one TOC Family ticket that for some time was made E-Ticket only by the fare setter (GWR) but is now ToDable too).

The site does make you "jump through hoops" to select paper tickets, I will admit, but the link to do that is there and is not invisible. My assumption is that it was simply missed, leading to the incorrect conclusion the site forces E-Tickets when it does not and has not.

* Sorry, I appreciate the frixtion will be annoying for some users, but I thought this was a better middle ground option than removing the ToD option which was what Raileasy had briefly considered. This way the option is retained for people that really want it.

 

[Belperpete]

Although if you have access to your own printer you can have both a printed copy and one on your phone if using eTickets.

With the change to the refund rules, I will be increasingly buying tickets on the day of travel, when I am unlikely to have either the time or access to a printer. And I am very reluctant to rely on my phone as the only proof that I have a ticket. You only have to take a quick glance at the disputes section on f this forum to see the problems this causes.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 May 2026 ==

I've lost more wallets than I have phones, so I always feel better with eticket, but for long distance stuff I try to take a printout as a backup.

The other way around for me. I take my phone out of my pocket far more often than my wallet, so the chances of me mislaying my phone are far higher than my wallet that is safely buttoned up in its pocket. I have only recently given up using the wallet that my parents gave me 50 years ago (I think the money was holding it together rather than the other way around!). Whereas I have lost count of the number of times I have left a mobile behind, on charge etc. or it locking up or losing battery at critical times.

 

[Tetchytyke]

take my phone out of my pocket far more often than my wallet, so the chances of me mislaying my phone are far higher than my wallet that is safely buttoned up in its pocket.

I think the point is that if you lose your phone you can reprint an e-ticket, but if you lose your CCST that’s it, it’s gone.

 

[Sonic1234]

With the change to the refund rules

The new refund rules incentivise buying at the station when you're as near 100% sure you're going to travel as you can be. Maybe the railway is trying to get some use out of underutilised TVMs and solve the boredom problem in ticket offices?

 

[redreni]

The new refund rules incentivise buying at the station when you're as near 100% sure you're going to travel as you can be. Maybe the railway is trying to get some use out of underutilised TVMs and solve the boredom problem in ticket offices?

Perhaps Greater Anglia at Liverpool Street and EMR at St Pancras have recognised this risk, which they have mitigated by hiding the ticket offices where few people will ever find them.

 

[Belperpete]

You need to select "show more options" under the delivery method:

That is the new site, I use the old site. I have checked again, and there is a push button for e ticket delivery, no push buttons to select any other options, nor any mention of other options under or anywhere near either the e-ticket button or the proceed button. Yes, now that I know what to look for, there is the text "other options" hidden away in very tiny letters on the far side of the screen. I can see why I missed it.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 May 2026 ==

I think the point is that if you lose your phone you can reprint an e-ticket, but if you lose your CCST that’s it, it’s gone.

How do I reprint an e ticket if I am not at home?

 

[crablab]

How do I reprint an e ticket if I am not at home?

How do you reprint a CCST full-stop?

At least you have the option to show an eTicket on another device, print it out, email to a travelling companion etc.

 

[Tetchytyke]

How do I reprint an e ticket if I am not at home?

Library, internet cafe, show it on your friend or partner’s phone…

 

[Belperpete]

How do you reprint a CCST full-stop?

I have never needed to reprint a CCST. If you collect it from the station just before you travel, and store it in your wallet, the chances of you losing it must be close to zero.

 

[35B]

I have never needed to reprint a CCST. If you collect it from the station just before you travel, and store it in your wallet, the chances of you losing it must be close to zero.

Congratulations, you have never had your wallet lost or stolen. More broadly, you are generalising from your personal experience to say how everyone else ticks, and assuming that your personal perspective is natural and normal.

In reality, views differ. As an eTicket sceptic, I've found myself converted by experience and now find CCST more a curse than a blessing (usually for cross-London travel). I don't like keeping tickets in my wallet (space, layout) so use a ticket wallet; I find it more likely that I'll lose my ticket wallet than that I'll lose my phone. The ability to download the ticket is a blessing, and it just suits me. Two different people, two different perspectives, neither right, neither wrong.

However, the evidence of customer behaviour tells us that this is a change that is being widely adopted, and that TOD is becoming a minority preference. As it's expensive to operate and, at an industry level, comes with problems, it's unsurprising that attempts are being made to remove it. That makes it no different from airline tickets, steam, or Brunel's broad gauge.

 

[Wallsendmag]

I have never needed to reprint a CCST. If you collect it from the station just before you travel, and store it in your wallet, the chances of you losing it must be close to zero.

I don't know but in the last 37 years I've seen it many times