Why I avoid e-tickets

[Haywain]

The reason nobody queues at the TVMs at Waterloo or Victoria anymore is because 95% of people use contactless now, not because e-tickets

From posts we see in the disputes section there are a significant number of e-tickets users, particularly to Vauxhall and Clapham Junction!

 

[duncan788]

However you can usually load them onto an ITSO card using a TOC app with the same TOC's smartcard

Does this mean we can load and use a national rail ITSO card on the Tube and even on London buses? I haven't bought a travel ticket for London in a while, so apologies if this has already been mentioned somewhere.

 

[Haywain]

Does this mean we can load and use a national rail ITSO card on the Tube and even on London buses?

If you have a Travelcard loaded on it, yes. However, as TfL make a big issue of ensuring that the smartcards from each scheme work across their system, I wouldn't be trying with a smartcard from a TOC that doesn't serve London.

 

[1D54]

Zone 1-6 Travelcards will still be issued on CCST because TfL’s gateline do not except barcodes (yet!)

If of course they still have the facility to offer such a ticket.

 

[Wallsendmag]

If you have a Travelcard loaded on it, yes. However, as TfL make a big issue of ensuring that the smartcards from each scheme work across their system, I wouldn't be trying with a smartcard from a TOC that doesn't serve London.

That was an interesting meeting

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 May 2026 ==

If of course they still have the facility to offer such a ticket.

EMR have gone for Worldline mTIS so yes they will have that facility

 

[ns274]

If you have a Travelcard loaded on it, yes. However, as TfL make a big issue of ensuring that the smartcards from each scheme work across their system, I wouldn't be trying with a smartcard from a TOC that doesn't serve London.

I've been using a Transpennie Express ITSO card with a travel card and it seems to work perfectly fine.

 

[1D54]

EMR have gone for Worldline mTIS so yes they will have that facility

Good to know. Thanks

 

[xotGD]

I needed to buy a last minute Advance this evening, so went for an e-ticket.

The email arrived within seconds, and I opened the attachment. All set...

Would it open the barrier at Leeds? No.

Back to little orange rectangles for me.

 

[AlterEgo]

I needed to buy a last minute Advance this evening, so went for an e-ticket.

The email arrived within seconds, and I opened the attachment. All set...

Would it open the barrier at Leeds? No.

Back to little orange rectangles for me.

Back to finding the machine and spending a minute printing it then to save 10 seconds asking someone to let you through the gate?

 

[Adam Williams]

Very unlikely the format of the ticket was the reason for the barrier not opening.

 

[xotGD]

Back to finding the machine and spending a minute printing it then to save 10 seconds asking someone to let you through the gate?

That's not primarily why I prefer physical tickets. I just felt the irony that I should be on the receiving end of the barrier faff that I so often witness in others on this rare occasion that I used an e-ticket.

Perhaps I wasn't using my phone 'properly'?

The bigger irony was that I only ended up with a ticket on my phone because I'd left it at work and had to go back for it.

 

[yorkie]

I needed to buy a last minute Advance this evening, so went for an e-ticket.

The email arrived within seconds, and I opened the attachment. All set...

Would it open the barrier at Leeds? No.

Back to little orange rectangles for me.

I needed to buy a ticket for travel from Gatwick to King's Cross last week via the Underground, so had to go for a paper ticket.

The email arrived within seconds, and I entered the collection code. All set...

Would it open the barrier at Victoria? No.

Back to e-tickets for me.

 

[Sonic1234]

Would it open the barrier at Victoria? No.

Was it an Advance? GTR block Advances on their gates for manual checking, but can't apply the block to e-tickets due to the gate software.

 

[walkingsophie]

I wonder what is stopping transfer points/itinerary route from being encoded into the e-tickets to allow for smooth breaks of journey.

 

[yorkie]

Was it an Advance? GTR block Advances on their gates for manual checking, but can't apply the block to e-tickets due to the gate software.

No, it was a walk-up single ticket for a station south of Gatwick to a station north of London terminals (to avoid the GX premium) and it continued to work the barriers on the Underground.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 Jun 2026 ==

I wonder what is stopping transfer points/itinerary route from being encoded into the e-tickets to allow for smooth breaks of journey.

I think this data is already encoded into e-tickets, depending on the retailer.

That doesn't guarantee a smooth journey, as that depends on the software at the gateline.

 

[zero]

I needed to buy a last minute Advance this evening, so went for an e-ticket.

The email arrived within seconds, and I opened the attachment. All set...

Would it open the barrier at Leeds? No.

Back to little orange rectangles for me.

Can you be sure the equivalent orange rectangle would have opened the gates? My experiences at Leeds are the opposite: e-tickets have always worked but orange rectangles occasionally didn't.

 

[walkingsophie]

I think this data is already encoded into e-tickets, depending on the retailer.

I don't think they have the full list of stations the itinerary goes through in the ticket data from what I've seen.

 

[MrJeeves]

I don't think they have the full list of stations the itinerary goes through in the ticket data from what I've seen.

It shouldn't be that difficult to resolve Retail Service IDs + Dates into a small number of potential itineraries for permitting things such as Advances.

 

[yorkie]

I don't think they have the full list of stations the itinerary goes through in the ticket data from what I've seen.

I don't see why you'd need the full list of stations you go through.

In any case, if a TOC wants a gateline that will allow tickets along all permitted routes, and at valid times, there are providers who can offer this. They generally seem to either choose not to, or choose a substandard supplier.

But we're getting bogged down with unnecessary details; none of this really matters in terms of paper tickets vs e-tickets, other than to say that e-tickets can convey much more data than paper tickets, so there is the possibility of more intelligent gateline behaviours, but it's really down to individual suppliers.

 

[walkingsophie]

I don't see why you'd need the full list of stations you go through.

So that I can break my journey when using unusual tickets.

In any case, if a TOC wants a gateline that will allow tickets along all permitted routes, and at valid times, there are providers who can offer this. They generally seem to either choose not to, or choose a substandard supplier.

The routes you can take with a ticket do depend on the itinerary you booked it with.

 

[yorkie]

So that I can break my journey when using unusual tickets.


The routes you can take with a ticket do depend on the itinerary you booked it with.

Ah, this is about loopholes. I don't think that's really within the scope of barrier logic or any comparison of e tickets Vs paper tickets for typical use case.

If you break your journey at an unexpected place on a loophole ticket, you should expect to be challenged and risk the loophole being withdrawn.

 

[Hadders]

I think it's is all but impossible to programme break of journey correctly at every station on every permitted route between every station pair. In reality if you're breaking your journey then you've got to be prepared for a manual check.

It is annoying when tickets (whether paper, barcode or smartcard) don't work the barriers. This week my paper season ticket has stopped working at the barriers. This has happened before and I believe it's so that a manual check can take place. It's possible that the magstrip has become corrupt but it worked perfectly fine last week and then stopped working on Monday morning. This has happened before and it started working again a few days later - I suspect the same thing will happen again.

Then my Oyster card refused to work one one of the gates at Kings Cross St Pancras. Used the neighbouring gate with no problems but noticed that the person behind me had the same issue.

Sometimes, these things happen.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I needed to buy a ticket for travel from Gatwick to King's Cross last week via the Underground, so had to go for a paper ticket.

The email arrived within seconds, and I entered the collection code. All set...

Would it open the barrier at Victoria? No.

Back to e-tickets for me.

One of the two TVMs at Bletchley, and I always forget which one it is because I use ToDs so rarely and it's an intermittent fault, often doesn't encode tickets properly. I *think* it's the one on the right but I'm not sure. It's grossly annoying when this happens. It doesn't happen for e-tickets which I find scan perfectly 100% of the time.

 

[81A]

Then my Oyster card refused to work one one of the gates at Kings Cross St Pancras. Used the neighbouring gate with no problems but noticed that the person behind me had the same issue.

Faulty gates are not uncommon (especially on TFL). One way to avoid being slowed down is to check the little LED display (the one that shows “seek assistance“), as it shows what formats the gate can accept (eg. Cards/Tickets (normal on TFL), Cards only (most common fault in my experience) and Tickets only (rarer, but I have seen it several times-quite likely why the gate at Kings Cross wasn't working with people’s cards)).

 

[xotGD]

Can you be sure the equivalent orange rectangle would have opened the gates? My experiences at Leeds are the opposite: e-tickets have always worked but orange rectangles occasionally didn't.

The only time I have an issue at Leeds with paper tickets is if I pop out to the shops mid-journey and try to go back through too quickly.

What I enjoy at Leeds is when they are doing a manual check on e-tickets, and funnel everyone through a couple of gates, except for the few of us brandishing paper, who can zip through any of the other gates.

 

[81A]

What I enjoy at Leeds is when they are doing a manual check on e-tickets, and funnel everyone through a couple of gates, except for the few of us brandishing paper, who can zip through any of the other gates.

Does “paper tickets” include PRT (paper roll tickets, till roll with a barcode) in this case? Or would PRT holders have to queue with the e-ticket holders?

 

[Hadders]

Faulty gates are not uncommon (especially on TFL). One way to avoid being slowed down is to check the little LED display (the one that shows “seek assistance“), as it shows what formats the gate can accept (eg. Cards/Tickets (normal on TFL), Cards only (most common fault in my experience) and Tickets only (rarer, but I have seen it several times-quite likely why the gate at Kings Cross wasn't working with people’s cards)).

The screen said ‘cards/tickets’, yet the ticket slot was taped over with yellow tape preventing it from being used.

The card reader pad wouldn’t play ball with my Oyster so I move to the adjacent gate where it worked immediately. Customer behind me had the same issue.

 

[81A]

The screen said ‘cards/tickets’, yet the ticket slot was taped over with yellow tape preventing it from being used.

Oh, that is very odd… (though not quite as odd as what happened to someone in my group once-the screen went from cards/tickets to cards only as they inserted their travelcard, followed by the travelcard disappearing into the gate, requiring staff to open the gate to retrieve it).

 

[xotGD]

Does “paper tickets” include PRT (paper roll tickets, till roll with a barcode) in this case? Or would PRT holders have to queue with the e-ticket holders?

A good question, but I don't know.

And why those of us with paper tickets are not subject to a manual check I don't know either.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Don't blame the ticket format for the gates failing, blame the gates. The barcode on PRT is the same as a barcode on an eTicket