Thameslink e-tickets

[radamfi]

The barriers at City Thameslink are advertising mobile tickets.

It appears you can get e-tickets from City Thameslink to:

St Albans
Luton Airport Parkway
Luton
Bedford
Stevenage

but not to:

Gatwick Airport
Flitwick
Hitchin
Peterborough
Harpenden
Leagrave

 

[Hadders]

Advertising all over the barriers at Stevenage as well.

No good if you want a travelcard though and I wonder whether an e ticket from Stevenage to London Terminals would be accepted on the Underground between Kings Cross St Pancras and Moorgate....

 

[causton]

No good if you want a travelcard though and I wonder whether an e ticket from Stevenage to London Terminals would be accepted on the Underground between Kings Cross St Pancras and Moorgate....

Never mind that, you'd have enough trouble using an e-ticket at Moorgate if you'd come off a Great Northern train I reckon as the barriers are LU operated!

 

[Wallsendmag]

Advertising all over the barriers at Stevenage as well.

No good if you want a travelcard though and I wonder whether an e ticket from Stevenage to London Terminals would be accepted on the Underground between Kings Cross St Pancras and Moorgate....

Definitely not

 

[Hadders]

Definitely not

So less validity than paper ticket then....

 

[gazthomas]

So less validity than paper ticket then....

That's the whole point. All about revenue maximisation for them rather than convenience for passengers!

 

[Wallsendmag]

That's the whole point. All about revenue maximisation for them rather than convenience for passengers!

It’s not National Rail that is the problem here.

 

[gazthomas]

It’s not National Rail that is the problem here.

Does that exist? Do you mean ATOC? Probably, pushed by their own self interest and the enthusiasm of such things by the Dft.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Does that exist? Do you mean ATOC? Probably, pushed by their own self interest and the enthusiasm of such things by the Dft.

There are two Networks involved National Rail and A N Other which is holding the whole smart ticketing bandwagon up

 

[causton]

Does that exist? Do you mean ATOC? Probably, pushed by their own self interest and the enthusiasm of such things by the Dft.

I think it could be implied, and I know it is a big stretch that it is the fault of London Underground/TfL...

 

[sheff1]

So less validity than paper ticket then....

Par for the course with e-tickets it would seem.

 

[alistairlees]

Par for the course with e-tickets it would seem.

No. There’s no general intention for eTickets to have reduced rights when compared to paper tickets. There have been some system implementations that have caused this to happen, but they shouldn’t have. And there are some geographies where other parties don’t support barcodes, so it’s questionable whether eTickets should be enabled for those flows.

 

[Hadders]

No. There’s no general intention for eTickets to have reduced rights when compared to paper tickets. There have been some system implementations that have caused this to happen, but they shouldn’t have. And there are some geographies where other parties don’t support barcodes, so it’s questionable whether eTickets should be enabled for those flows.

Quite. E-tickets shouldn't be offered where it results in less validity for the same price which is generally the case on the GN route into Kings Cross, Moorgate etc due to the inter-availability section.

 

[yorkie]

It would be valid.

As to whether or not it would be accepted, that can be put to the test, by purchasing and using them and/or by sending an FOI to LU/TfL asking them if they have arranged for appropriate training to gateline staff.

An e-ticket is merely a medium; it is not a product, and as Roger Ford said back in 2005, "What counts is the message, not the medium."

 

[JonathanH]

Barcode readers have appeared at Victoria as well so perhaps mobile tickets are coming to Southern as well as Thameslink.

 

[radamfi]

I can buy an e-ticket from Gatwick to Brighton, but why not from Gatwick to St Pancras?

 

[alistairlees]

I can buy an e-ticket from Gatwick to Brighton, but why not from Gatwick to St Pancras?

ETickets are not available for cross London journeys. Because TfL won’t accept them.

 

[Hadders]

I noticed that the Thameslink e-ticket advertising that was plastered all over the gate line at Stevenage station was removed a couple of weeks ago shortly after going up.

I suspect it was because very few e-tickets would be able to be used from Stevenage given he number of passengers that could change to the Underground inter-available section.

 

[radamfi]

I notice you can no longer buy e-tickets from St Albans to City Thameslink either.

 

[Hadders]

Probably the same reason - the ticket would be issued to London Thameslink which allows exit at Farringdon which is a London Underground controlled station where e-tickets aren’t accepted.

Typical of GTR to launch and advertise something without think it through properly....

 

[717001]

ETickets are not available for cross London journeys. Because TfL won’t accept them.

Does that matter if journey is on a direct train?

I noticed that the Thameslink e-ticket advertising that was plastered all over the gate line at Stevenage station was removed a couple of weeks ago shortly after going up.

I suspect it was because very few e-tickets would be able to be used from Stevenage given he number of passengers that could change to the Underground inter-available section.

I tried putting Stevenage to Moorgate on TL website and it offered a London Terminals e-ticket

 

[Hadders]

I tried putting Stevenage to Moorgate on TL website and it offered a London Terminals e-ticket

That ticket is valid on the Underground between Kings Cross St Pancras and Moorgate so it would be interesting to see what would happen if you tried to use it that way.

 

[alistairlees]

Does that matter if journey is on a direct train?

The obvious journeys at most timed of the day are by direct Thameslink train without travelling on TfL, as you say. But the ticket is also valid on London Underground between London Bridge and St Pancras. And there are times when the core is closed and a journey must be completed by tube anyway. In these cases an eTicket would not be accepted by TfL, and the customer would be left with a product that they had paid for but could not fully use. So definitely best to withdraw this fulfilment type for these flows. It was probably just a mistake in the first place.

 

[717001]

That ticket is valid on the Underground between Kings Cross St Pancras and Moorgate so it would be interesting to see what would happen if you tried to use it that way.

A Stevenage London Terminals ticket is valid directly to Moorgate via Finsbury Park on GN services, so would need to be accepted at gateline controlled by TfL anyhow. The question is - as mentioned by others - are the staff briefed and will they accept it? Will enquire next week when I'm there, if no-one else gets confirmation in the meantime.

 

[trevmonk]

I did manage to buy an e-ticket from the Omio site with an origin of St Albans. When I arrived at the unattended gateline at the Platform 4 entrance I realised there were no readers. After walking round to the main entrance I managed to get a reader to work after being directed to a specific one.

Changing at West Hampstead Thameslink there were no readers at all there and I had to be let out by a member of staff. I was due to continue via London Overground from the other West Hampstead station, which although newly refurbished also lacked any barcode readers. Luckily I was stopping short and didn't continue but imagine would have had similar problems at my originally intended final destination.

Incidentally, I did notice the new West Hampstead Overground foyer sports a very fancy large TVM which I haven't seen elsewhere. It offers a ticket buying wizard, tickets from other station, tickets from AND to boundary zones, full Oyster functions etc, etc. Picture attached.

 

[bubieyehyeh]

Yesterday Chiltern offered me a e-ticket between my local southern branded station south of gatwick, to gatwick, I opted for paper.

GTR are well aware there are flows where they have introducted smartcard tickets where not all operators accept their smartcard. However GTR will happily sell you a ticket on the key, but they know it has potential for issues, since they say in their FAQ you can't use in on non-GTR trains, e.g. London overground. It even odder since if the smartcard ticket is a travelcard then you can use it on London overground, but if it isn't a travelcard you can't (it valid but not accepted, when pressed), so it implies LO can read the smartcards. I've sent a query to LO about it, but it been over a month and no reply at all.

 

[bubieyehyeh]

Incidentally, I did notice the new West Hampstead Overground foyer sports a very fancy large TVM which I haven't seen elsewhere. It offers a ticket buying wizard, tickets from other station, tickets from AND to boundary zones, full Oyster functions etc, etc. Picture attached.View attachment 69100

They have those machines at Shepherds Bush overground also.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Incidentally, I did notice the new West Hampstead Overground foyer sports a very fancy large TVM which I haven't seen elsewhere.

That's the latest version of the erstwhile Worldline (formerly Shere) FASTticket machines that have been around since the mid-90s.

I know that Chiltern had them at Bicester Village and Oxford Parkway (at least) from opening in October 2015 until they switched TVM suppliers from Worldline to Flowbird (formerly Parkeon). Most of the fleet comprised of the older models with smaller monitors, however.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Anyone have a clue on when Southeastern might start enabling e-tickets on their routes?

(Yes, I can foresee the HS1/Thameslink core problem too!)

 

[Wallsendmag]

Anyone have a clue on when Southeastern might start enabling e-tickets on their routes?

(Yes, I can foresee the HS1/Thameslink core problem too!)

For day tickets the focus seems very much to be on ITSO rather than e-Tickets.