e-Tickets: mobile phones only

Bletchleyite said:

I'm using Trainline for on the day purchases of e-tickets, it just seems to work most smoothly and do them properly, i.e. presented as an e-ticket in the app and sent as a PDF by email. No fees on on the day walk-up purchases (I wouldn't use it if they charged one).

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That’s good in a way, but also as my ticket is an Advance ticket it would worry me a bit that the ticket might just not show in the app whatsoever? At least there's time before my journey and before I can be accused of a crime. We know many companies take the view that if you can't show a ticket you will face prosecution regardless of what you say at the time.

Starmill said:

That’s good in a way, but also as my ticket is an Advance ticket it would worry me a bit that the ticket might just not show in the app whatsoever? At least there's time before my journey and before I can be accused of a crime. We know many companies take the view that if you can't show a ticket you will face prosecution regardless of what you say at the time.

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If it's sent as an emailed PDF as well as Trainline do there is no such risk - just pull it up in your mail app if it does happen. I have a mail rule sending the Trainline ones into a folder "just in case".

Might this be a case where, if you want an Advance ticket on your phone, the Trainline fees might be worth paying? No TOC app seems to be quite as good.

Bletchleyite said:

If it's sent as an emailed PDF as well as Trainline do there is no such risk - just pull it up in your mail app if it does happen.

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Precisely.

The whole point is that they've decided not to use the standard eticket format, which means there's no PDF.

Bletchleyite said:

Might this be a case where, if you want an Advance ticket on your phone, the Trainline fees might be worth paying? No TOC app seems to be quite as good.

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I will most certainly be sticking to paper from now on. The Advance in question was only available on the TPE website, unfortunately.

TUC said:

I do think most people other than rail enthusiasts and some App experts don't notice or care whether something is actually an m-ticket or e-ticket. They just buy their ticket and follow the instructions.

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What have the definitions got to do with rail enthusiasts? They are quite clearly defined on the NR website as per my post upthread:

Mag_seven said:

Just discovered this on "the definitive source of customer information for all passenger rail services on the National Rail network in England, Wales and Scotland."

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/191371.aspx

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Joe Paxton said:

Absolutely. ITSO smartcards have been heralded as the future for many years now, but in reality have only really been deployed widely for season tickets. I fear a similar fate of false starts and 'promise the moon' disappointments for eTickets.

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+1 here.
I've posted on this forum before that, as a paying customer, I find electronic ticketing in general, and smartcards in particular, a confusing mess, with inconsistent standards from different TOCs and uncertain (at best) acceptance across other TOCs.
When I've done so, I've been told by industry insiders that I'm wrong, and that full compatibility is just around the corner. Unfortunately, that corner never seems to be turned.
This week I'm travelling around England and Wales, on a sequence of advance tickets. And I have a little (physical) wallet, full of pieces of orange cardboard, that can't mysteriously disappear as long as I'm careful with them (which I am). And that's the way it's staying, for me, as long as they're still allowed.

TUC said:

I do think most people other than rail enthusiasts and some App experts don't notice or care whether something is actually an m-ticket or e-ticket. They just buy their ticket and follow the instructions.

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And kill some more trees unneededly just because their ticket seller lies that e-tickets require apps and they do not have one big enough for latest apps.

Not offering proper simple e tickets should be hit with huge regulator fines for avoidable environmental waste.

TUC said:

I do think most people other than rail enthusiasts and some App experts don't notice or care whether something is actually an m-ticket or e-ticket. They just buy their ticket and follow the instructions.

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You could quite reasonably buy an e-ticket to print at home. The reasonably large proportion of people who don't have a mobile would very much notice and care if they bought an e-ticket and it told them to download an app. Same for the (surprising) proportion of people still soldiering along with pre-6 Android that won't let them install some of the newer apps, or quite possibly an iPhone 4, or even WinPhone. I wouldn't even class myself as an app "expert", having expertly avoiding writing or even commissioning one for 5 or 6 years. I do know enough not to trust the things with my ticket though.

Can I give Northern some praise?! Their app works just fine and is easy to buy and find your ticket. However, particularly when using an ungated station, it can be easily forgotten to activate....nearly got myself into bother after thinking because I'd bought the ticket no need to do anything else.
Might help if trains carried messages reminding people their ticket must be activated, especially as all this will be new to many.
Of course a gated station won't let you through, but no fine for that...but once you board a train at an unguarded stop....eek!!

Would help if they binned off m-tickets in favour of e-tickets. Then the issue goes away as these do not require activation.

Is there a list (here or on another site) of which retailers offer etickets, which do not and which lie and call mtickets by the wrong name?

GN sell etickets. GA lie, but their Abellio stablemate EMR sell etickets! But annoyingly it looks like flows where GA sets fares are enabled only for mticket not eticket.