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E ticket availability

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Mintona

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I had no idea you could even get a train ticket on your phone. What will they think of next?
 
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thenorthern

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Depends on route, before the barriers were installed at Stoke-on-Trent on the 07:45 train to Manchester I reckon in Coach A alone the conductor used to pick up over £200 in otherwise unpaid fares.

Ticker barriers cut down evasion a lot.
 

Tim_UK

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I had no idea you could even get a train ticket on your phone. What will they think of next?

You can. I find the trainline app is best - it charges a small fee. Paying the fee is value for money compared to the awful ticket machines in Huddersfield

(pre lock down experiences)

The mode of operation varies a little depending on which train operator it thinks you are running on. Sometimes the ticket is live straight away, and you get emailed a PDF ticket as well as the app version. And sometimes you purchase and then activate the ticket in the app. The usability needs a bit of work, but it is is good enough with low stress factor.

In theory transpennine express app does the same, withouth the fee. But I just find it too faffy to use. Needs a lot of usability work.

A human ticket office is still faster and less faff. `Hi, I'd like a return to Manchester, coming back today`, tap the contactless and done in like 3 seconds. But usability destoyed if there a queue. You get unlimited battery life in the tickets too :)

But at busy times, and a train real soon, app the ticket and walk straight on.
 

yorkie

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You can. I find the trainline app is best - it charges a small fee. Paying the fee is value for money compared to the awful ticket machines in Huddersfield
I'd never pay a fee to use Trainline!

If you buy on the day using the app, there is no fee, so if I can't get the ticket I want on Trainsplit, I will use Trainline on the day, if that will sell it.

Trainsplit never charge a booking fee, might save you money, and you can select your seat on any train that allows reservations, so I can't think of any reason to use the Trainline app over Trainsplit, unless you literally have money to burn.

I definitely do like having tickets on my phone. The only reason not to, would be if I was unable to have a backup.

A backup could be any other electronic device or a paper copy.

Another good reason to get e tickets is when splitting you get one PDF with all tickets on it; it makes it much easier to show the tickets and helps with Delay Repay claims (just attach the existing PDF).

The only caveat is to avoid apps that issue 'm' tickets as these are specific to a phone and have to be activated. They need to be avoided all costs. Proper 'e' tickets are absolutely fine.
 
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