E-Tickets availability?

[Sonic1234]

Some of the TOCs forgot to enable E-Ticketability for their sale tickets....

GTR's sale tickets were paper only - what a surprise!

 

[James H]

I'm using Greater Anglia Rail Sale tickets today and they were issued on paper

 

[Joe Paxton]

Some of the TOCs forgot to enable E-Ticketability for their sale tickets....

A masterclass in promotional retailing!

 

[CyrusWuff]

A masterclass in promotional retailing!

The issue being that even if TOCs were doing exactly the same offer as the 2024 GBRS, they had to enable eTickets again due to the "unique" way the Retail Control Service works.

 

[Joe Paxton]

The issue being that even if TOCs were doing exactly the same offer as the 2024 GBRS, they had to enable eTickets again due to the "unique" way the Retail Control Service works.

Yep, when I read the 2019 submission of @Paul Kelly (of BR Fares) to the Williams Rail Review, the section relating to "Use of RCS for controlling availability of Ticket Fulfilment Methods" (page 3 in the short document) really stuck with me - the inefficiency of the design of said system just comes across as absurd!

I'm minded to think the only reason e-tickets really took off is that the advantages are so obviously evident to the passenger railway industry (TOCs, RDG, DfT, Uncle Tom Cobley and all) that even they, in all their deeply fragmented 'glory', had to manage ways to bodge things together and make the concept actually work (well... most of the time at least!).

 

[Sleepy]

DfT will fuming about the figures for e-tickets being reduced due to this

 

[Adam Williams]

The issue being that even if TOCs were doing exactly the same offer as the 2024 GBRS, they had to enable eTickets again due to the "unique" way the Retail Control Service works.

This wasn't something I was aware of! Are the flow rules all scoped to a fares period or something?

 

[CyrusWuff]

This wasn't something I was aware of! Are the flow rules all scoped to a fares period or something?

Just checked with my TOC's Pricing Manager. Anything that means the fares aren't being distributed causes the fulfilment settings to drop out, whether that's setting the price to £999,999.99 or just deleting it altogether.

Which would explain why GWR (for example) leave their Rail Sale fares live all year and rely solely on RARS to control availability.

 

[Adam Williams]

Just checked with my TOC's Pricing Manager. Anything that means the fares aren't being distributed causes the fulfilment settings to drop out, whether that's setting the price to £999,999.99 or just deleting it altogether.

That's interesting to know, thanks. Almost seems like it's designed to inflict maximum pain on everyone involved. Setting the price to all nines is quite legitimate for wanting to avoid disclosure of a (past) price, of course - and means the TIS doesn't have to waste time and compute asking RARS about an Advance fare that won't be offered outside of a sale period. That said, I can see why GWR have gone with that approach..

 

[wellhouse]

Scotland Live reports that ScotRail have withdrawn eTickets between Bellgrove and Glasgow Queen Street on the assumption that insisting on paper tickets will reduce short-faring

"Rail users have been complaining after the app began telling people they had to print their single and return tickets at Bellgrove Station before boarding the train, with electronic tickets now unavailable.......Scotrail confirmed to Glasgow Live that the move has been made to some journeys where there have been high levels of abuse and fraudulent use. This includes people using Bellgrove as their origin despite boarding earlier.."

ScotRail passenger slams 'unfair' change at Glasgow station as digital tickets scrapped

Rail users have been complaining after the app began telling people they had to print their single and return tickets at Bellgrove Station before boarding the train, with electronic tickets now unavailable.

www.glasgowlive.co.uk

 

[A S Leib]

Scotland Live reports that ScotRail have withdrawn eTickets between Bellgrove and Glasgow Queen Street on the assumption that insisting on paper tickets will reduce short-faring

"Rail users have been complaining after the app began telling people they had to print their single and return tickets at Bellgrove Station before boarding the train, with electronic tickets now unavailable.......Scotrail confirmed to Glasgow Live that the move has been made to some journeys where there have been high levels of abuse and fraudulent use. This includes people using Bellgrove as their origin despite boarding earlier.."

ScotRail passenger slams 'unfair' change at Glasgow station as digital tickets scrapped

Rail users have been complaining after the app began telling people they had to print their single and return tickets at Bellgrove Station before boarding the train, with electronic tickets now unavailable.

www.glasgowlive.co.uk

I went to Ayr a few weeks ago and noticed a railcard-discounted paper ticket from Glasgow Central to Cardonald that somebody had left, so I'm not convinced that will solve it.

(I'm also not saying that people, including those using railcards, don't make legitimate journeys between Cardonald and Glasgow Central.)

 

[Hadders]

Frankly, this is appalling behaviour by Scotrail.

I wonder how many people will get caught out when they’ve been used to e-ticket fulfilment suddenly, without warning, reverts to ToD.

I don’t condone ticket evasion but there are better ways of dealing with it than this.

 

[kkong]

This may be related to the very large number of Celtic FC fans who board and alight at Bellgrove (the other matchday stations being Bridgeton, Dalmarnock, and to a lesser extent, Duke Street).

There is almost no chance of on-board ticket checks being carried out when travelling around these stations before or after matches at Celtic Park due to the volume of passengers.

 

[TUC]

This may be related to the very large number of Celtic FC fans who board and alight at Bellgrove (the other matchday stations being Bridgeton, Dalmarnock, and to a lesser extent, Duke Street).

There is almost no chance of ticket checking taking place in stations around these stations before or after matches at Celtic Park due to the volume of passengers.

But there wouldn't be with paper tickets eithet.

 

[kkong]

But there wouldn't be with paper tickets eithet.

True, but the inconvenience of having to queue up at the ticket sales desk inside the barriers at Queen Street might be a disincentive to some passengers.

That is more hassle than short-faring on the app.

 

[Watershed]

Frankly, this is appalling behaviour by Scotrail.

I wonder how many people will get caught out when they’ve been used to e-ticket fulfilment suddenly, without warning, reverts to ToD.

I don’t condone ticket evasion but there are better ways of dealing with it than this.

Agreed. Sadly their revenue management team seem to have a very backwards attitude to ticketing, with eTickets still not being enabled for the vast majority of flows and even mTickets now being disabled here. Similarly Super Off-Peak Day tickets being disabled for any kind of online purchase.