miklcct
On Moderation
The National Rail ticketing is so complicated that people can be tricked into ticketless travel / travelling on invalid ticket easily, and people can find many ways to avoid fare legally on purpose. As such system is so complicated, the compliance cost is so high and a lot of fare disputes have to be escalated, sometimes even risking court cases.
The traps and pitfalls of the system include but not limited to the following:
* You can tap in and out using a bank card at some, but not all stations. Then you will be tricked into ticketless travel if you alight the train one station further than usual because a bank card is not valid at that station. Are there enough warnings at EVERY station where you can tap in your bank / Oyster cards which shows CLEARLY that you can't use the bank card or oyster card to travel outside a certain area and you must buy a ticket to do so?
* You have to physically get out the train if you split ticket between tap and go and a normal National Rail ticket, unlike other forms of split ticketing. In some other rail systems you can excess your ticket at your destination if you travelled outside of your ticketed area.
* The routing rules can trick people into travelling on a seemingly innocent route which is invalid. For example, you travel from a city to another city on an intercity express, and connect to a local stopping train for a single stop to your destination, not realising you have double backed the section between the interchange and your destination which makes your route invalid.
* A simple shopping trip from your home can charge you 2 maximum fares on your Oyster because your shopping is at an out-of-station interchange which you don't know, especially when there is a disruption on other parts of the network.
* Breaking the journey will need an additional ticket if you break it on the London Underground part for a trip crossing London, despite your ticket allows you to break your journey!
* The legality of breaking the journey at a positive easement allowing a double-back specifically for interchange purposes, which is otherwise outside your valid route, is questionable.
* The prices are so complicated so finding the set of ticket(s) for the cheapest fare is a non-trivial task, and in some extreme circumstances, using a rover in place of a simple return can save you money!
Therefore I have some ideas to simplify the ticketing, to minimise the cost of compliance, which include:
1. Increase the selling point of tickets and require tickets to be bought before getting the train without any exceptions, that means selling train tickets at convenience stores, post offices, etc, or even by a premium SMS (to allow people using dumbphones without internet connection to buy a train ticket), possibly with a service charge. such that passengers can't be excused of not able to buy a ticket before boarding. For example, in China, it's very easy for you to spot the words "train tickets" in town. Such places sell train tickets with a small service charge.
2. Set up an easy to use, official authoritative electronic source which permutates all permitted routes between any pairs of stations, and direct passengers and revenue inspectors to use it, to replace the routing guides and the shortest path rule - this will eliminate any questions on the routing validity. That is, as long as you are not on a direct train, you can just enter the ticketed stations to see if you are "on the route".
3. Install oyster / bank card readers on trains which serve across the PAYG boundary, allow people to start / end their PAYG journey on the train, and have clear notice on the train that you need to possess a valid ticket travelling outside PAYG zone, and tap your card on the reader (which is only activated when the train is outside the zone) to start or end your PAYG segment.
4. As it isn't always obvious when changing between National Rail paper ticket and Oyster / contactless card PAYG if you need to touch in / out or not, and the mess brought by continuation exits (including accusation of fare evasion), etc, re-colour all Oyster / contactless validators to have separate touch IN and OUT function, i.e. orange for touching IN, and green for touching OUT, and pink for interchange. (and the readers on train mentioned above will show the appropriate colour depending on the direction of the train)
5. Make the OSI charge the minimum of the OSI-ed fare, or the standalone 2nd leg fare when completing the journey.
Any further ideas?
The traps and pitfalls of the system include but not limited to the following:
* You can tap in and out using a bank card at some, but not all stations. Then you will be tricked into ticketless travel if you alight the train one station further than usual because a bank card is not valid at that station. Are there enough warnings at EVERY station where you can tap in your bank / Oyster cards which shows CLEARLY that you can't use the bank card or oyster card to travel outside a certain area and you must buy a ticket to do so?
* You have to physically get out the train if you split ticket between tap and go and a normal National Rail ticket, unlike other forms of split ticketing. In some other rail systems you can excess your ticket at your destination if you travelled outside of your ticketed area.
* The routing rules can trick people into travelling on a seemingly innocent route which is invalid. For example, you travel from a city to another city on an intercity express, and connect to a local stopping train for a single stop to your destination, not realising you have double backed the section between the interchange and your destination which makes your route invalid.
* A simple shopping trip from your home can charge you 2 maximum fares on your Oyster because your shopping is at an out-of-station interchange which you don't know, especially when there is a disruption on other parts of the network.
* Breaking the journey will need an additional ticket if you break it on the London Underground part for a trip crossing London, despite your ticket allows you to break your journey!
* The legality of breaking the journey at a positive easement allowing a double-back specifically for interchange purposes, which is otherwise outside your valid route, is questionable.
* The prices are so complicated so finding the set of ticket(s) for the cheapest fare is a non-trivial task, and in some extreme circumstances, using a rover in place of a simple return can save you money!
Therefore I have some ideas to simplify the ticketing, to minimise the cost of compliance, which include:
1. Increase the selling point of tickets and require tickets to be bought before getting the train without any exceptions, that means selling train tickets at convenience stores, post offices, etc, or even by a premium SMS (to allow people using dumbphones without internet connection to buy a train ticket), possibly with a service charge. such that passengers can't be excused of not able to buy a ticket before boarding. For example, in China, it's very easy for you to spot the words "train tickets" in town. Such places sell train tickets with a small service charge.
2. Set up an easy to use, official authoritative electronic source which permutates all permitted routes between any pairs of stations, and direct passengers and revenue inspectors to use it, to replace the routing guides and the shortest path rule - this will eliminate any questions on the routing validity. That is, as long as you are not on a direct train, you can just enter the ticketed stations to see if you are "on the route".
3. Install oyster / bank card readers on trains which serve across the PAYG boundary, allow people to start / end their PAYG journey on the train, and have clear notice on the train that you need to possess a valid ticket travelling outside PAYG zone, and tap your card on the reader (which is only activated when the train is outside the zone) to start or end your PAYG segment.
4. As it isn't always obvious when changing between National Rail paper ticket and Oyster / contactless card PAYG if you need to touch in / out or not, and the mess brought by continuation exits (including accusation of fare evasion), etc, re-colour all Oyster / contactless validators to have separate touch IN and OUT function, i.e. orange for touching IN, and green for touching OUT, and pink for interchange. (and the readers on train mentioned above will show the appropriate colour depending on the direction of the train)
5. Make the OSI charge the minimum of the OSI-ed fare, or the standalone 2nd leg fare when completing the journey.
Any further ideas?