Yesterday on my way back to Leeds: the woman in the seat in front had a ticket on her phone; the three people in the table seats across from me had a phone barcode, a pdf printout of a barcode and what I think is described as "bog roll"; yellow paper tickets with a barcode on.
I had a paper ticket. "I'm old school," I proudly announced. But I wasn't the oldest person of this group; that was one of the phone-holders. People adapt. If I could buy my tickets and upload them to an LNER smartcard* that would work for me just as well as a phone app (which requires me to have a smart phone, of course). Keep paper tickets for on-the-day sales?
*Effectively, that's how Oyster PAYG or MCard Day Tickets (in West Yorkshire) work.
As you say, people adapt. Smartcards are likely more accepted now people are used to paying with contactless payment cards (and they know how to check how much money they have, just as people can check a balance or what tickets are loaded, expiry dates etc on a ITSO card).
They're also used to getting barcodes and QR codes (and Aztec codes even if they don't know the difference - why should they?) for all sorts of things these days. Flying, going to events, to order at restaurants, collect shopping and so much more.
Paper tickets are tried and tested but more and more people are keen to get a ticket in another form for convenience, most notably not having to queue at a station and having a ticket already booked and paid for before going to a station. It is no longer for season ticket holders or regular passengers, as even 'first time' travellers are going to check before travelling and be offered some sort of mobile ticket.
It took a while for people to accept chip and pin, then contactless, but there is always a tipping point and I think we've just about reached it for rail, and it will be a rapid decline of paper ticket sales that finally gives the industry the green light to phase them out completely.
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