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Sold Flimsy Bog Roll Ticket at Manchester Piccadilly Ticket Office

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yorksrob

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Had an hour to wait at Man Pic today, so I thought I would use the time wisely and buy some AP tickets.

I made my transaction and had my ticket wallet ready, only to find the chap printing out one of those stupid bog roll tickets. When I objected, he said that these were the only ones they sold.

What sort of an outfit are Branson and chums running here ? The said ticket is currently stuffed in my pocket as there's little else to do with it. Goodness knows what state the return one will be in by the time I come to use it.

Every week there seems to be some example of modern nonsense foisted on us by these silly companies.
 
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tom73

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In the case of PlusBus tickets printed on this format of ticket, you might occasionally have difficulty persuading a bus driver it is a normal valid PlusBus ticket, because they are so accustomed to the ordinary credit card style ticket. Difficulty experienced on First Bradford and Arriva Yorkshire services.
 

yorksrob

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Indeed. The rot started when Northern started with this rubbish. They shouldn't have been allowed to get away with it.
 

marcouk2

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In the case of PlusBus tickets printed on this format of ticket, you might occasionally have difficulty persuading a bus driver it is a normal valid PlusBus ticket, because they are so accustomed to the ordinary credit card style ticket. Difficulty experienced on First Bradford and Arriva Yorkshire services.

If it's the same setup as Virgin have setup at Wigan North Western then they can print to a credit card sized ticket printer; bought my GM Wayfarer from a floor walker with tablet and paper roll ticket printer but there was a CCST printer by the ticket office counters which she printed to from her tablet, avoiding the faff I thought I was going to have with that issue.
 

yorksrob

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I was specifically told that the rubbish paper tickets were the only ones available.
 

cactustwirly

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Had an hour to wait at Man Pic today, so I thought I would use the time wisely and buy some AP tickets.

I made my transaction and had my ticket wallet ready, only to find the chap printing out one of those stupid bog roll tickets. When I objected, he said that these were the only ones they sold.

What sort of an outfit are Branson and chums running here ? The said ticket is currently stuffed in my pocket as there's little else to do with it. Goodness knows what state the return one will be in by the time I come to use it.

Every week there seems to be some example of modern nonsense foisted on us by these silly companies.

Should have bought an e-ticket, no faffing about with flimsy tickets, and it fits in your pocket! :p
 

yorksrob

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What century do you live in? :lol:

My preferance would be for the 1990's frankly.

That aside, I have been through many mobile phones in the last ten years. I wouldn't want to risk losing my e-ticket if my phone broke or I lost it in the intervening three months.
 

Aictos

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Northern Ireland has used these tickets for far longer then any mainline TOC so don't see why there's a issue, as long as one has a valid ticket that is all that matters surely?
 

najaB

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That aside, I have been through many mobile phones in the last ten years. I wouldn't want to risk losing my e-ticket if my phone broke or I lost it in the intervening three months.
If it was an e-ticket then it wouldn't be tied to a specific phone. You can even (generally) print them out onto any sized paper you like. ;)
 

yorksrob

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Due to the wonder of Microsoft, trying to get my computer to even recognise that my phone exists, is an irritating rigmarole.

Anyhow, the efficacy or not of e-tickets is by the by, and I'm not interested in having another discussion on it.

The point is that TOC's shouldn't be printing advanced purchase tickets on flimsy paper formats. We have good, well thought out ticket format and they should stick with it.

I don't see why these train companies have to muck around with everything.
 

causton

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Like it or not, the DfT have told franchises to move over to smart tickets, and these bog roll tickets with barcodes on are counted as that. So this will only get worse!

Personally I would just prefer they gave us a ticket wallet that stored them properly!
 

The_Train

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I've had to contend with a few ranger tickets printed on these and it is a battle to keep it in a readable condition considering how often it can be in and out of my wallet. They also never seem to work on any barriers
 

yorksrob

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Like it or not, the DfT have told franchises to move over to smart tickets, and these bog roll tickets with barcodes on are counted as that. So this will only get worse!

Personally I would just prefer they gave us a ticket wallet that stored them properly!

Surprise surprise, the central clown circus is at the root of it. Is there anything the DfT can't screw up ?

Why can't they print a bar code on a strong, card ticket that fits in your ticket wallet.
 

island

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Paper roll tickets are considerably cheaper to issue and the printers are considerably cheaper to purchase and maintain. Expect their use to increase.
 

Bungle965

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I've had to contend with a few ranger tickets printed on these and it is a battle to keep it in a readable condition considering how often it can be in and out of my wallet. They also never seem to work on any barriers
Unfortunately this tends to be the case, even with normal CCST stock the barriers will more often than not reject rangers & rovers, whether it be through poor set up of the barriers of the barriers simply not having enough space for these type of tickets.
As poor as it sounds the sales of rangers and rovers are relatively few and far between so it won't create as much of an issue as other tickets.
Sam
 

yorksrob

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Paper roll tickets are considerably cheaper to issue and the printers are considerably cheaper to purchase and maintain. Expect their use to increase.

Why not. Everything else is going down the pan.
 

_toommm_

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Unfortunately bog rolls are the way tickets are going, with the government mandating smart ticketing through smart cards/contactless, QR/Aztec codes, and e-tickets. The magstripe can only hold so much, and it looks like it's reaching the end of its life, being too expensive to maintain.
 

najaB

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The magstripe can only hold so much, and it looks like it's reaching the end of its life, being too expensive to maintain.
That's the problem - the CCST printers and readers are quite expensive since they're non-standard (in the rest of the world sense of the term) and the magnetic stripe technology is very much last-century.
 

yorksrob

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That's the problem - the CCST printers and readers are quite expensive since they're non-standard (in the rest of the world sense of the term) and the magnetic stripe technology is very much last-century.

That still doesn't explain why they can't put a barcode on a convenient ticket shaped piece of card.
 

_toommm_

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That still doesn't explain why they can't put a barcode on a convenient ticket shaped piece of card.

They did for a while (not sure if some stations/TVMs still do), but I'm guessing because of how small it was beside the text (and I cna imagine the printers being lower quality in what they can print), it meant there were less 'bits' on the QR code.
 

Bungle965

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They did for a while (not sure if some stations/TVMs still do), but I'm guessing because of how small it was beside the text (and I cna imagine the printers being lower quality in what they can print), it meant there were less 'bits' on the QR code.
The QR/Aztec codes on the CCST have only limited information on them and cannot be used to open Automatic Ticket Gates with, the only use is if they are scanned with a scanner.
Sam
 

yorksrob

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They did for a while (not sure if some stations/TVMs still do), but I'm guessing because of how small it was beside the text (and I cna imagine the printers being lower quality in what they can print), it meant there were less 'bits' on the QR code.

Some of then still do.

But if you're getting rid of the magna-stripe you could put it on the back.
 

sheff1

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Unfortunately bog rolls are the way tickets are going, with the government mandating smart ticketing through smart cards/contactless, QR/Aztec codes, and e-tickets. The magstripe can only hold so much, and it looks like it's reaching the end of its life, being too expensive to maintain.

At Chester the other day nobody with an e-ticket or a bog roll ticket could open the barriers with them. A lengthy queue formed at the wide gate (which was also being used by people entering). Meanwhile, us dinosaurs with a little piece of card were able to use it to exit via the barrier ...... once the e-ticketers and bog-rollers had given up and got out the way :lol:.

Presumably, when everyone has been forced into using e or bog roll they will remove the barriers, as they will serve no purpose, and replace them with ticket checkers in huts like we had 40 years ago.
 

najaB

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Presumably, when everyone has been forced into using e or bog roll they will remove the barriers, as they will serve no purpose...
Or, more likely, replace the magnetic stripe reader with a barcode scanner.
 
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