Just had a little overnight trip to St. Albans, but I was forced to buy a standard ticket from the TVM at the station, instead my preferred method of buying online and having the ticket in my possession before I get there. I noticed there are barcode readers on the barriers at St. Albans, so how come?
Fares which are intended to permit a cross-London transfer (i.e. that have a Maltese Cross - as is the case for a Kemsley to St Albans ticket) are generally not enabled for e-ticket fulfilment. This is because TfL and the industry body, RDG, are still squabbling about who fronts the cost of installing e-ticket scanners at their gatelines and how it will work from a technological standpoint. It's the best part of a decade since e-tickets were introduced...
A limited number of cross-London fares are available for smartcard fulfilment, but this relies on the train company that prices the fare having enabled this. This isn't the case for Kemsley to St Albans therefore the only way of fulfilling such a ticket is via Credit Card Sized Tickets (CCST), which can only be obtained at a ticket office or ticket machine (either by direct purchase or via the Ticket on Departure, TOD, system).
Even where cross-London fares are available for smartcard fulfilment, there are lots of hoops to jump through - you need to have obtained a smartcard beforehand, it needs to be from the right company/retailer, you need to buy your ticket in good time to allow it to make its way into the fulfilment system, and you then need to load the ticket onto the smartcard prior to travel at a reader, gateline or using a compatible mobile device.
To put it mildly, the industry has a long way to go before it gets things right here.
