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Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

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141–150 of 236 posts

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#141
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's similar in France, maybe half that number though. It's a good system. The one's who use the highways pay for them. The highways are in a very good state in France.

The relatively high fees on French autoroutes are offset by the good quality, yes. But the principal objection may be the way in which said autoroutes were privatized after being built with public money, no?

Yes but it was long ago and people forgot. But yes, French citizens are paying for the autoroutes twice: built with public money and then again with tolls to use them.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#142

> they also gain the ability to more precisely track the ticket’s usage across the network and minimise fraud. Except mobile tickets make fraud trivial - getting off the train without a ticket, at a station with a ticket barrier? Just show them your powered off phone and say 'my phone died' and they'll let you out, no questions asked.

It's your responsibility to produce a ticket. Claiming your dog ate it or whatever will just mean they make you buy a new ticket and apply for a refund if you find your original again. They've heard these things before.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#143
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to live in the US and currently live in Japan. We pay around $95 to go about 5 hours on a highway from Tokyo to Kyoto, for example. 3~ hours north is about $35. I think this more accurately charges us drivers for the resources we consume.

What's the condition of the road like? I assume that it is immaculate.

I also ride motorcycles here. They’re fantastic.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The relatively high fees on French autoroutes are offset by the good quality, yes. But the principal objection may be the way in which said autoroutes were privatized after being built with public money, no?

Yes but it was long ago and people forgot. But yes, French citizens are paying for the autoroutes twice: built with public money and then again with tolls to use them.

Sure, you may multiple times but they don't just get built once either. There is non-stop maintenance for a road system.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#145
post #26

The photo of a UK train ticket is very interesting. Reading Green Park station isn't yet open, AFAIK: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/RGP/details.html

The price on the ticket is also £1.90M

Which is weird because the minimal fare is £2.20 now.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#146

On the Florida Turnpike it was always too expensive for many students when they traveled up and down the state. It was bad enough having captive service stations and restaurants for overpriced products, but the toll was and still is ridiculous too, considering it was agreed there would be no toll after the construction was paid for, And it was well paid for decades ago. Anyway there were only very few exits and they…

>>but the toll was and still is ridiculous too, considering it was agreed there would be no toll after the construction was paid for, And it was well paid for decades ago.

Same with the QE2 bridge in the UK. Governments are disgusting.

https://www.essexlive.news/news/essex-news/dartford-crossing...

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#147

Nobody who cheers "mobile tickets" has ever watched a guard or ticket inspector do their job. In the UK, a guard with good eyesight and a sprightly, cheerful manner can almost run through the carriages shouting "tickets please!" and see, with a single glance, all s/he needs. Then she gets to the muppets with phones. They faff, fumble and fuss. They scowl at being interrupted watching videos, browsing social media and…

> Paper tickets rule. Paper tickets suck. It's already a pain having to navigation the station to find your platform, and then add onto it trying to find a ticket machine. Make sure you get the right ticket machine because multiple train companies operate from this station! And then you have to hold on to it for the duration of your journey and not lose it, otherwise you'll face the fine.

You can buy any ticket from any machine, it's only the first screen that's different. If you go to type your destination then it allows you to buy any ticket.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#148

> they also gain the ability to more precisely track the ticket’s usage across the network and minimise fraud. Except mobile tickets make fraud trivial - getting off the train without a ticket, at a station with a ticket barrier? Just show them your powered off phone and say 'my phone died' and they'll let you out, no questions asked.

That won't work with the controllers inside the train.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best tech solution I’ve yet to see is simply accepting credit/debit cards. Checking in, they can charge you minimum fare and checking out they can charge you remainder. They could also charge you maximum fare and return remainder on checkout. You can even keep track of card and give discounts for multiple rides. All without registration. Works with watches and phones too.

Good luck finding out ahead of time whether your foreign card is going to be accepted by the system. Also seems difficult for children who don't generally have credit cards.

> Good luck finding out ahead of time whether your foreign card is going to be accepted by the system.

On the tills themselves there's all the signs of all the accepted cards and it was a fairly exhaustive list. It's also probably available online, so it should be pretty easy to check ahead of time.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#150

During the COVID outbreak, my public transit provider began to neglect their fareboxes (partly because everyone was boarding in the rear and didn't bother to pay fares anyway.) I noticed that the boxes were still broken and unmaintained. I put 2 and 2 together and realized that a mobile "upgrade" was coming soon, so I kept my eyes out. And sure enough, I got myself invited to participate in the pilot project with the…

> Of course it goes without saying that your phone must be functional in order to scan the thing. So that's a whole tech stack that could go awry and strand you if you don't take precautions It could go awry if Google fucked up, Samsung/phone manufacturer fucks up, battery or charger fucks up, software developer fucks up, internet, etc, etc. we are replacing reliable sustems with fragile ones everywhere

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