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Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

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Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#201

Post by urbandw311er »

michaelt wrote: post #167
nprateem wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So you say - but I've repeatedly seen people allowed to exit through the ticket barriers at my local train station with nothing but a powered off phone as a 'ticket'

Sure, there exists an element of discretion, but it’s not an official exemption so the parent comment still stands correct.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#202

Post by kamilner »

nly wrote: post #122
brewdad wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last April, I did the credit card tap in NYC. Last month I was there again and tapped my iPhone and never had an issue. It felt just as fast or even faster since my phone is usually more accessible than a given card in my wallet. I wonder if the Tube’s tap in tap out setup contributes to the issues you see.

It's not the tech per se, it's that you have to open the app or at least unlock the phone (whichever it is), and people are more cautious with their phones compared to a card. They also tend to watch the screen instead of where they're going. I can slap down my card with my arm outstretched, without breaking my stride, and before I hit the barrier it opens. Observe a phone user in a London rush hour and it causes a n…

You neither need an app nor do you need to unlock your phone in order to use it for the ticket gates on the tube. Perhaps older phones need to be unlocked?

I use my phone exclusively without unlocking it and there's no delay.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#203

Post by folmar »

madeofpalk wrote: post #164
NoZebra120vClip wrote: post #21

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…

> Since the mobile passes are QR-based and not NFC, they absolutely require WAN connectivity on both sides in order to activate a pass. Why they rolling out QR-based public transit ticketing in 2023 when NFC (which all phone platforms support even with a flat battery) solutions are table-stakes now?

Maybe all phone OSes (I'm too lazy to check) but far from all phones. For example a popular budget model Realme C25Y does not have NFC, or in general terms anything that is primary designed for the Chinese market, where payments are made through WeChat with QR codes, usually misses it.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#204

Post by ClumsyPilot »

vaidhy wrote: post #163
shortcake27 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A tangential story from Melbourne - you’re required to replace your Myki every ~7 years because of its shitty implementation, and when you do, it disables auto topup. However, when you get a new card, you also can’t immediately enable auto topup - you have to wait some time until the card is transferred. So a friend of mine had this happen and wasn’t able to touch onto the tram the following morning because they had…

You cannot take a cab or something else? This seems similar to the digital piracy issue. It is inconvenient, so I decided to do something illegal. Otoh, I have seen Seattle bus drivers wave off the fare in some cases.

I've never been to Melbourne, but when tube is down in London, the whole city grinds to a halt, you can't get home for hours and people die because ambulance can't get through

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#205

Post by alistairSH »

Symbiote wrote: post #85
fuzzfactor wrote: post #49

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…

There was a discussion on a different post pointing out that maintenance of a highway is still very costly. Charging only the users, rather than all taxpayers, appears very fair.

Maybe, except it’s a regressive tax.

They don’t call HOV/toll lanes “Lexus Lanes” for nothing.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#206

Post by switch007 »

implements wrote: post #183
nly wrote: post #125

The fact that there's a gender field on the ticket is interesting.

Sometimes people give one-day unlimited travel tickets they no longer need to other passengers as they leave the station, which is at least against the terms of issue if not actually illegal. I guess having a sex / gender field makes that kind of re-use slightly harder?

Which part of the National Rail Conditions of Travel is that against?

Edit: section 5.1.2

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#207

Post by dTal »

rippercushions wrote: post #55
nonrandomstring wrote: post #2

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…

I went to an exhibition at a museum today. There's a distance of maybe 5 meters between the ticket office and the exhibition entrance. Instead of getting a paper ticket and handing it over at the gate, I had to tell the clerk my phone number, wait a few moments to receive one SMS for each person, click on a link in each SMS to retrieve a separate per-person QR code that could be scanned at the gate, and then click ba…

Yes, they efficiently extracted your phone number.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#208

Post by dTal »

scrollaway wrote: post #123
intelVISA wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's the case they should be issued free (as in tea in the harbor) open source devices free from Apple/Google spyware for this purpose.

What on earth is your logic there? “You have the option to send a PDF, thus I deserve a free phone of my particular choice”?

I think the logic is you still need some sort of computer to download and display your ticket, whereas with a paper ticket you don't need any external equipment. This discriminates against those too disadvantaged to own such a thing. You can argue that if the government is going to make possession of a device a requirement to access government functions, they ought to provide it.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#209

Post by netsharc »

leipert wrote: post #75
shortcake27 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a huge fan of the Pasmo/Suica cards. They’re easy to obtain and easy to accept payments, so uptake is huge (if memory serves me correctly, literally accepted everywhere?). You get most of the benefits of card payments (fast, no fiddling with change, no “do you have a smaller note”), but you also maintain anonymity which is a common argument I hear against cards in Germany and why card payments are so rare there (…

In Germany the pandemic had quite an impact. From 2019 to 2021 cash payments dropped by ~12%, down to 38% of transactions. What’s more important, loads of shops eg bakeries have card terminals now. Source: https://www.papershift.com/blog/die-kartenzahlung-ist-in-deu...

Although the chances of formite transmission (i.e. through touch) is apparently quite low: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/science-and-r...

Disclaimer: Everyone seems to have their own level of risk tolerance/acceptance with Covid.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#210

Post by [deleted] »

JamesMcMinn wrote: post #152
nonrandomstring wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> littered with them. I don't see that. The ticket barriers are programmed to retain used tickets. And please lay-off the "contrarian" slurs, I'm just telling you what I see with my eyes each day. If you looked up from your phone you might notice too :)

ScotRail have started to print tickets with QR codes on them, which unfortunately are an awkward size (far bigger than a credit card, even larger than a £20), come as a single strip without a perforated edge to tear, and are generally very low quality. I full expect these to become a common sight on the ground as they're not eaten by machines and difficult to store even in your wallet.

[deleted]
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