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Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

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Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#231

Post by fuzzfactor »

reustle wrote: post #74
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…

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.

You may be right about the resources but that's pretty steep, between 10 and 20 dollars per hour and I would think that highly discourages workers earning hourly wages of that amount or less from traveling that way very much.

In Houston about $95 per month was about all the market could stand to commute on a modern 21st century tollway. Once it got over $100 it looked to me like it was beginning to become possible for an elected official to get in based on a promise to reduce or eliminate the tolls. I don't think that's been an issue yet but the tolls have recently been reduced for the first time ever.

Actually it's the unseen waste of resources that discourages me from driving any more than necessary, rather than the cost to me of operating a vehicle.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#232

Post by fuzzfactor »

rhn_mk1 wrote: post #89
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…

"Reverse engineering" is where you learn something about how a system works, especially nonpublic information. What you described doesn't have anything nonpublic or learned facts. Instead, it's a cooperation to fool someone into not having to pay for service. I'm not sure if it could even be called "cracking", since that typically involves learning new facts, too. Only "exploiting" comes to mind.

I'll concede the exploiting but there's always going to be some discrepancy about what a natural-born Florida "Cracker" is to begin with :)

And engineering is over exaggerated too, more like the tickets were merely reversed not thoroughly reverse engineered.

We certainly weren't going to counterfeit any tickets.

Just work around the system.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#233

Post by anticensor »

turnerc wrote: post #173
odiroot wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I believe the minimum fare is the price before any discounts applied, a railcard on 1.90 would be a normal price of ~£2.84

Interesting. In my country, the minimum fare is a fare floor for discounted fares too (except for disability and military servicemen, which get to travel for free by train by law). For example, currently, the shortest train journey in Turkey is ₺20, even if you have discounts.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#234

Post by rhn_mk1 »

fuzzfactor wrote: post #232
rhn_mk1 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Reverse engineering" is where you learn something about how a system works, especially nonpublic information. What you described doesn't have anything nonpublic or learned facts. Instead, it's a cooperation to fool someone into not having to pay for service. I'm not sure if it could even be called "cracking", since that typically involves learning new facts, too. Only "exploiting" comes to mind.

I'll concede the exploiting but there's always going to be some discrepancy about what a natural-born Florida "Cracker" is to begin with :) And engineering is over exaggerated too, more like the tickets were merely reversed not thoroughly reverse engineered. We certainly weren't going to counterfeit any tickets. Just work around the system.

"Reversing" without "engineering" only makes sense if you mean that they were turned around on their route :P Otherwise "reversing" doesn't have a standalone meaning that I know that fits here.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#235

Post by ErikCorry »

sofixa wrote: post #149
ErikCorry wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"Many contactless cards issued outside the UK can be used to pay as you go for travel (overseas transaction fees may apply):

American Express (AMEX) MasterCard and Maestro (some cards issued in the USA, Canada and the Netherlands aren't accepted) Visa and V PAY (some cards issued outside the UK aren't accepted)"

So no you can't tell ahead of time.

Re: Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

#236

Post by nkrisc »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #9
nkrisc wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The e-tickets I use on my local commuter rail are nothing like what you described. When I want to use a ticket, I activate when I get in the train and then the conductor glances at it and sees whatever they need to see. Zero difference from paper ticket. They just walk down the carriage looking at paper tickets and phones all the same.

I'm on SWT. Where do you have ones that are eyes-on? Our guards have to do the scan-beep dance and it slows everything to a crawl.

MARC, in Maryland. As I recall there is a QR code they can scan but I’ve never seen them do it. Likely just as an option if they have reason to think someone’s trying to cheat.
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