Subtitle: Mutiny on the Trains and Buses
I’m paying South West Trains and Arriva a lot of money each month for two paper tickets that grant me access to travel between Woking and Guildford.
I have no problem with that, but what I do find problematic is the physical wear and tear of the tickets that I have to present to South West Train’s barriers when entering and exiting stations.
Having only just renewed my monthly season ticket, it was nearly destroyed by Guildford station’s barriers upon exiting the platform. The mechanism that takes the ticket and passes it through the machine wouldn’t work and the ticket nearly crumpled up as a result. I had to present it to the guard as an ever increasing swarm of people tried to put their tickets through the same machine. When they found their tickets were being rejected, they too had to go through the guard controlled barrier.
In the past I’ve had to replace the ticket mid-month because the magnetic strip had worn out. The edges around the ticket had also worn worn out as I pull it in and out of the ticket holder frequently to present to the barriers. The bus portion, however, is fine because that can remain inside the ticket holder.
Then there is the queuing to pay for tickets.
I take particular exception to the buses.
More often than not we have passengers (and many of them, from what I can see, are regular commuters) fumbling around with change and/or present the driver with large notes. This delays the service for anybody taking the time to buy a ticket on their smartphones or a bus pass from an Arriva agent or info shop. And what you get for your dosh is a piece of paper that can easily be lost, torn or the ink in the ticket machine has near run out.
I try to renew my season ticket outside peak time – for example, coming home from work – and a few days before the ticket is up for renewal (a credit card comes in handy for situations like this – I then pay the credit card on pay day). But what you’ll often see – either at the start of the week or at the start of a month, is a queue so phenomenally long that it blocks the entrance to the station!
And all of us are spending money on paper tickets that more than likely will wear out before the renewal date because neither South West Trains, Arriva or any of the other transport companies outside of TfL have agreed upon a universal system to use that would dramatically reduce wear and tear (and queuing) for tickets.
I have a Oyster card and love it. I use it whenever I go around London rather than buying a South West Trains combined ticket, because I just know that the ticket will somehow get damaged, lost, get jammed in the barrier, or somebody else’s ticket has got caught in the barrier, or whatever the problem may be. There is also the fumbling and moaning whenever somebody is trying to put their ticket into the barrier and then find it’s been rejected, destroyed or so on (see above).
But thankfully TfL are once again trying to be innovative (because goodness knows nobody else is) by allowing contactless payment systems to buy tickets as and when necessary – so that avoids queuing and kerfuffle as your credit or debit card becomes the ticket itself. A brilliant idea (assuming that ticket inspectors can check the card has been used as payment for travel via their equipment).
In short: paper tickets are so last century. They’re easily damaged, lost, fiddly and you usually have to queue to buy them. This is the 21st century – but sometimes I feel we’re still stuck in IKB (Isambard Kingdom Brunel)’s time.
