Paper train tickets could become extinct under plans to allow passengers to tap in and out of stations with their bank cards, The Telegraph has learnt.
As soon as next year, rail users will be able "buy" journeys online – using a computer or mobile phone – and travel carrying just the credit or debit card with which they paid.

Click Me

Pity there isn't an app to find the cheapest or your money back. It is high time the whole bloody railway network was nationalised.

BR used a simple set of two rules

1. A to B costs the same as B to A
2. A to C should not cost less than A to B plus B to C.

This appears to be far too complicated for the private companies to manage, so getting the right price is a matter of chance and people are routinely ripped off all over the country.

Here, here ! 23 different train operating companies is ludicrous.
I don't think I would know how to buy a train ticket any longer, if we had to use that method. Don't understand apps., and my little Tesco 'pay as you go' will not be able to help.

If you should loose the credit/debit card what will happen then ? Stuck in Lands End waiting to be rescued ?

Why don't they just implant an antennae on top of our heads at birth and let us go and do what we want ? Send us a monthly bill with the rest of them. It would save a lot of time and effort.

Who remembers My Favourite Martian ?

I recall going with my father to our tiny village station to buy train tickets to go on holiday. Despite being at the end of the line and running maybe half a dozen trains a day, the fellow in the ticket office was able to work out an exact price in minutes, taking into account any offers like family tickets to get us the lowest price possible in minutes, and you knew it would be unchallenged anywhere on the network.

Would that this were the case these days!

I'm not sure about the antenna idea, but an RF chip as is implanted into animals would work just fine I think. An even simpler idea would be to run it for free, paid for out of general taxation.

Calculations were probably done by dragging ones finger down the page and across the page to a meeting point, where one size fit all.

Now we have computers, postcodes, journey planners, dates, change trains, first class, second class,(I thought the class system was taboo in this country) season tickets, travel Friday, before 3pm or after 3pm, arriving London before 6pm or after 6pm, sleeper, senior railcard, junior railcard , army railcard, engineering works, delays, fastest train only, 3 months in advance, on the day, buffet carriage, internet, special offers, luggage, bicycles, animals, ferry link, airport link... and so the list goes on .

Dont see any advantage to the customer there at all.For single one off trips its just as easy to show a ticket as a debit card, and that way you KNOW what youve paid already, so no nasty surprises.

Am I on right train ?

Go to Stoke on Trent and pretend your in Dubai. Could work out quite cheaply.



....and to add a bit more fun;

http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/cheap-train-rail-tickets-tips-5940693

No advantage to the customer at all. I guess it's a lot cheaper for the train operator. No sales office, no staff, no tickets to print, etc.

Will they pass these cost saving on to the passenger? Of course they ....

Another step towards the cashless (so we can track you ) society