losing hard copy train ticket when no option to get an e-ticket

Spendless

Over the past week, me and daughter have travelled from the North to Essex and also a few days later  from  the North to Surrey, for daughter to look at Higher education courses (she's 19)

One return journey was on LNER.  The other Hull trains. Start stations were York/Doncaster to London's King Cross. Then it required tube/s and onto our destinations. On neither occasion was there an option when booking to have an e-ticket on your phone or to print off. We had to collect hard copies of tickets using the code .

Today we travelled from Woking, then  went on 2 different tubes to get to LKX. Daughter had her own ticket on her, which she used ok, till we get to the barriers to get on the train home at Kings Cross when she couldn't find it! (she'd had it to get through each barrier prior to that - with about half an hour between her last using it for the underground to needing it to board a train). I persuaded the bloke on the barriers to let her through showing him my ticket, which was bought with a Two Together railcard and the email that gave the train time back (had to travel on that exact train0 and then spoke to Hull train staff showing them my 2 tickets that showed we travelled to our destination, my 1 tickets home, the card that said '4 coupons' on it and my email. Fortunately they let us travel. When the ticket inspector came round, having not found the lost ticket amongst our belongings I did ask if in future that was to happen again, what should be the procedure. I was told that most people would make me buy the fares again (which I'm guessing would be for both of us, since my ticket was using the two together railcard???) but I should be able to have an e-ticket instead. I said that hadn't been an option - and I'm guessing the reason is because I had to also use the card for tube travel? or is that option available and I'd just missed it? I'd much prefer to have an e-ticket to avoid problems like this if a  hard copy train ticket is lost. 


   

jon81uk

We didn't have e-tickets 10-20 years ago and yes if people lost tickets they got fined or made to buy replacements.

I suggest next time you keep all the tickets safely in your wallet instead of passing it to your daughter.

NBLondon

jon81uk said:

I suggest next time you keep all the tickets safely in your wallet instead of passing it to your daughter.

I'd expect a 19 year old to be capable of looking after their own ticket...

Spendless

jon81uk said:

We didn't have e-tickets 10-20 years ago and yes if people lost tickets they got fined or made to buy replacements.

I suggest next time you keep all the tickets safely in your wallet instead of passing it to your daughter.

She's 19!  An adult!  She needed the tickets to go through 2 separate tubes to get from Woking to Kings Cross, otherwise they could have been kept with myself for the whole duration. Later on the night I posted, she found the lost ticket in her leggings pocket!

I'm guessing there is no other option but to have hard copies when your travel involves using the tubes? 

I totally get that years ago there was no alternative. Today you can have a back up plan in place if you get an e-ticket because you can print it out as well as have on your phone. 
There doesn't seem to be the same  alternative with those who have no option (it wasn't a choice)  to get a hard copy ticket 

jon81uk

Spendless said:

jon81uk said:

We didn't have e-tickets 10-20 years ago and yes if people lost tickets they got fined or made to buy replacements.

I suggest next time you keep all the tickets safely in your wallet instead of passing it to your daughter.

She's 19!  An adult!  She needed the tickets to go through 2 separate tubes to get from Woking to Kings Cross, otherwise they could have been kept with myself for the whole duration. Later on the night I posted, she found the lost ticket in her leggings pocket!

I'm guessing there is no other option but to have hard copies when your travel involves using the tubes? 

I totally get that years ago there was no alternative. Today you can have a back up plan in place if you get an e-ticket because you can print it out as well as have on your phone. 
There doesn't seem to be the same  alternative with those who have no option (it wasn't a choice)  to get a hard copy ticket 

Sorry missed the detail that she is over 18. Then yes as an adult she should be able to look after the ticket and the consequences if she loses it.

But yes if the travel includes the tube it isn't possible to use e-tickets as tube gates don't have barcode readers.

You may be able to use a smartcard though. I recently travelled into London on Greater Anglia and had a travelcard for travel within London as part of the National Rail ticket. I could download that ticket to the Greater Anglia smartcard and then tap that at both National Rail and London Underground barriers.
Of course a smartcard can still be lost, but might be better than paper tickets.

yorkie2

If you want e tickets you could book each part either side of the tube as a separate journey, and use Contactless for the tube.

No need to faff around with smartcards