New Ticket Design Launched

[Solent&Wessex]

Here is a slight variation on the new design, one with larger and clearer printing.

 

[crehld]

Here is a slight variation on the new design, one with larger and clearer printing.

This of course has been printed by a Parkeon machine, which was already incredibly clear before this latest tinker. I wonder what sort of a mess other machines will make of it though?

 

[jon0844]

I know it takes a long time to filter through, but if text is to be bigger (and it arguably should) then shouldn't the orange bands be reduced in size slightly?

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Hopefully they've remembered to tweak the programming for when there is more than one reservation.

I know it takes a long time to filter through, but if text is to be bigger (and it arguably should) then shouldn't the orange bands be reduced in size slightly?

The orange stripes are pre-printed on the ticket stock, so that's an awful lot of stock to change for "a trial". I think they should concentrate on the basics for now, try to get them right first.

 

[jon0844]

Hopefully they've remembered to tweak the programming for when there is more than one reservation.



The orange stripes are pre-printed on the ticket stock, so that's an awful lot of stock to change for "a trial". I think they should concentrate on the basics for now, try to get them right first.

Hence saying it will take time, like the last change with the logo in the circle and a box for endorsements on the back.

You could still print on the existing ones for now.

 

[IanXC]

Hopefully they've remembered to tweak the programming for when there is more than one reservation.

It looks like 2 reservations could be printed side by side, so perhaps excessively long station names might cause problems!

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

I purchased three tickets in the current GWR sale via their website. All are returns from Southall, out and back in the same day, and were purchased as one transaction for collection from the ticket machine at Southall using one collection code.

When collecting them I was surprised that the machine printed the trip to Hereford in the new format with seat reservations on the ticket, whilst those for Plymouth and Cardiff Central were in the old style with reservations on separate coupons. Is there a particular reason for this difference. I can understand if they had been from different transactions or from different machines, but not from the same transaction. In fact it could be deemed potentially confusing for a passenger not familiar with the system and expected to understand differing styles of reservation.

 

[Kite159]

I purchased three tickets in the current GWR sale via their website. All are returns from Southall, out and back in the same day, and were purchased as one transaction for collection from the ticket machine at Southall using one collection code.

When collecting them I was surprised that the machine printed the trip to Hereford in the new format with seat reservations on the ticket, whilst those for Plymouth and Cardiff Central were in the old style with reservations on separate coupons. Is there a particular reason for this difference. I can understand if they had been from different transactions or from different machines, but not from the same transaction. In fact it could be deemed potentially confusing for a passenger not familiar with the system and expected to understand differing styles of reservation.

Were the tickets for Plymouth/Cardiff purchased in the recent GWR seat sale?

 

[trainophile]

Not so long ago there was a thread on here about a potential shortage of ticket stock. Has this been resolved? Recently I seem to have received a separate coupon for each leg of my journey, and only at my local station does it all print out on one.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Not so long ago there was a thread on here about a potential shortage of ticket stock. Has this been resolved?....

From what I hear, pretty much yes.

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

All three were in the seat sale

 

[jon0844]

Not so long ago there was a thread on here about a potential shortage of ticket stock. Has this been resolved? Recently I seem to have received a separate coupon for each leg of my journey, and only at my local station does it all print out on one.

Seems like a perfect time to get the new ticket stock to have a narrower orange strip top and bottom then, so the new ticket information won't be touching once machines switch over in the coming months*.

(Heck, at the way we're going, we'd have the new ticket stock in use everywhere before ATOC actually finishes introducing these new tickets to all machines!)

* I'm assuming we want to keep the orange bands, to make them more recognisable or something, as otherwise I'm not even sure why we need them at all? Or that design, as against maybe something just at the bottom or maybe even the side/corner?

 

[Class 92]

I recently purchased tickets through TPE's website and had them posted to me and they seem to have switched over to the new design as in the past I've had the old design when I've been sent tickets by them. I also received tickets from Virgin Trains the same day but they were still printed in the old style. The text seems a lot smaller than what I had when I purchased tickets at Glasgow Central in the past and a lot of empty space is shown on both tickets.

 

[Solent&Wessex]

New 7 Day Season design appears to have arrived. The black blob is where the name and photocard number are.

 

[crehld]

New 7 Day Season design appears to have arrived. The black blob is where the name and photocard number are.

Very clear and legible. It looks like it's come from a Parkeon machine.

 

[bb21]

That is a good effort, I think.

 

[trentside]

I'd prefer the date to be larger and towards the top right a bit more - too cluttered at the bottom. The station names are clearer than the old design though.

Had a passenger complaining about the new style tickets last night. He said he felt they were more complicated, as most of the information was harder to read. Hard to disagree with him really!

 

[jon0844]

My son likes to pull the tickets out of the TVM when they're printing, and it's definitely difficult to sort them out in comparison to the old style.

I know the aim is to make it easier for people, and in some ways it clearly is as a lot more detail is included - but at the same time, key 'at a glance' info is more hidden, which makes things worse not only for rail staff but passengers who dip into their wallet and want to find the right ticket quickly.

It's a real shame tickets can't be printed on both sides, which as I've said before would then encourage advertisers to take a small space (because people would have a reason to turn over their ticket). So much wasted space on the back.

Of course, the argument is that smartcards will replace paper tickets but with the way things are going, I can't see we'll ever get rid of them.. and so it would make sense to at least begin replacing printers in newly installed equipment, and as older printers need replacing.

 

[bb21]

Having thought about it a bit more, it could probably do with the start date being a bit more prominent as well. Since they have gone for a brand new design, they should probably have utilised a bit more of the white space and made the dates and stations slightly bigger. Since it has the period of validity printed explicitly, there is also not much point in actually printing "7 Day Season" than just "Season" alone.

Other than that, I still think it is pretty good, compared to the poor effort at designing the single/returns.

 

[IanXC]

Since it has the period of validity printed explicitly, there is also not much point in actually printing "7 Day Season" than just "Season" alone.

That does of course mean that in order to fraudulently alter one at least 2 fields need to be amended rather than just one.

 

[David Goddard]

Really do not like these new designs- have had a few and find them so much more difficult to read. I avoid machines that print this format as much as I can, instead buying from a ticket window still on the old format.

 

[njr001]

Whist not a fan of the new design at least it's one ticket rather than two for an advance fare I need to collect a number of tickets for a group of friends can anybody confirm what type of tickets I will be issued if I collect at Waterloo?

 

[wellwhatitis]

Yet another fault with these new tickets (apologies if it's already been mentioned). When a Groupsave ticket is issued as a multiple ticket (ie all passengers on one ticket, as it should be anyway) there is no field anywhere for 'number of passengers'. I had a party of 6 travelling between Warwick and Stratford Upon Avon and had no idea how many the ticket was for, until I put the journey into the Avantix and checked the fare for 6 on a Groupsave and compared it to the fare on the ticket.

Had they been on the fiddle and there were 10 of them you wouldn't have any way of challenging it.

 

[TEW]

Whist not a fan of the new design at least it's one ticket rather than two for an advance fare I need to collect a number of tickets for a group of friends can anybody confirm what type of tickets I will be issued if I collect at Waterloo?

If you collect from one of the collection only machines I'm not sure, but if you collect from one of the normal machines you should get new style.

 

[Furrball]

Well these are awful! Railcard details unclear.
Seat numbers for TPE service not printed
Transpennine spelt incorrectly

Seat number for Soctrail missing the F & B

 

[Paul Kelly]

Seat number for Soctrail missing the F & B

That's a particularly bad mistake, I think, as it suggests that the person designing the layout didn't understand how seat numbers work.

 

[sheff1]

That's a particularly bad mistake, I think, as it suggests that the person designing the layout didn't understand how seat numbers work.

Lots of operators no longer have two seats with the same number (one facing, one back).

I don't know what the situation is on Scotrail but I often get tickets in this format, in both new and old design, for TOCs who use unique numbers. This is much better, in my view, than when tickets show 'A' for Airline which confuses people who think their reservations are in coach A.

 

[jon0844]

Well these are awful! Railcard details unclear.
Seat numbers for TPE service not printed
Transpennine spelt incorrectly

Seat number for Soctrail missing the F & B

What a mess. Text overwritten, text going over on to the orange strip and of course chopped off text. Throw in the spelling error and it's a total joke.

But, hey, let's be fair to ATOC. It's not as if they've had loads of time to do this.

Oh, wait...

 

[Paul Kelly]

I don't know what the situation is on Scotrail but I often get tickets in this format, in both new and old design, for TOCs who use unique numbers. This is much better, in my view, than when tickets show 'A' for Airline which confuses people who think their reservations are in coach A.

I agree with that, but stripping off the suffix unconditionally even when there are separate facing/back seats with the same number (as seems to have happened here, if I understand the OP correctly) is not the answer to this problem!

But, hey, let's be fair to ATOC. It's not as if they've had loads of time to do this.

Oh, wait...

Indeed - interesting quote from ATOC's response to the ORR's retail market review consultation back in September 2014:

However, the current complexity of the market in terms of the number of retailers and technology providers does make the introduction of products that require changes to software or processes very difficult.

For instance, whilst not a new product in the conventional sense, the introduction of the new simpler design of Credit Card Sized Ticket (`CCST') has taken far longer and proved much more expensive than originally envisaged, largely because of the sheer number of downstream retail systems that need to be changed to support the new format.

And that was already almost two years ago that they were saying that!

 

[jon0844]

I'd hate to know how expensive expensive is!