Apparently, tickets issued by GWR ticket offices will now default to the larger paper tickets. You will still be able to be issued with 'traditional' tickets if you specifically ask for one, or if your journey involves London Underground. So, if you are one of the Coffee Shop members who 'regularly' buys a '3 in 7' or '8 in 15' Rover, make sure you remember to ask as I hate to imagine what the state of your paper ticket on journey 8 will be!

As a matter of interest, given the choice, in what format do you prefer to receive your ticket?

 
Mobile - e-transactions and tickets are the way forward - cheaper, less waste and less bits of paper to lose!

Increasingly this is the way all tickets are being issued, for sporting events, concerts etc.

 

Edmondson card, please. 1 7⁄32" x 2 1⁄4"

 

Perhaps the equivalent of an Oyster card, but tied to a phone app, not sure that that exists. Advantages: robust, no battery, doesn't go flat. Engineered to be fluidly compatible with the readers so, more likely to work quickly and work every time. The app needs to give me the ability to freeze/unfreeze it. Thinking about it, this sounds like a debit card, so perhaps things are almost there. I'm not keen on ticketing held on a mobile phone and I'm alarmed at people waving them around at ticket barriers as it's a fixed point for miscreants to profile and target someone - and in any case the tech often seems to throw a pffaff. Thinking of phones, on the other hand it's so useful to be able to buy the ticket for the next leg of the journey (e.g. not expecting to be there and sitting on a tram through Castlefields Station, Manchester, buying a TfL ticket from Piccadilly to Newport while trying not to be distracted by the peculiar view of Manchester Central station approaches transformation and reuse.)

Mark

 

Good question - I have no easy answer.

For UK national rail tickets, I strongly prefer the credit card printed tickets.
For London, I use an Oyster card
For Interrail journeys, I use an electronic pass in my phone

Why?  Trust of the system has to be my top priority and I don't trust the national system without a physical proof printed in my hand.  Too many mis-sells on offer.  Oyster, hey, it's not long distance extra costs if it goes a bit wrong.  Interrail - single pass.

 
I've used ticketless on my GWR app but always feel more confident if I've got a card or paper ticket as they won't run out off battery power....and on a few occasions that has mattered.