Abellio Greater Anglia has moved a step closer to eliminating paper tickets following a £3m investment in barcode readers at the ticket gates.
Passengers travelling on Abellio Greater Anglia’s network are now able to buy and receive most of the train operator’s tickets (via the mobile app) straight to their mobile phones and now scan them through the recently installed barcode readers at the ticket barriers.
The investment will help to reduce the use of paper tickets and also reduce queues at ticket machines and ticket gates.
Up to eight m-tickets can be purchased in one transaction using the Abellio Greater Anglia or Trainline apps. Once the tickets have been purchased, passengers simply need to scan the barcode at the ticket barriers when they travel.
Customers can buy tickets including advanced purchase and walk-up fares for any journey across the operator’s network (this includes peak journeys into London Liverpool Street but these must be collected from the station ticket machine prior to travel).
This enhancement will provide increased flexibility for passengers who can purchase tickets via their mobile phones, wherever they are.
The project represents an investment of more than £3m and includes the replacement of ticket barriers at Norwich and other stations across the network featuring barcode readers. The investment includes the introduction of a new Ticket Validation database and Inspection app provided by Masabi for capturing and validating barcodes.
Andy Camp, Commercial Director, Abellio Greater Anglia, said: “We are very pleased to be one of the first operators to introduce mobile ticketing. The introduction of mobile tickets provides a wealth of benefits to passengers, and will make travelling simpler and more convenient by eliminating queues and paper tickets.”
“Mobile Ticketing is revolutionising the passenger experience, making queuing at ticket machines a thing of the past. This new service allows passengers to buy tickets anytime, anyplace allowing them to simply arrive at the station and board the train,” said Ben Whitaker, Co-Founder of Masabi. “We are delighted to be working with Abellio Greater Anglia to provide mobile ticketing apps, validation software and our Ticket Validation Database.”
John Davies, Retail Director at Trainline said; “We’ve been working closely with Abellio Greater Anglia for about a year to implement a three phase test of mobile tickets across the network. In that time we’ve seen mobile tickets steadily growing month on month and as of the end of May, 1 in 3 tickets (34%) purchased on our App has been a mobile ticket. There’s definite appetite for mobile in Greater Anglia!
“Now with full availability across the network, more passengers will be able to enjoy the benefits of mobile tickets. It is a credit to Andy and the AGA team on getting to this stage – we’ve worked collaboratively throughout and they’re an example that I hope the rest of the industry will stand up and follow.”
Trainline statistics from pilot launch (July 2015) to today:
Most Popular Stations
- Tottenham Hale
- Norwich
- Cambridge
Top 5 Mobile Ticket Routes
- Tottenham Hale – Cambridge
- Cambridge – Tottenham Hale
- Tottenham Hale – Stansted
- Norwich – Stratford London
- Stratford London – Norwich
