Great Western Railway expands mobile ticketing scheme

UK train operator Great Western Railway (GWR) has expanded the availability of mobile tickets across its network, enabling customers to travel with their ticket on their smartphone or tablet using the GWR app.

If all users of the app were to buy tickets electronically, a stack of paper tickets 10m high every week would be saved: over half a kilometre every year.

Through their smartphones or tablets, passengers have a ticket machine to purchase the required ticket, following the installation of barcode readers at station ticket gates across the GWR network.

The scheme covers all single and return tickets; standard and first class, adult and child. However, season tickets, Group Save and Rangers and Rovers, are not currently available.

Tickets are displayed on the phone screen as encrypted barcodes, which are scanned by new readers at ticket gates and can be checked on-board by train managers with barcode reading devices. 

GWR’s Head of Retail, Lee Edworthy, said: “Technology has fundamentally changed the way that we travel. The expansion of mobile ticketing will make buying a ticket and travelling with us much easier and more convenient, saving valuable time for customers. GWR is committed to making travelling by train even easier and that is why we continue to develop our online and mobile ticketing service, ensuring we put our customers first and help communities to prosper.”

Previously, only a limited number of tickets for selected journeys could be displayed on a mobile device and all other ticket types purchased had to be collected from a ticket machine using the unique reference number sent to the customers’ device via e-mail. 

Those customers buying tickets for use on other journeys right across Britain can still use the GWR mobile app and then collect their tickets from a Ticket Vending machine at a station.