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Paper and mobile train tickets to be replaced with GPS tracking in new travel trial
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2025
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In D.C. (one of the few places in the US with good public transport) you can get a pass you put money on. Then you just scan it when you enter/exit a station and you get billed for the price of that trip. It's dead simple. (It could be made even simpler if you just connected a credit card to it though, or if it just was, as an option, your credit card or google/apple pay.)
It sounds like to fix this problem the government just needs to regulate these companies and implement a similar system. It's far simpler and more reliable and robust.
The reason that works is the gates. I dunno in Britain, but in Germany the gates at stations are very uncommon, even for underground stations. Pretty much every station is freely accessible to anyone. Think at this point installing gates in so many places is more expensive than for example running a Tracking-Ticket system. It would also always still exclude busses, normal streetcars etc. Netherlands has the gates and you can just use your banking card as you say, but gates are only installed for the real trains, not trams or buses. While the ease of use of the tracking ticket for me is the super smooth integration of all forms of regional and local public transport.
The problem with it though is it would seem you still need another option available. Not everyone has a smartphone. Presumably they still want to service those people, so they have to provide some other option. The scan on/off system works for everyone, and it could easily be extended to busses. It'd work the same as a station, but you do it entering/exiting the bus.
I could see the issue with stations that don't have gates, but again, they should be trying to service everyone, including those without a smart phone. They have to add something to those stations I would hope and assume. It might as well be a scan point —which could be something besides a gate.