More eTicket readers installed at Great Northern and Thameslink stations

Credit: GTR

Rail passengers with smartphone eTickets will find it easier to travel with Great Northern and Thameslink because more barcode readers have been installed at stations.  

Additional barcode readers, that allow passengers to scan eTickets on their smartphones. have now been added to ticket gates to achieve 100 per cent coverage and cut queues of waiting passengers at the following stations: Flitwick, Harpenden, Hitchin, Huntingdon, Kings Lynn, Letchworth Garden City, St Neots and Stevenage.

Barcode readers had already been fitted to some of the ticket gates at Flitwick, Kings Lynn, Letchworth Garden City, Harpenden, Hitchin, Huntingdon, St Neots and Stevenage but with the rising popularity of the convenient eTicket, queues sometimes formed of people waiting to scan their eTickets. Now every ticket gate at these stations has a barcode reader.

It’s estimated that 50 per cent of tickets now sold in the UK are digital, which includes tickets sold on smartcards. eTickets are convenient and popular because they can be bought instantly on the train firms’ OnTrack apps or websites. They are ideal for advanced singles, peak and off-peak singles, and peak and off-peak day return tickets.

“Barcode eTickets are quick to buy and convenient to use,” Jenny Saunders, Customer Services Director for Thameslink and Great Northern at GTR, said. “This is why we’re steadily adding them to more and more ticket gates across our stations to make life easier for our customers.”

 “We’re making it easier for people to buy train tickets with people rapidly switching to buying online and now using digital tickets for half of all journeys,” Jacqueline Starr, Chief Executive Officer at the Rail Delivery Group, said. “Investment in smart ticketing across the network has made train travel quicker and easier as people can get their ticket straight to their phone.”