Eurostar aims to reduce the use of paper tickets with Google Pay
Posted: 17 April 2019 | Global Railway Review | 3 comments
In a world first for an international rail company, Eurostar offers a more seamless alternative regarding buying and storing tickets.
Eurostar has decided to offer travellers a new way to organise and manage paperless tickets by adding the ability to buy and save mobile tickets on Google Pay.
Travellers using Google Pay on Android L or higher devices can now save their mobile ticket to Google Pay from the Eurostar app, and proceed directly to ticket gates at Eurostar stations for a more seamless start to their journey.
The new option for travellers aims to further increase the use of mobile tickets, as part of Eurostar’s plan to reduce paper usage by 50 per cent by 2020. Since 2018, the amount of paper tickets printed in stations has been reduced by one third, and now accounts for just 10 per cent of all Eurostar tickets.
Perrine Allain, Head of Digital, Eurostar, said: “We are working to provide an effortless travel experience for all our customers, and by enabling paperless tickets to be stored on Google Pay, we hope that more travellers will be encouraged to switch from printing paper. High-speed rail is already an environmentally-friendly option for short-haul international travel and encouraging more of our customers to use paperless tickets helps further reduce our impact on the environment.”
Enabling mobile tickets to be saved via Google Pay is the latest in a range of digital improvements from Eurostar. Earlier in 2019, Eurostar made updates to its app to help provide users with a new ‘arrival’ state. The update added features including public transport maps for the destination city and the ability to book tickets to attractions. Travellers can now find the lowest available fare using Eurostar’s Fare Finder available on Google Home and Google Assistant.
Related topics
Apps, Digitalisation, High-Speed Rail, Passenger Experience/Satisfaction, Rail Fares/Ticket Pricing, Smart/Contactless Ticketing, Technology & Software
As for me, I do not know what I am doing wrong, but my ticket in Eurostar app is never recognised at gates. So, I need paper copies 🙁
Hello, there are more risks of losing (deleting, doubling) a paper than a mobile phone, on the other hand you are looking to concentrate all things in one device, such as having only one card for all your accounts. All to improve the user experience.
Last week I made a trip from London to Paris to Geneva to Lyon to Paris to Le Havre and back to London.
For the first time ever, none of my tickets were printed. All were on convenient apps or mobile tickets on my smartphone.
Brilliant! No paper, all in one place on my phone, a simple scan at the ticket gates or by the conductor, easy….
…until my iPhone died on the Paris-Geneva train.
Fortunately, the Apple Store in Geneva was able to bring it back with no loss of data. Phew! But what if I’d accidentally smashed it? Had it stolen?
The lesson has been learnt. ALWAYS print hard copy. You can even print two copies, one for each of your bags!