Southern stations install more eTicket readers

Credit: Southern Railway

Rail passengers with smartphone eTickets will find it easier to travel with Southern because more barcode readers have been installed at stations. Additional barcode readers, that allow passengers to scan eTickets on their smartphones, have just been added to ticket gates to achieve 100 per cent coverage and cut queues of waiting passengers at the following stations:

• Angmering, Ashtead, Barnham, Bexhill, Bognor Regis, Dorking, East Grinstead, Haywards Heath, Lancing, Leatherhead, Littlehampton, Polegate and Reigate.

Barcode readers had already been fitted to some of the ticket gates at these stations 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. eTickets are convenient and popular because they can be bought instantly on the train firm’s OnTrack app or website. 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,” Chris Fowler, Customer Services Director for Southern Railway, said. “We’re steadily adding more and more barcode readers to our 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.”