| Train passengers to be tracked to stop ticket fraud Posted by Surrey 455 at 19:47, 31st August 2025 |     |
From The Telegraph
Train passengers will be tracked by GPS as part of a trial that could cut down on fare dodging.
New digital ticketing technology is being rolled out on East Midlands Railway (EMR) that tracks when passengers enter and leave train stations and automatically works out their fares.
It works in a similar way to London’s Oyster Card system, where travellers tap in and tap out and trust computer systems to calculate how much they have to pay for their journeys.
Government officials have promised that the new GPS technology will give “the best-value fare on the day”, while a spokesman for Trainline – whose technology is powering the trial – added that “daily and weekly caps” would be available so commuters would not overpay for their travel.
GPS tracking of rail passengers could close a loophole exploited by fare-dodgers known as “doughnutting”, where dishonest passengers buy a ticket for the start and end of their journey to get through automatic barriers – leaving the middle empty, or unpaid.
“[This scheme] deters abuses like so-called ‘doughnutting’ and helps protect industry revenue while making rail travel simpler for everyone,” said the Trainline spokesman.............
New digital ticketing technology is being rolled out on East Midlands Railway (EMR) that tracks when passengers enter and leave train stations and automatically works out their fares.
It works in a similar way to London’s Oyster Card system, where travellers tap in and tap out and trust computer systems to calculate how much they have to pay for their journeys.
Government officials have promised that the new GPS technology will give “the best-value fare on the day”, while a spokesman for Trainline – whose technology is powering the trial – added that “daily and weekly caps” would be available so commuters would not overpay for their travel.
GPS tracking of rail passengers could close a loophole exploited by fare-dodgers known as “doughnutting”, where dishonest passengers buy a ticket for the start and end of their journey to get through automatic barriers – leaving the middle empty, or unpaid.
“[This scheme] deters abuses like so-called ‘doughnutting’ and helps protect industry revenue while making rail travel simpler for everyone,” said the Trainline spokesman.............
| Re: Train passengers to be tracked to stop ticket fraud Posted by infoman at 05:52, 1st September 2025 | |
Could this mean ticket gates might be installed at Chesterfield and Sheffield?
| Re: Train passengers to be tracked to stop ticket fraud Posted by Witham Bobby at 09:28, 1st September 2025 | |
From The Telegraph
Train passengers will be tracked by GPS as part of a trial that could cut down on fare dodging.
New digital ticketing technology is being rolled out on East Midlands Railway (EMR) that tracks when passengers enter and leave train stations and automatically works out their fares.
It works in a similar way to London’s Oyster Card system, where travellers tap in and tap out and trust computer systems to calculate how much they have to pay for their journeys.
Government officials have promised that the new GPS technology will give “the best-value fare on the day”, while a spokesman for Trainline – whose technology is powering the trial – added that “daily and weekly caps” would be available so commuters would not overpay for their travel.
GPS tracking of rail passengers could close a loophole exploited by fare-dodgers known as “doughnutting”, where dishonest passengers buy a ticket for the start and end of their journey to get through automatic barriers – leaving the middle empty, or unpaid.
“[This scheme] deters abuses like so-called ‘doughnutting’ and helps protect industry revenue while making rail travel simpler for everyone,” said the Trainline spokesman.............
New digital ticketing technology is being rolled out on East Midlands Railway (EMR) that tracks when passengers enter and leave train stations and automatically works out their fares.
It works in a similar way to London’s Oyster Card system, where travellers tap in and tap out and trust computer systems to calculate how much they have to pay for their journeys.
Government officials have promised that the new GPS technology will give “the best-value fare on the day”, while a spokesman for Trainline – whose technology is powering the trial – added that “daily and weekly caps” would be available so commuters would not overpay for their travel.
GPS tracking of rail passengers could close a loophole exploited by fare-dodgers known as “doughnutting”, where dishonest passengers buy a ticket for the start and end of their journey to get through automatic barriers – leaving the middle empty, or unpaid.
“[This scheme] deters abuses like so-called ‘doughnutting’ and helps protect industry revenue while making rail travel simpler for everyone,” said the Trainline spokesman.............
What is being tracked? Phones? Faces?
Who voted for this level of surveillance being permitted? I sure didn't. I don't recall any of the parties putting permission for this level of surveillance in their election broadcasts
I'm very much in favour of ensuring everyone pays the right fare. But I think this is too much. We are sleepwalking into 1984 (or have already). The honest railway users will be tracked, and those who want to evade payment will simply find a way around it. One day, someone will realise that rules and regulations affect only those who are already trrustworthy people
| Re: Train passengers to be tracked to stop ticket fraud Posted by grahame at 09:44, 1st September 2025 | |
Could this mean ticket gates might be installed at Chesterfield and Sheffield?
Sheffield, as I understand it, is a different issue with right of way across the station and so is not linked directly. I cannot but imagine that there must very good reasons at Chesterfield too.
The whole gateline / on train ticket checking in the UK is a mess.
Was changing trains in York (an open station) in early August, and needed to visit gents. However, the entrance was off a platform blocked by a ticket check being conducted off a Northern arrival from - educated guess - Harrogate direction and no say way to get to the loo. The revenue control bloke I asked if I could get to the loo seemed to have difficulty understanding my request as he and his colleagues were dealing with a cattle-like crush / flow off the train and taking aside a number of people who they wanted further discussions with. I eventually managed to explain what I wanted to do and he let me through - though with some concern that I might have to re-explain again, perhaps to a similar colleague of his, as I came out again. The "joke" of the who thing was that there turned out to be a second entrance / exit from the gents, and using that onto the other side of the island platform I did not have to through the blockade check; men familiar with York Station would have been able to avoid the ticket check should they have had reason to want to do so.
| Re: Train passengers to be tracked to stop ticket fraud Posted by stuving at 11:22, 1st September 2025 | |
The same news was in yesterday's Sunday Times, but as a very different news story. The writer (Oliver Gill) clearly regarded this as extending the benefits of London-style tap-in tap-out to the Midlands and North, but with improvements - mainly calculating your best fare for your journey. He uses phrases such as "set to steal a march on counterparts down south" and "offered the chance to participate in the trial".
So the literal answer to "who voted for this" is the 4,000 volunteers for the trial. And of course a lot of apps on everyone's phones already have access to this kind of information. And the ST article adds that "the technology" is already successfully in use in Switzerland and Denmark.
| Re: Train passengers to be tracked to stop ticket fraud Posted by PhilWakely at 18:11, 1st September 2025 | |
.... The writer (Oliver Gill) clearly regarded this as extending the benefits of London-style tap-in tap-out to the Midlands and North, but with improvements - mainly calculating your best fare for your journey. ....
Best fare for the journey? Walk up Standard Single between A and B?
