Ed Chapman, 47, is a British artist and has spent more than 280 hours creating 10 portraits using recycled train tickets.

The artwork has been commissioned by East Midlands Trains to raise awareness of the benefits of using mobile tickets and include Gary Lineker, Sir David Attenborough and Dame Vivienne Westwood.

Just over 3,000 tickets have been used to make the artwork, which is the average number of tickets East Midlands Trains

The faces were created after a vote by the public who voted for which faces to create.

What did the officials say?

Artist Ed Chapman says:

“It was quite a surreal moment seeing all of these famous faces come to life in front of me from what originally started as a pile of discarded paper tickets. The colourings on train tickets are unique and distinct, that once I started playing around with some they actually lent themselves perfectly to mosaics.

“Not only are the images of famous faces from the East Midlands, but the craft materials themselves have each travelled on a different journey across the region, each with its own story from station to station.

“Hopefully it will inspire a few people to cut down on their paper ticket use – or even create their own artworks.”

Jake Kelly, Managing Director of East Midlands Trains says:

“What Ed has done with a few thousand old and unused paper tickets is pretty remarkable. As well as bringing a smile to a few faces, we want to use these artworks to raise awareness about the benefits of using mobile tickets. As well as saving time and hassle at the station, there’s a clear environmental benefit to adopting digital tickets.

“These tickets represent just one hour’s worth of paper tickets sold across our network, with over 28,000,000 tickets printed across the whole year. By the end of 2018, we aim to have fully rolled out mobile tickets across the entire network and so significantly cut down on this number.”

Jason Webb, Deputy Managing Director of Customer Experience at the Rail Delivery Group, which brings together train companies and Network Rail to enable a better railway, said:

“Ed’s portraits are a great way to celebrate famous faces from the East Midlands and mark the roll out of new mobile tickets that are convenient and will help customers save time.

“Working together, as part of our plan to change and improve, train companies are rolling out technology that means customers can use their mobile phones as tickets on seven out of 10 journeys by the end of this year.”

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