Northern has revealed that this year it will use five million less orange ‘magstripe’ tickets as its customers make the move to digital ticketing alternatives.
More people are now making rail journeys using smartcards and barcode tickets which has risen by 5 million over the past year to a massive 54.8 million people which is representative of 72.6% of all the rail operator’s customers.
Magstripe tickets cannot be recycled due to being made from multiple material types and require disposal via ‘general waste’. Five million tickets create approximately five tonnes of rubbish saved from being sent to landfill.
Northern‘s digital ‘Duo’ tickets were introduced earlier this month, making all the train operator’s standard tickets available using an electronic format which will lead to the number of old-style tickets being reduced substantially.
The environmental benefits of using digital tickets are great news for all concerned and are something the rail operator welcomes.
Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said:
“We saw a huge surge in demand for digital ticketing post-pandemic as online ordering became ‘the norm’ across the retail and leisure sector.
“Customer behaviour has certainly changed – people enjoy the flexibility of buying their ticket ‘on the go’ and being able to store it on their mobile phone or tablet.
“The environmental benefit of five million fewer magstripe tickets going to general waste is a huge bonus and something we welcome.”
The orange ‘magstripe’ ticket is iconic in design and was first used by Northern back in 2014 as part of a trial across stations in the North of England ahead of them becoming the standard ticket type for the entire rail network.
Responses
I DONT AGREE WITH ZOMBIEPHONES. MANY OF US HAVENT GOT,DONT WANT,CANT AFFORD,OR CANT USE ZOMBIEPHONES..RATHER BUY TICKRT FROM STATION.[OR PRINT OUT AT HOME IF NEED BE I ONLY USE AP CRAP ON COMPUTER] AND DISABILITY.OLDER PEOPLE CANT USE THEM ANYWAY. ZOMBIEPHONES ARE MAKING PEOPLE LIKE ZOMBIES OR BORG ANYWAY.SAME APPLIES TO PARKING. PAY BANK CARD OR CASH…TEC FOR THE SAKE OF IT NOT GOOD AND WEHAT HAPPENS IF SIGNAL ISNT THERE OR BATTERY RUNS OUT AND INSPECTOR GETS ON..PREFER PPER TICKETS ANY DAY..ONLY CARRY CHEAP PAY AS YOU GO PHONE WITH NO GADGETS AND ALSO SMALL CAMERA FOR PHOTS NOT ZOMBIEPHONES
I agree is a place for paper tickets, on-station machines, and staffed stations to support inclusive travel.
However your ALL CAPS (interpreted as SHOUTING), rambling, poorly punctuated, un-spellchecked rant is not doing your cause any favours.
The rail operators have numerous documented issues for inclusive travel, and inclusive ticketing is part of a holistic approach–I think your efforts could be better directed to comment about the whole approach for inclusivity, not your personal considerations about use of smartphones by other passengers as encouraged by operators. (And smartphones are an imperfect ticketing solution, especially if trains and platforms lack recharging facilities).
Finally there are assistive tools freely available freely if you need help in creating comments to articles on the internet if you are not fully available to create a persuasive comment without help.
I agree. Electricity? Bah! I remember the days of individual tickets sold to you by the station master. None of this electro-wizardry. In those days, there was a warm coal fire greeting you in the waiting room, and the friendly sounding ‘chuff-chuff’ and “woo-woo” of the approaching train.
Oh, yes, and all cooking was done on the wood-fired range, in front of which you had your weekly bath.
No. Ditch modernity. It’s the Devil’s work!
(Seriously, though, I have a blind friend who manages his smartphone e-tickets perfectly well – better than the paper ones, so there’s a disability that benefits from the “zombiephone”. Stick to your paper tickets if you want, Mr Cunningham, but allow the rest of us to enjoy the many benefits enabled by our smart devices – although, I do agree that paying to park by phone is very poorly implemented!)