Published on: Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Last updated: Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Greater Anglia rail passengers will, for the first time, be able to purchase and print their own train tickets at home or download them to mobile phones.
The innovative pilot project, which will initially be limited to areas where advance tickets can already be purchased, will be available on all routes where advance tickets are available by January 2013 as part of its franchise commitments.
The pilot is currently in operation on the Norwich to London mainline, and connecting stations from Harwich, connecting stations from Sheringham/Cromer, and connecting stations from Great Yarmouth to London.
Using the website at www.greateranglia.co.uk, passengers will be able to book and pay for their tickets and then, if they prefer, print them at home or, using Greater Anglia’s mobile app, download the tickets to their mobile phone rather than receiving them by post or collecting them from ticket machines or booking offices.
From the Autumn, the project will be rolled out to the remainder of connecting stations into the mainline, and any other routes where Advance tickets are currently available, such as Lowestoft and Felixstowe to London, and some intermediate journeys on the mainline i.e. Colchester to Norwich.
Print Your Own and ‘M’ tickets (that can be downloaded onto a mobile phone via the Greater Anglia app) will then be available for Clacton via Colchester to London and Ely via Cambridge to London from January 2013.
The Print Your Own innovation means less queuing for passengers and, at those rural stations that don’t have a ticket machine, advance tickets will be able to be purchased nearer to the time of travel as there is no need to allow time for them to arrive in the post.
Andrew Goodrum Greater Anglia’s Customer Service Director said: “As a forward thinking operator, Greater Anglia is pleased to introduce this exciting trial of the next generation ticket selling technology which will make the ticket purchasing process simpler, easier and faster for our customers.”