Mobile Ticketing Is Here

Following a £3 million investment passengers are now able to buy mobile tickets for travel on the East Suffolk Lines, and most tickets on the wider Abellio Greater Anglia network, using a smartphone.

Passengers can buy mobile tickets using either the Abellio Greater Anglia app or Trainline app; up to eight mobile tickets can be purchased at a time, as late as 3 minutes prior to departure. The system works with Android based phones, iPhones, Windows based phones, and Blackberry devices.

No Paper Ticket Needed

Up to now it was possible to buy a ticket on a smartphone but a paper ticket still had to be collected at a ticket machine or sent in the post. Now most tickets purchased on a smartphone are available without the need to use a paper ticket.

All advanced and walk-on tickets can be purchased using the app. The only exception is Peak time tickets to Liverpool Street; they can also be purchased using the smartphone app but a paper ticket must be collected from a station ticket machine.

Technology Upgrade

The £3 million upgrade that makes it all possible is the installation of barcode readers at stations that have ticket barriers; this allows passengers to quickly move though using their smartphone mobile ticket. A ticket validation database and inspection app has also been deployed to allow for capturing and validating the barcodes.

Better for the Environment

Abellio Greater Anglia is hoping the availability of mobile tickets across the East Anglia rail network will help to reduce the use of paper tickets. During a test phase prior to roll out across the entire Abellio Greater Anglia network 1 in 3 tickets purchased on the Trainline App was a mobile ticket. The uptake of mobile tickets is also expected to reduce queues at ticket machines and ticket barriers.