Paper tickets still in use?

[Train2104]

Now that eTicketing's been in use systemwide for a couple years and has expanded to multi-rides too, where are paper tickets still being used / valid? I'm only aware of one case, and that's through travel on the Maple Leaf to Canada.

 

[the_traveler]

If a portion of the trip involves a Thruway route that does not (or can not) use a scanner,the entire trip is issued as a paper ticket.

 

[BCL]

USA Rail Pass or California Rail Pass. Either requires that live tickets be picked up in person at a staffed station.

10-rides and monthlies used to be ones that couldn't be replaced if lost, but now they're in an eTicket format and supposedly they'll check ID to verify.

 

[oregon pioneer]

I believe that if I'm traveling to or from the CS to Bend, Oregon, all bus routes (EUG, ALB and CMO) still require paper tickets. It was that way last time I traveled (a year ago). The entire reservation that included those sections had to be paper tickets, though other reservations on the same big trip were all e-tickets.

Those buses are not run by Amtrak, it's a little company with little buses. And they may not carry enough passengers for Amtrak to provide scanners.

 

[Crescent ATN & TCL]

I haven't bought a ticket in person at a station in a while, what do those passengers get?

 

[AC4400]

I believe that if I'm traveling to or from the CS to Bend, Oregon, all bus routes (EUG, ALB and CMO) still require paper tickets. It was that way last time I traveled (a year ago). The entire reservation that included those sections had to be paper tickets, though other reservations on the same big trip were all e-tickets.

Those buses are not run by Amtrak, it's a little company with little buses. And they may not carry enough passengers for Amtrak to provide scanners.

CMO to BND bus (6214) is operated by Redmond Airport Shuttle, and they don't have scanner.

 

[BCL]

I haven't bought a ticket in person at a station in a while, what do those passengers get?

You get something printed on Amtrak ticket stock that's similar to an airline ticket. It says "ETICKET TRAVEL DOCUMENT" and one could theoretically be reprinted as many times as you wanted. It's not a live instrument that can't be replaced if lost, and theoretically an ID check is supposed to ensure that it's the same passenger(s) named on the ticket. The versions printed at a ticket window are slightly different than the ones printed by Quik-Trak machines. The ticket window ones have a beefier font and use a 1D bar code. They're also separated with a bladed cutter. The Quik-Trak ones have a thinner font and use a PDF417 matrix code. The machines seem to separate them right on the perforations (not sure how). Other than that, all the information is the same (I've had both printed for the same itinerary).

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I have a paper ticket from when a friend purchased a ticket for me using a paper voucher that was about to expire.

 

[oregon pioneer]

I believe that if I'm traveling to or from the CS to Bend, Oregon, all bus routes (EUG, ALB and CMO) still require paper tickets. It was that way last time I traveled (a year ago). The entire reservation that included those sections had to be paper tickets, though other reservations on the same big trip were all e-tickets.

Those buses are not run by Amtrak, it's a little company with little buses. And they may not carry enough passengers for Amtrak to provide scanners.

CMO to BND bus (6214) is operated by Redmond Airport Shuttle, and they don't have scanner.

Actually, if you want to be precise, it's operated by TAC Transportation, as are the Coos Bay-Eugene-Bend service and the Bend-Burns-Ontario service. Great little bus company for a wide-spread rural area!

 

[fairviewroad]

I believe that if I'm traveling to or from the CS to Bend, Oregon, all bus routes (EUG, ALB and CMO) still require paper tickets. It was that way last time I traveled (a year ago). The entire reservation that included those sections had to be paper tickets, though other reservations on the same big trip were all e-tickets.

Those buses are not run by Amtrak, it's a little company with little buses. And they may not carry enough passengers for Amtrak to provide scanners.

CMO to BND bus (6214) is operated by Redmond Airport Shuttle, and they don't have scanner.

Seems like it shouldn't be too big of a leap for a small company to make sure each driver is outfitted.

And really, all they'd need is a single Iphone scanner for the CMO-Bend service since there is never

more than one bus in service at a time on that route. It seems like Amtrak could lean harder on these

smaller operators to make sure they enter the 21st century.

 

[VentureForth]

Seems like nowadays you don't really need a ticket, eticket, printout, or anything. I've been on the Piedmont where I just told him my name and he checked my ID and checkmarked his iPhone.

 

[fairviewroad]

Seems like nowadays you don't really need a ticket, eticket, printout, or anything. I've been on the Piedmont where I just told him my name and he checked my ID and checkmarked his iPhone.

That's a good point. While it's much faster to use the scanner, it would seem as though the key thing is that the conductor (or bus driver) has an iPhone with

the app installed. If you're only boarding a handful of people at a time (such as for the CMO-Bend shuttle) it shouldn't be too cumbersome to look up

passengers by name.

 

[OBS]

Tickets issued by travel agents still are the standard paper tickets...

 

[iggy]

I see paper tickets being used everywhere on Amtrak.

Anyone here prefer paper tickets?

 

[BCL]

I see paper tickets being used everywhere on Amtrak.

Anyone here prefer paper tickets?

I believe the reference here is to "live" tickets that can't be replaced if lost or misplaced. As opposed to eTickets, which to my knowledge Amtrak makes available in 2 forms on mobile phones (Amtrak app and iOS Passbook), one as a PDF (sent to email), and two ways on Amtrak's boarding-pass style ticket stock (printed at a ticket office or Quik-Trak).

 

[Train2104]

Yes I was referring to live paper tickets that can't be replaced. I knew many thruway bus services still used them, but I didn't realize that the entire reservation was ticketed as such in that case...

 

[BCL]

Yes I was referring to live paper tickets that can't be replaced. I knew many thruway bus services still used them, but I didn't realize that the entire reservation was ticketed as such in that case...

As was stated before, multi-rides used to be non-replaceable. I remember when I used to worry about losing my ticket and all the rides that came with it. I kind of miss the punches, where the ticket was printed from 1 to 10 for conductors to punch. I had one odd one, where the conductor decided to use his punch on 10 even though there were lower numbers left unpunched. Another conductor stared at it, asked how that happened, and said "That's just weird." I also got to see how fragile the perforations were. I took to taping it to keep from falling off. And then I had the near disaster where a Quik-Trak printer failed and I ended up yanking the ticket out with one third of the ticket (including where the bar code would have been) faded or not printed at all. Conductors ended up looking up the res# each time because there was nothing to scan.

The move to eTicketing seems to have taken away a lot of these worries.

 

[chakk]

Greyhound bus connections in Colorado to the CZ don't use scanners, either, so paper (card stocj) tickets are issued for both the CZ and the Dog.

 

[HAL]

Seems like nowadays you don't really need a ticket, eticket, printout, or anything. I've been on the Piedmont where I just told him my name and he checked my ID and checkmarked his iPhone.

That's a good point. While it's much faster to use the scanner, it would seem as though the key thing is that the conductor (or bus driver) has an iPhone with

the app installed. If you're only boarding a handful of people at a time (such as for the CMO-Bend shuttle) it shouldn't be too cumbersome to look up

passengers by name.

Amtrak would rather the tickets be scanned because when you look up tickets by name that presents an opportunity for error. Lifting of the the wrong ticket. Scanning brings up only the ticket scanned. But as noted tickets can be lifted by name or reservation number if the bar code is not available or readable. Or in some situations where only a few passsengers board they will look up tickets by station and lift that way without scanning. With E Ticketing a paper document is not absolutely required. That is why it is better than paper tickets. I would want to have an E ticket Document printed or on my smartphone in case of any problems like the E ticket system going down which happens on very rare occasions, but in general if you lose the document or the phone does not power up with E Ticketing the ticket will still be on the E ticketing device and can still be lifted.

 

[WICT106]

A Thruway Bus being my current connection with Amtrak, I have no other choice but to use paper tickets.