{"id":17263,"date":"2017-05-16T14:15:27","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T14:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/?p=17263"},"modified":"2017-11-03T10:34:45","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T10:34:45","slug":"digital-ticketing-will-help-prevent-train-fines-says-welsh-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/digital-ticketing-will-help-prevent-train-fines-says-welsh-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital ticketing will help prevent train fines, says Welsh Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

PLEDGES have been made to improve the ticketing on Welsh trains in the wake of concerns over fines to passengers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ken Skates, AM for Clwyd South and Welsh Labour\u2019s Cabinet Secretary for Transport and Infrastructure, was answering petitions on Tuesday, May 9.<\/span><\/p>\n

He addressed a petition that accused some rail franchises for being too quick to fine commuters without tickets, even when ticket machines on platforms have broken.<\/span><\/p>\n

In February, leader of the Welsh Conservatives Andrew RT Davies highlighted the case of a Barry woman ordered to pay a \u00a3610 fine after broken ticket machines left her unable to pay a \u00a32.30 fare.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arriva Trains Wales recently announced a record high of \u00a328.2m in pre-tax profits.<\/p>\n

\u201cBroken ticket machines are a consequence of the lack of investment we\u2019ve previously had in Wales, the lack of funds we\u2019ve had available,\u201d said Mr Skates. \u201cArriva have also been overly harsh in dishing out tickets.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we want to do now to help cut down on this is integrate more technology so that commuters don’t have to rely on the machines, with the use of smartphones. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA good example of this would be using digital ticketing on apps, where you can purchase your daily or weekly ticket straight from your phone.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect to have a transition towards digital ticketing. One of the things we\u2019ve asked the bidders for the franchise to do is to look at the system, and for them to make sure that it\u2019s not just easier to buy a ticket, but that there\u2019s a greater integration; that you don\u2019t have to buy separate tickets for a single journey, whether by bus or for train. This will all be rolled up as part of the Metro.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Although Gareth Bennett AM, who was reading the petitions accepted this response, he still had questions. \u201cWhat about others? Not everyone is comfortable using or even has a smartphone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe do accept and acknowledge that,\u201d said Skates. \u201cThis is only an additional measure – we would still invest in proper maintenance and upkeep to ensure there’s always a \u00a0working ticket machine on every platform.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the people who are getting caught up in this fare dodger net do want to pay for their tickets. Between the additional technology and an increase in maintenance staff and conductors, we think we can avoid fining people who are innocent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Many commuters approved of the planned changes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mai Jones, 64, from Rogerstone, said: \u201cI\u2019m not so good with technology but I think it will be a nice idea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe ticket machine at the [Rogerstone] station is always broken, and it’d be nice to have a way to get them without relying on the conductor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PLEDGES have been made to improve the ticketing on Welsh trains in the wake of concerns over fines to passengers. Ken Skates, AM for Clwyd South and Welsh Labour\u2019s Cabinet Secretary for Transport and Infrastructure, was answering petitions on Tuesday, May 9. He addressed a petition that accused some rail franchises for being too quick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[743,744],"tags":[702,1391,1389,115,560,1390,1387,1392,1394,1388,1386,199,1393,1385,1384,263],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17263"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17263"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17348,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17263\/revisions\/17348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}