Greater Anglia forced to drop paper tickets ban

A rail company breached rules and "misled" passengers over plans to discontinue paper season tickets, according to the advertising regulator.

Greater Anglia (GA) was found by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to have broken rules after it said paper weekly tickets were being scrapped for smart cards from 1 May.

The information was incorrect as government rules say paper tickets must still be offered to travellers.

GA said it would amend its website.

The advertising authority intervened after a complaint from a member of the Anglia Rail Users Group.

"The complainant objected to the fact that the claim 'It's the end of weekly paper tickets!' was contradicted by statements made elsewhere about the issuing of paper tickets on specific routes and under certain circumstances, and that the claim was therefore misleading," said an ASA spokeswoman.

In response, Greater Anglia said its smart card was proving popular with many commuters but added: "We apologise for any confusion caused.

"We will take the advice of the Advertising Standards Authority and amend our website accordingly."

Passenger Adrian Hare said he travelled regularly from Cheshunt to Cambridge with his guide dog.

A blind person, he uses the wide aisle or manual gates which "sometimes won't let me through because the gate readers don't recognise my smart card".

As a consequence, he said he had been issued with a penalty fare on "at least a dozen occasions" with staff failing to accept his smart card payment receipts as proof. But he said he managed to "get around" paying the penalty fares because station staff had failed to provide braille versions of the penalty notices.

"Put simply, the smartcard does not work most of the time," he said. "With the old paper ticket, I never had any problems with getting through the barriers at Liverpool Street especially."

The passenger group said not offering paper tickets "disadvantages those who do not have access to the internet and/or feel uncomfortable using this".

"There are also issues surrounding the stability of smart cards in general," it added.

The Department for Transport, which is backing the implementation of smart cards for train travel, said paper tickets must still be offered.