Digital Virgins

Image by Mira Hartford via Flickr

I’m here too early. At least I’ve got a space in the car park and I’ve plenty of time to persuade the Fast Ticket machine to cough up my ticket. I’ll have time to go into the office and argue if it doesn’t give.

In fact, there are a couple of clerks standing by the information desk, no sign of a queue at the ticket machines and almost an hour before my train goes.

I’ll take my chance now, then.

“ Excuse me,” I say, “could I just make a general query?”

“Of course,” says the man.

“It’s just that I’d rather have an e-ticket, but I‘m not always offered one. Even though your site always recommends that the e-ticket is the best way to get your ticket. “

“Ah well, we only have so many available a day.”

“How come? I mean most airlines use e-tickets now. In fact you don’t even need to print the ticket, you just turn up at the airport and prove you’re you.”

The man shrugs. “It’s an experiment at the moment.”

“So why do you always tell peoples to get e-tickets on your site, and then not allow them to actually take an e-ticket? Surely it’s better for everyone all round. After all, it saves your company papers and ink – and presumably time, as it must be a computer than generates these tickets … and since your company has paid to have that done …. And you see, it wastes my time.  I’ve had to get here early in case there are queues.”

He nods. He’s probably heard this argument before.

“And you can easily lose those silly little tickets,” I add. “An A4 sheet of paper is safer. I have to print one of those anyway so that I can prove I’ve bought a ticket if your machine goes wrong.”

He nods again. You can tell he’s wishing I’d go away.

“I’m not sure what Sir R would say if he knew about these details,” I say. “Will you let him know I think it’s daft?”

I don’t wait for a reply and go to the ticket machine. It takes the debit card I put in – I hope it’s the right one. It spits it out straight away.

“Insufficient data,” says the machine.

I knew it.

I turn to the information guys, but they now have a two deep queue.

“Why can’t you always get an E-ticket?” I hear the man at the front of the queue ask.

I smile, and I try my debit card again. The machine spits it out again but this time it is accompanied by my train tickets as well. Five cards in total. The journey out, the journey back, seat reservations for both journeys and a receipt. It’s hard to tell which is which and it’s very confusing.

Still, it gives me time to buy a newspaper and grab a coffee.

I do wonder, though what Sir R would say if he realised. He’s not a digital virgin, after all, is he?