Train companies have announced they want to get rid of ticket machines at stations, and of course staff selling tickets. The idea is that you use your smart phone with a barcode or similar to swipe in. So, if your phone gets lost, stolen or simply breaks down you'll be going nowhere. You could say that about a lost ticket, but it's easier to replace a ticket at a moment's notice than a phone.
Then there's the plight of older people who don't have smart phones; I know older people who not only don't want the complexity of a smartphone, but who also have simple phones with large buttons they can actually see instead of a big screen, which of course leads us on to blind people and others who need assistance at stations with no staff. Not to mention the job losses, safety and security for all travellers and on and on.
Anyone who eschews tech and the internet gets to pay loads more for things as it is, especially utilities, and already buying train tickets is a minefield, they tell you you've saved x and then you see the same ticket cheaper elsewhere. Actually I think it's a national disgrace and although I don't like governments telling businesses how to operate as a general principle, fairness needs to be legislated for. Still you can't knock progress eh!
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