A train ticket is a

transit pass A transit pass (North American English) or travel card (British English), often referred to as a bus pass or train pass etc. (in all English dialects), is a Public transport#Ticket systems, ticket that allows a passenger of the service to take ei ...

ticket Ticket or tickets may refer to: Slips of paper * Lottery ticket * Parking ticket, a ticket confirming that the parking fee was paid (and the time of the parking start) * Toll ticket, a slip of paper used to indicate where vehicles entered a to ...

issued by a railway operator that enables the bearer to travel on the operator's network or a partner's network. Tickets can authorize the bearer to travel a set itinerary at a specific time (common for long-distance railroads), a set itinerary at any time (common for

commuter railroad Commuter rail services in the United States, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica provide common carrier passenger transportation along railway tracks, with scheduled service on fixed routes on a non-reservation basis, primarily for sh ...

s), a set itinerary at multiple times, or an arbitrary itinerary at specific times. The last two categories are often called ''passes'': the former is often sold as a discounted block of trips for commuters; the latter is often sold to vacationers, such as European

Eurail The Eurail Pass, introduced in 1959 and formerly known as Europass or Eurorail Pass, is a rail pass which permits travel through 33 European countries on nearly all railroads and several shipping lines. The Eurail Group, based in Utrecht, is re ...

passes. In some countries, like Italy, and some local railways in Germany, conductors are not used. Instead passengers are expected to validate tickets in a special stamping machine before entering the train. A system of coupons that are validated with a special machine exists on the Mumbai Suburban Railway where combinations of coupons of denominations are used to get the corresponding ticket value. There may or may not be a conductor later on double-checking that correct tickets are actually held. Yet further systems are possible, for example in Japan, the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

and in local traffic in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, the platforms are blocked by

turnstile A turnstile (also called a gateline, baffle gate, automated gate, turn gate in some regions) is a form of gate which allows one person to pass at a time. A turnstile can be configured to enforce One-way traffic#One-way traffic of people, one-way ...

s, forcing the acquisition of a ticket before entering the platform. Some train tickets are available with an option to add bus travel at either end of the train ticketed journey, as part of a wider transport network. For instance, the Plusbus scheme in the United Kingdom offers bus travel on an integrated ticket for an additional fee. In Germany, most long-distance train tickets include a "city ticket" valid on the public transit system of origin and destination. This is automatically included at no extra charge in all tickets purchased by

BahnCard BahnCard (German ''Bahn'' – Rail) is a discount Subscription business model, subscription programme offered by Deutsche Bahn (DB), the Germany, German national railway company. Unlike airline loyalty programs, but similarly to the UK Concessionar ...

holders and is indicated on the ticket.

History

Early tickets were similar to a form of currency issued by individual railroads, sold by agents and collected by conductors who were audited by the railroad to be sure ticket inventories matched reported passenger earnings. As continuous travel over several connected railways became common, Coupon tickets with serrated portions for each railway company might be issued at the origin of travel and sequentially collected by conductors of the railways providing travel to avoid the necessity for purchasing additional tickets at each transfer point.

Seat checks

In the US, a conductor may also provide the passenger with a ''seat check'' — another voucher indicating how far the passenger may travel on the system — or attach it over the seat also punched by the conductor showing the passenger's destination, along with conductors organizing train seating by destination during boarding. Some systems (

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

, for instance) have two-part tickets that permit the passenger to retain a cancelled

ticket stub A ticket is a voucher that indicates that an individual is entitled to admission to an event or establishment such as a theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to ...

; others (the

New Jersey Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit or NJTransit and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. It ...

and

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...

commuter rail systems, for instance) do not. Seat checks are changed frequently to ensure that passengers cannot retain and reuse them from journey to journey. (Conductors typically collect checks before stops to prevent this.)

Through-ticket

A through-ticket is a single contract for a multi leg journey that guarantees certain passenger rights and protections in case of disruptions on one leg of the journey, e.g a missed train. In European rail, through-tickets are regulated by Rail Passenger Rights Regulation 2021. Until 2019,

Eurostar Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service in Western Europe, connecting Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The service is operated by the Eurostar Group which was formed from the merger of Eurostar, ...

had an agreement with

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

that allowed passengers to travel on a through-ticket by train from the UK via Brussels to Germany. Under the agreement, passengers could travel on a single through-ticket with passenger rights in case of disruption of one train.

Electronic ticketing

Increasingly,

electronic ticket An electronic ticket is a method of ticket entry, processing, and marketing for companies in the airline, railways and other transport and entertainment industries. Airline ticket E-tickets in the airline industry were devised in about 1994, an ...

s are being used as replacements for paper tickets. Amtrak, as of June 30, 2012 offers electronic tickets on all train routes which have QR codes to identify the ticket's validity and can be printed out or shown to a conductor on a

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

Apple Watch The Apple Watch is a brand of smartwatch products developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple. It incorporates activity tracker, fitness tracking, Health (Apple), health-oriented capabilities, and wireless telecommunication, and integrates wit ...

screen. Similar systems are used by

Chiltern Railways Chiltern Railways (legal name The Chiltern Railway Company Limited) is a British train operating company that has operated the Chiltern Railways franchise since July 1996. Since 2009, it has been a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains. Chiltern Rail ...

and

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

Smart ticketing
Great Western Railway in the UK. In

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, an

SMS Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...

sent by the

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

, along with a valid

proof of identity An identity document (abbreviated as ID) is a documentation, document proving a person's Identity (social science), identity. If the identity document is a plastic card it is called an ''identity card'' (abbreviated as ''IC'' or ''ID card''). ...

is considered equivalent to a ticket.

Gallery

File:OnlineTicket DeutscheBahn 200dpi.png, An online purchased train ticket issued by

in Germany. File:SRT online ticket.jpg, An online purchased train ticket issued by

State Railway of Thailand The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) (, abbrev. รฟท., ) is the state-owned rail operator under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transport (Thailand), Ministry of Transport in Thailand. History The SRT was founded as the Royal State Rail ...

. File:Bedford Stations SMART.PNG, A return ticket issued in

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. File:Seat Check on Amtrak Acela Train.jpg, Seat check on an

Acela The ''Acela'' ( ; originally the ''Acela Express'' until September 2019) is Amtrak's flagship passenger train service along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) in the Northeastern United States between Washington, D.C. and Boston via 13 intermedia ...

Express train. File:Long_Island_Rail_Road_(LIRR)_seat_check.jpg, Seat check on back of seat of the

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , or LIRR, is a Rail transport, railroad in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County on Long Islan ...

. File:Seat_Checks_on_NJ_Transit_Train.jpg, Seat check on headrest of an

NJ Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit or NJTransit and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. I ...

Bombardier MultiLevel Coach The MultiLevel Coach is a bi-level passenger rail car for use on commuter rail lines. Originally built by Bombardier Transportation beginning in 2006, they are now built by Alstom since 2021, who markets the coaches as part of their Adessia ...

, note the special clip on the headrest for the seat check. File:Pennsylvania Railroad passenger seat check.jpg,

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

passenger seat check, c. 1960

History

Seat checks

Through-ticket

Electronic ticketing

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading