Paper ticket problems

[Lunaticonthegrass]

On the Z1 I did recently (and also on my only FNC to date) my paper ticket stopped working after I had been through the barriers a few times. Any ideas as to why it might do this, and what I can do to stop it? Is it because even paper tickets know when I've been underground too long to make a journey and don't like it? Might it be ink rubbing off in my clothes pockets? Am I a freak of nature which disables paper tickets or am I just very unlucky? Or both?

Also, why do things only go wrong when you least want them to?

[roblo97]

On the Z1 I did recently (and also on my only FNC to date) my paper ticket stopped working after I had been through the barriers a few times. Any ideas as to why it might do this, and what I can do to stop it? Is it because even paper tickets know when I've been underground too long to make a journey and don't like it? Might it be ink rubbing off in my clothes pockets? Am I a freak of nature which disables paper tickets or am I just very unlucky? Or both?

Also, why do things only go wrong when you least want them to?

Was the ticket next to your phone at all? If so, I think it might have de-magnetised the ticket.

[RJSRdg]

Yes, that's happened to me several times - in fact I think there may have been one R15 season where it happened to me every time!

It may not necessarily be the phone itself that demagnetises it, but many phone cases these days have a magnetic catch.


When I first started Challenging, I used to keep my Travelcard in my wallet. Unfortunately, that backfired after I lost my wallet on one Challenge, which left me with no ticket to get home and no money or card to buy another! After that, I started keeping the Travelcard in my phone pouch (which at the time had a velcro catch) and didn't have any issues. Unfortunately, on another Challenge, I lost my phone....

When I went to buy a replacement pouch for the new phone, I found velcro pouches were no longer being made and only magnetic ones were available. It was when I started keeping my ticket in a magnetic pouch that the problems started!

[Lunaticonthegrass]

Yes, my ticket was in the same pocket as my phone. I don't have a though phone case, so that's not the problem.

Next time I'm in London I'll keep my ticket and phone separate and see what happens.

[Going Underground]

Lost count has happened to me on almost every challenge I ever done so well into 3 figures

[greatkingrat]

Lost count has happened to me on almost every challenge I ever done so well into 3 figures

You obviously have a magnetic personality!