Logic flow failure: how to confuse customers

In 2024 you would expect that booking a season ticket for a train journey would be a very simple process.

Not exactly Well… not on the Northern Rail system anyhow.

The process for booking a season ticket for a train journey between station A and station B should be a fairly easy one for any organisation (or even lone programmer to solve), and yet it is a simple process that you will find very frustrating when trying to book on the Northern Rail system.

Firstly, you are confronted with a bit of a rat’s maze trying to find the season pass or rail card that applies to your need.

Secondly, once you’ve booked the season ticket, you might find that you are unable to use it and you have to phone up Northern Rail, get a refund and have a new ticket issued, which will only arrive in the post in 3 days. Meanwhile you have to travel today.

Lets take my situation as an example. I commute to work, from station A to station B every day.
After quite a bit of reading up on the internet, I settled on the idea that I’d need a Season ticket.
Went onto the Northern Rail website, found the page to book a season ticket and added it to cart, selecting 1 month as the term.
On checkout it was not clear whether the Season ticket allowed for unlimited travel from station A to station B, and back.

Went about searching for an answer but didn’t find any FAQ or other help on the site to confirm that it indeed means both ways. Usually, when booking tickets you have to specify whether you want a Return, yet with the Season tickets it’s just assumed that the customer knows.

At checkout there is a section that asks for you to select your existing Smartcard (which at this point I didn’t have) or add a new Smartcard.
You see, even though Northern Rail has a mobile phone app and your Season ticket shows on the mobile app, you still need a physical Smartcard to prove to the conductor that you have a valid ticket.

Why can’t the Season ticket be validated by the conductor on Northern Rail’s own mobile phone app?

So, I went to the station, to the ticket desk and the lady gave me a Smartcard.
I then wanted to transfer the ticket onto my Smartcard using the mobile phone app…which can’t be done!!
Why? Because the ticket is associated with a Smartcard that I don’t have in my posession yet, one that will only arrive in the post 3 days later!

Jesus wept! Come on Northern Rail! Get your act together!

Update your (evidently pointless) mobile phone app to display the Season ticket, or give it the ability to send the season ticket to a Google Wallet like you do with standard day tickets.