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英国铁路系统将使用新版火车票

Train tickets are set to be redesigned for the first time in more than 30 years in a bid to make travel “simpler, easier and clearer”.

The facelift will see tickets include key data such as station names, ticket descriptions, permitted routes, time restrictions and validity information - presented in clearer, larger print without jargon.

The move will be welcomed by customers - who for years have complained about being caught out with fines after misunderstanding the often-vague information printed on tickets.

One major change is that travelers buying an advance fare will be issued with just one ticket rather the traditional main pass and separate reservation coupon. The shift comes after concerns that too many customers are losing one part of the two-ticket reservation and landing themselves with penalty fares.

The planned redesign marks the first large-scale change to the ticketing system since the early 1980s - when the current orange credit-card sized tickets were introduced.

The Rail Delivery Group, an industry body that works with train companies and Network Rail, said the idea is to make fares “simpler, easier and clearer”.

A spokesman told The Times: “As part of the industry’s efforts to help people more feel confident that they have the right ticket for their journey, we’ve worked with passengers to help the changes to the paper tickets follow the publication of a Department of Transport (DfT) report in October 2013 that called for a rethink in design, so tickets were less confusing. The report noted that although “passengers were comfortable with the familiar format” of the 30-year-old design, it had significant disadvantages. In particular, there was a desire for Advance tickets (cheap tickets valid only on a specific train) to show their restrictions and accompanying reservation details more clearly on the same ticket rather than on a separate reservation coupon.

Passengers Focus say large numbers of “honest” travelers are being handed penalty fares and threatened with prosecution, often after boarding trains with incorrect tickets purchased from over-complicated machines.