Smartcards across the GWR network.

[whole diary]

[plymothian]

Just over 22,000 new season tickets ticket flows have been made available for use on smartcards; passengers can now travel between nearly every GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) station using a touch smartcard loaded with a season ticket.

[Phantom]

I got one of these cards pretty much as soon as they were available, more in the hope that unlike the paper tickets these may last a bit longer
Considering I literally keep it in my wallet apart from ticket checks / going through a barrier.
The printed cover with my name etc on is already starting to peel off

Getting a replacement could be interesting

[plymothian]

I got one of these cards pretty much as soon as they were available, more in the hope that unlike the paper tickets these may last a bit longer
Considering I literally keep it in my wallet apart from ticket checks / going through a barrier.
The printed cover with my name etc on is already starting to peel off

Getting a replacement could be interesting

Your name and photo is printed onto the card, the bit peeling off is only a laminate overlay, as long as the ink doesn't come off too your card will be fine.

[Surrey 455]

I got one of these cards pretty much as soon as they were available, more in the hope that unlike the paper tickets these may last a bit longer
Considering I literally keep it in my wallet apart from ticket checks / going through a barrier.
The printed cover with my name etc on is already starting to peel off

Getting a replacement could be interesting

Your name and photo is printed onto the card, the bit peeling off is only a laminate overlay, as long as the ink doesn't come off too your card will be fine.

Is your photo on the card? My SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) touch card just has my name and serial number. The photo card is separate.

[plymothian]

I got one of these cards pretty much as soon as they were available, more in the hope that unlike the paper tickets these may last a bit longer
Considering I literally keep it in my wallet apart from ticket checks / going through a barrier.
The printed cover with my name etc on is already starting to peel off

Getting a replacement could be interesting

Your name and photo is printed onto the card, the bit peeling off is only a laminate overlay, as long as the ink doesn't come off too your card will be fine.

Is your photo on the card? My SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) touch card just has my name and serial number. The photo card is separate.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) touch smartcards incorporate a photo.

[PhilWakely]

I got one of these cards pretty much as soon as they were available, more in the hope that unlike the paper tickets these may last a bit longer
Considering I literally keep it in my wallet apart from ticket checks / going through a barrier.
The printed cover with my name etc on is already starting to peel off

Getting a replacement could be interesting

Your name and photo is printed onto the card, the bit peeling off is only a laminate overlay, as long as the ink doesn't come off too your card will be fine.

Is your photo on the card? My SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) touch card just has my name and serial number. The photo card is separate.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) touch smartcards incorporate a photo.

But you still require a separate photocard if you are a GWR season ticket holder.

[plymothian]

Officially, no.  You can happily travel around without showing a pink photocard.

A trial is ongoing for Reading - Paddington commuters to only issue their smartcard without a photocard and a move away from issuing them generally.

However, as not all TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) are singing from the same page at the moment, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) strongly recommends you retain either your existing pink photocard, or have at least a photocard number because:

1. Booking seasons online currently requires the photocard number.
2. Other TOCs require you to have a separate photocard if travelling on their services or using their ticket issuing facilities.
3. Your GoldSTAR history up to now is stored under your photocard number, your smartcard needs to be back-linked to your existing photocard else you lose any charter discounts on renewals.
4. If you ever want or need to return to CCSTs, you need a photocard.
5. The current version of STARmobile is not compatible with smart and will only work with a photocard.

[Mark A]

Something's launched?

"New smartcards for Bristol area"

Mark

https://www.railmagazine.com/news/network/2022/09/22/new-smartcards-for-bristol-area

[Bmblbzzz]

Something is launched but that little article hardly tells us what it is let alone how it works.

[stuving]

Something is launched but that little article hardly tells us what it is let alone how it works.

I'll be one of these. It wasn't exactly clear what that was about either.

[CyclingSid]

A broader question.

We are having a foreign visitor. They are arriving at Luton Airport and travelling to Cambridge, the Smart ticket map says no problem with options of

Smartcard
m-Ticket
e-Ticket

They then wish to go from Cambridge to Falmouth, to which the Smart ticket map says "Smart ticketing is not yet available for this journey." If I dig deeper it can manage PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) to FAL. Does this mean there is no "inter-region" smart ticketing?

For somebody with English as a second language the whole business of split ticketing (presumably you can have smart split tickets) might be asking a bit much. The getting to Reading bit should be relatively easy?

[plymothian]

TfL^» (Transport for London - about) do not accept national rail smart tickets, with the exception of Travelcards on smartcards.  Therefore the Any Permitted cross London fare cannot be offered.

[Fourbee]

This issue also indirectly affects other fulfillment methods.

e.g. for stations trailing Paper Roll Ticket (PRT) if the ticket includes cross-london transfer or is a travelcard it will be issued on CCST (Credit Card Sized Ticket) stock. For mobile/e-tickets these will be forced to Ticket on Departure (i.e. collection).

This is due to the lack of barcode readers on the LU gates.

[Ralph Ayres]

...and the lack of barcode readers on LU gates is due to TfL^» (Transport for London - about) not unreasonably expecting someone to fund the expense of installing them, and providing the background infrastructure to connect to the system that tells the gate what journey(s) the ticket is for and letting it check that the same barcode hasn't been photocopied/printed/screenshot multiple times for use by several people.
Smartcard reading is rather simpler physically as the current readers can read them.  It does though need someone to prepare a whole shedload of data customised for each LU station so the gate can understand what it's read, and making sure to get it right because with a smartcard you don't have the fallback (imperfect though it often is) of simply reading what is printed on the front of the ticket and using a bit of common sense.

[Mark A]

Fast forward to 2024, and from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) we now have an extended area for the Bristol PAYG^▸ (Pay as you go) area.

https://www.gwr.com/your-tickets/smart-tickets/payg/bristol

Checking a journey, Bath Spa to Stroud, the PAYG option is quoting £30.30 for a single and then states '£8.70 cheaper than an Off-Peak day single. £13.50 cheaper than an Anytime day single.'

The fares for that journey on brfares.com don't support that though - and if the passenger needs e.g. a day return Bath Spa - Stroud, that's listed on brfares.com as £33.60 (or £25.60 off peak). Perhaps the PAYG fare checker is returning only the fares for anytime travel and having paid that £30.30 for a peak time single the system will charge the passenger £3.30 should they return same day... but it all feels a bit... hairy. And I'm puzzled by those '£8.70 cheaper than a ...' examples.

Mark