Magnetic stripe on ticket bought on train

[whole diary]

[BerkshireBugsy]

Yesterday afternoon a very helpful TM^‡(resolve) offered to renew my weekly season ticket for me to save me time this morning. The thing I have noticed is that when the ticket is used in the barriers (both at Reading and Reigate) they reject it as if the mag stripe is corrupt (or not encoded at all)

Is this a common problem with tickets issued using the "roaming" ticket machines?

Thanks

[readytostart]

Shouldn't be a problem, is the season printed square on the ticket?, sometimes if they come out a bit wonky they may fail to encode.

[BerkshireBugsy]

Shouldn't be a problem, is the season printed square on the ticket?, sometimes if they come out a bit wonky they may fail to encode.

Now you mention it it is not sqaure - from one side to the other I would guess it slants by about 2 degrees

[FarWestJohn]

I regularly get this problem with tickets purchased on the Falmouth branch failing to open the barriers at Truro or Plymouth.

The gate line staff are always very understanding and it seems to be a regular problem. Must be a pain with a season ticket though.

[BerkshireBugsy]

I regularly get this problem with tickets purchased on the Falmouth branch failing to open the barriers at Truro or Plymouth.

The gate line staff are always very understanding and it seems to be a regular problem. Must be a pain with a season ticket though.

It's not really problem to me but I am concious of the impact of me holding up the stampede at Reigate in the morning!

[inspector_blakey]

I've heard anecdotally that the magnetic encoding is weaker from a portable Avantix^▸ (Ticket Issuing System used on board trains) machine than from a booking office machine, don't know how true that is.

If you know that it's not going to work in the gates then i don't see a problem with going straight to a manned barrier and showing your ticket there. Alternatively you could try asking a station ticket office for a replacement on the grounds that it's not working properly, but that may end up bieng more hassle than it's work for a weekly season.

[Worcester_Passenger]

I've always been told that a portable ticket machine, of any kind, will never have enough oomph to put a magnetic stripe on a ticket.

I'm surprised that they've never gone in for barcodes on these instead.

[BerkshireBugsy]

I think know I am fairly certain its some skew on the stripe ill live with it for the rest of its life.

[thetrout]

I'm pretty sure you can go and get a replacement Season Ticket at the booking office, free of charge. You just need to say it doesn't work in the barriers and they "should" give you a replacement.

I'm not 100% on that though, so *Paging Ollie* as he's bound to know

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

You can aslong as its the same train operating company.... If its a weekly I really wouldn't bother

[ellendune]

I once had this problem on a weekly and the gate line staff at Swindon requested me to get it changed.  He was quite insistent.  In my experience they always make you try it before they will let you through.

[EBrown]

I'm led to believe that gate line staff like you to put the ticket in the machines to check it hasn't already been used. Particularly the case for Open returns.

[vacman]

I once had this problem on a weekly and the gate line staff at Swindon requested me to get it changed.  He was quite insistent.  In my experience they always make you try it before they will let you through.

the reason any good gateline assistant will ask you to try is so that they can find any counterfeit seasons, there are a hell of a lot of them about!

[Ollie]

You can get it replaced by any National Rail ticket office on the route the season ticket covers, it doesn't need to be the same company that issued the ticket. (However if it is not clear what the ticket is actually for you will need to go to same company as they will be the ones with a record)

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks, Ollie.