Chris999999
Member
- Joined
- 22 Jun 2010
- Messages
- 238
Where are the railways going with smartcards? Progress seems to be very slow and ticket buying doesn't seem to have changed much in 20 years.
I live in South West Trains land (though I don't use their website anymore since it no longer remembers me), but I regularly travel on Southern, Cross Country, Great Western, Virgin West and East Coast, and Scotrail. I know SWT and Southern have some limited smartcard availability (which I don't have), but am I going to have to get a card from each of the train companies, and how will this work if I make a journey using several of them?
What would be ideal is to get a card I can use anywhere on the railways. Then buy a ticket (or several) on line and just use them without all the hassle of queuing to collect paper tickets at inadequately staffed stations.
I realise there are differences here from Oyster which I often use, but I have to say it works well.
I'm sure this is not beyond the capability of current technology, but am I asking for something beyond the capability of the rail industry?
I live in South West Trains land (though I don't use their website anymore since it no longer remembers me), but I regularly travel on Southern, Cross Country, Great Western, Virgin West and East Coast, and Scotrail. I know SWT and Southern have some limited smartcard availability (which I don't have), but am I going to have to get a card from each of the train companies, and how will this work if I make a journey using several of them?
What would be ideal is to get a card I can use anywhere on the railways. Then buy a ticket (or several) on line and just use them without all the hassle of queuing to collect paper tickets at inadequately staffed stations.
I realise there are differences here from Oyster which I often use, but I have to say it works well.
I'm sure this is not beyond the capability of current technology, but am I asking for something beyond the capability of the rail industry?