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Smart Cards

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Lewis lamb62)

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So i recently got an EMR smart card (because why not) when i noticed it said you can use it to " purchase your season, off peak or anytime tickets"

I always though smart cards could only be used for season tickets so does anyone know of any other TOCS that let you buy standard singles/returns with a smart card? thanks
 
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hwl

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So i recently got an EMR smart card (because why not) when i noticed it said you can use it to " purchase your season, off peak or anytime tickets"

I always though smart cards could only be used for season tickets so does anyone know of any other TOCS that let you buy standard singles/returns with a smart card? thanks
Oyster /Tfl Contactless
Southern /Govia's Key (the first and most used ITSO rail smart card) outside the TfL area
 

bubieyehyeh

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GTR seem to only sell season tickets online for their key. Apparently you can buy day tickets at a ticket machine.
 

smsm1

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Greater Anglia allow singles and returns on smartcards, but don't advertise it on their smart card pages.

I think they might be still ironing out some of the issues, for example I've had an error message when doing the return as the gates would just give an error message. When contacting customer services I was told to use other ticket types (mobile or paper) until the issue is resolved. I've not heard any more even so they said they be in touch when the issue was fixed.

I also had an issue with the wide gate at Ipswich being in flip flop mode where it seemed to get part of the way through the process of putting the ticket on the smartcard then flipped to the opposite direction and then erroring rather than letting me through. I've never liked that single wide flip flop gate.

I discovered single and return smartcards had been released when I was booking my normal lpswich to Cambridge North tickets.

The greater Anglia smartcard ticket info pages are very out of date at the moment.

Several of the Abellio operators allow you to use an Android phone to add the ticket to the smartcard. When I tried in July, a greater Anglia smartcard would not work with the ScotRail ticket machines give wrong your of smartcard error.

Edit: reason for checking the ScotRail machines is they also support singles and returns, even have some cheaper of peak only tickets only available on smartcard
 

radamfi

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What is the advantage of having separate pay as you go smartcards for SWR and GTR?
 

Wallsendmag

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ScotRail have their own HOPS currently and aren't part of the RDG HOPS which explains why your GA card won't work. GTR also have their own HOPS but are linked to the RDG HOPS. All other TOCs are using the RDG HOPS (back office)
 

717001

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GTR seem to only sell season tickets online for their key. Apparently you can buy day tickets at a ticket machine.
Some day tickets but believe not (yet) super off peak ones, so may pay more than needed.
 

bubieyehyeh

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Some day tickets but believe not (yet) super off peak ones, so may pay more than needed.
No, all day tickets on southern website, I loggged into my account today, it no longer offers the paper/smartcard radio button for day tickets, it is shown only for season tickets.
 

717001

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No, all day tickets on southern website, I loggged into my account today, it no longer offers the paper/smartcard radio button for day tickets, it is shown only for season tickets.
GN/TL introduced them end of last year (I think) just on the ticket machines.
 

smsm1

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No, all day tickets on southern website, I loggged into my account today, it no longer offers the paper/smartcard radio button for day tickets, it is shown only for season tickets.
For Greater Anglia I have to choose trains more than around 1-4 hours into the future before the smartcard option shows on the website. So if immediate departure then no smartcard option online. The future delay before the ticket is available at the barriers varies, haven't found pattern.
 

exesoundtech

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15 Sep 2018
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So i recently got an EMR smart card (because why not) when i noticed it said you can use it to " purchase your season, off peak or anytime tickets"

I always though smart cards could only be used for season tickets so does anyone know of any other TOCS that let you buy standard singles/returns with a smart card? thanks

It’s the next stage. If you have a Smart Card from any operator with what looks like three horizontal lines on an orange background logo on it somewhere (can’t find an image right now), *and* the flow for your ticket has been enabled you can do it.

You will most likely need to use a ticket machine that has been enabled to purchase and load. I know that all the Chiltern and Northern machines should, sounds like GA and others may too. Some websites may also allow you to buy for subsequent “pickup” on a validator or TVM.
 

exesoundtech

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It’s the next stage. If you have a Smart Card from any operator with what looks like three horizontal lines on an orange background logo on it somewhere (can’t find an image right now), *and* the flow for your ticket has been enabled you can do it.

You will most likely need to use a ticket machine that has been enabled to purchase and load. I know that all the Chiltern and Northern machines should, sounds like GA and others may too. Some websites may also allow you to buy for subsequent “pickup” on a validator or TVM.

Found some now, in this article:

https://www.citymetric.com/transpor...-company-smartcard-ranked-how-smart-card-4482

Bottom right corner of the Chiltern and CrossCountry cards amongst others.
 

Wallsendmag

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It’s the next stage. If you have a Smart Card from any operator with what looks like three horizontal lines on an orange background logo on it somewhere (can’t find an image right now), *and* the flow for your ticket has been enabled you can do it.

You will most likely need to use a ticket machine that has been enabled to purchase and load. I know that all the Chiltern and Northern machines should, sounds like GA and others may too. Some websites may also allow you to buy for subsequent “pickup” on a validator or TVM.
STNR enabled LNER TVMs will add a ticket onto any TOC card from Tuesday as long as you have bought it from the card owing TOC's website.
 

KingJ

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23 Dec 2012
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I always though smart cards could only be used for season tickets so does anyone know of any other TOCS that let you buy standard singles/returns with a smart card? thanks

Southeastern's Key smartcard can also be used with daily tickets, including ones that bundle a travel card. However unlike season tickets, daily tickets can only be loaded on from a ticket machine or ticket office - you can't buy online in advance and load it at gateline. It's being worked on however.

I still opt for it over paper tickets however as it saves me from accumulating a stack of paper tickets and is far easier to pull out of my pocket and tap on the reader than pulling out a wallet, extracting the paper ticket from it and feeding through the machine! I think i'm by far in the minority though given the number of times onboard staff have read the smartcard and then looked at the screen with a quizzical expression - with a railcard discount, it seems to show up on their screen with an orange highlight.
 

[.n]

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8 Apr 2016
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You can buy what to me seems to be a random selection of day/period tickets with an SWR Smartcard from ticket machines - its not consistent though so I've not worked out what the metric is for working out what is possible (sometimes the addition of a valid railcard borks the process too)
 
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