Over the weekend I was travelling between Cambridge and Ely, and decided to test out my Smartcard (issued by GTR), so I purchased a Smart GA Only Off-Peak Day Return from one of the machines.
I had about 30 seconds to catch the train (hourly, as I'd restricted myself to GA trains) and just missed it, so passed back through the barriers and went to get lunch at one of the cafes on the station square.
Upon arrival back at the station, I was surprised to get a Seek Assistance message on the barriers, and a member of staff checked my Smartcard. Turned out it had marked the entire return ticket as used when I touched out at Cambridge, 5 minutes after purchase! I was advised to get a replacement ticket and contact GA's customer services for a refund. Now in danger of missing this train too, I did just that, touched in and travelled up to Ely, touching out there without further incident.
However, when I went to touch in again, it said I didn't have a valid ticket on the Smartcard! This time I chanced it and travelled back to Cambridge anyway (I'd have missed the train had I gone to buy a 3rd ticket!), and the barrier was open when I got back, so there was no further check - but again, the TVM confirmed that the ticket had been fully used.
Anyway, the point of this story is that my experience has made me concerned there are other basic issues with the rollout of point-to-point tickets on Greater Anglia's implementation ITSO, and I wonder if it's been launched prematurely without proper testing. For both of my journeys to have separate (fairly basic!) issues does make me wonder if there's a fatal flaw with the system as it stands currently. I'm only down £2.40 (and I'm confident GA will refund this in any case) - but imagine if this was an Off-Peak Return from, say Norwich to Stansted, which would be a lot more of an inconvenience to have to pay twice for!
I had about 30 seconds to catch the train (hourly, as I'd restricted myself to GA trains) and just missed it, so passed back through the barriers and went to get lunch at one of the cafes on the station square.
Upon arrival back at the station, I was surprised to get a Seek Assistance message on the barriers, and a member of staff checked my Smartcard. Turned out it had marked the entire return ticket as used when I touched out at Cambridge, 5 minutes after purchase! I was advised to get a replacement ticket and contact GA's customer services for a refund. Now in danger of missing this train too, I did just that, touched in and travelled up to Ely, touching out there without further incident.
However, when I went to touch in again, it said I didn't have a valid ticket on the Smartcard! This time I chanced it and travelled back to Cambridge anyway (I'd have missed the train had I gone to buy a 3rd ticket!), and the barrier was open when I got back, so there was no further check - but again, the TVM confirmed that the ticket had been fully used.
Anyway, the point of this story is that my experience has made me concerned there are other basic issues with the rollout of point-to-point tickets on Greater Anglia's implementation ITSO, and I wonder if it's been launched prematurely without proper testing. For both of my journeys to have separate (fairly basic!) issues does make me wonder if there's a fatal flaw with the system as it stands currently. I'm only down £2.40 (and I'm confident GA will refund this in any case) - but imagine if this was an Off-Peak Return from, say Norwich to Stansted, which would be a lot more of an inconvenience to have to pay twice for!
