What is the untold truth about Magnetic Ticket Strip Failure – Error 09?

Paper magnetic strip annual train season tickets used to last most of a year before starting to be misread at barriers (Error 09 – INVAL CHK - Ticket code read error) and needing reprinting. Just over a year ago this changed markedly, and they can now fail weekly, daily, sometimes never even working once after a reprint. I keep it nowhere near magnets or phones but this is all the advice that tired station staff can give when reprinting for the latest time. My partner's ticket likewise fails, she's on her 27th reprint in 6 months. A letter in the Metro newspaper last year complained of 35 reprints but the official staff line is of faux surprise and advice to avoid magnetic fields....

Other staff have intimated that barriers themselves sometimes wipe the strip (Virgin barrier staff even laughing about it), I suspect this is true, but in our fragmented railway system where different companies run trains, staff barriers or replace tickets, responsibility is forever shuffled elsewhere. The new SmartCard system's roll out for annual tickets seems forever delayed. Always a few months away.

We have got to know barrier and ticket office staff, even supervisors better than we'd like to in the last year. We're as fed up of seeing them as they no doubt are of seeing us. There is a sense of misleading the public which when you see the same staff every few days becomes quite obvious.

Can anyone you shed any light on this problem?

I don't think there is any big conspiracy to tell tales. Mag strips are rubbish.

So why did they used to last most of the year but now fail in days?

Carntyne said:

I don't think there is any big conspiracy to tell tales. Mag strips are rubbish.

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My old mag-stripe metro-card used to last many months before needing replacement (often the printing on the front used to wear off before the stripe failed). This suggests a problem with the set-up where the OP is based, rather than the technology.

When I bought an Annual ticket it was issued on orange stock, and failed after its third use in a ticket gate. After that, it returned 07.

This seens to be something of an overreaction: It isnt a conspiracy it is just runbushness!

yorksrob said:

My old mag-stripe metro-card used to last many months before needing replacement (often the printing on the front used to wear off before the stripe failed). This suggests a problem with the set-up where the OP is based, rather than the technology.

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I beg to differ; surely it suggests that Metrocards are printed on better quality ticket stock that lasts longer? Maybe the OP could advise what type of season ticket was involved?

It's a season ticket between two Midlands Cities. Staff alternate between printing on the Blue stripe edged card they're given for longer tickets and reverting to Orange normal edged, often saying the Blue stock is turned over more slowly so is maybe old/stale. Some even open a fresh box with some flourish as if to make amends and offer the best replacement they can. One even tried kissing it, a kind gesture but as effective as the rest. I'm not talking conspiracy here other than of silence/denial. They either changed supply to some cheapo/dire ticket stock and won't revert to previous supply quality, or equally possible the convoluted IT systems are sometimes cancelling them.

I don't know the answer, hence the post, but would love to know where to start to pursue this formally/further as the official answer is 'There is no problem Sir, just keep it away from your phone' etc.

P.S. Yes the printing used to wear off before the magnetic strip failed once upon a time, and reprint was sometimes suggested by Inspectors to avoid query. Something has changed....

The barriers at Harrogate were notorious last year for suddenly deciding to have a chew of my annual season ticket and rendering it useless, but I don't know if something has changed recently (software update?) as my most recent replacement lasted me almost 3 months until it expired at the end of December and I got a new one as part of renewing it

Another annoyance is at Leeds where reject passback is set to something ridiculously excessive, it must be 20 minutes at least...so I have a 15 minute wait between trains I go to McDs for a coffee or something and can never get back platform side without the help of a member of staff, it should be lowered to 5 minutes maximum...it achieves very little anyway considering the staff will just let you back in by flashing the ticket at them!

Indigo2 said:

I beg to differ; surely it suggests that Metrocards are printed on better quality ticket stock that lasts longer? Maybe the OP could advise what type of season ticket was involved?

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In which case, it would be the ticket stock, not the technology that's the problem.

My 2019 Season Ticket (bought on the 30 December 2018) lasted till August before it finally failed. The replacement worked till the 29 December 2019.

I had my 2018 season ticket reprinted because the Ticket Inspector complained she could barely read it as the printing was so faded.

I would't expect that Scotrail are buying different ticket stock to any other TOC.

cb a1 said:

My 2019 Season Ticket (bought on the 30 December 2018) lasted till August before it finally failed. The replacement worked till the 29 December 2019.

I had my 2018 season ticket reprinted because the Ticket Inspector complained she could barely read it as the printing was so faded.

I would't expect that Scotrail are buying different ticket stock to any other TOC.

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Which is how it used to be until a year ago or so. So are we looking at an IT issue? The same technology that cancels your single use ticket on passing through your final destination barrier is perhaps going wrong for a season ticket in some circumstances? It was a member of ticket staff who first suggested to us the idea that barriers may cancel them, and Virgin (as was) barrier staff who chuckled whilst echoing this view whilst breaking away from their chit-chat to swipe us through with just-cancelled tickets. Two parallel Error 09 ticket cancellations through two parallel Virgin barriers within one second of each other. Repeated time and again, in parallel. Two angry commuters facing a queue to reprint that evening, in single file, again.

There can be a fault causing a barrier to wipe the mag strip, but it will take the gate out of service after a few and show read/write failure, so it is usually fixed pretty fast.

Mag strip tickets are old hat, and the sooner they get replaced the better as far as ticket Gates are concerned. So many things give off a magnetic field now.

I used to have an issue with the same thing, where my annual season ticket would last about 6 weeks and then fail. The person in the ticket office mentioned something to me - he said that sometime it's an issue caused by how you put this ticket in the machine and take it out. You hold it over the magnetic stripe and the greases and oils on your skin can cause it not to be read.

Being the sceptic that I am I chuckled but then made an effort for that one to only put it in the reader or take it out by holding the long sides. Call it coincidence or just better Gold Card stock, but that ticket lasted 6 months until renewal time and its replacement lasted 9 months until the text wore off.

In similar vein, a tip I followed was to use new plastic wallet, because the wallet gets dirty over a period. It made a big improvement , whether the reasoning was correct or it was just better luck I have no idea.

Well - look for patterns. Start always inserting it the same way around. Start making a note of all the ticket gates you use. Give it special treatment for a while - store it carefully somewhere separate. As soon as you get a 09, work out everything that happened to it since it last went through a gate successfully. If it's the gate messing it up, it may be that last *successful* gate that is the problem (e.g. misaligned) not the one showing the 09.

DarloRich said:

This seens to be something of an overreaction: It isnt a conspiracy it is just runbushness!

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Oh yeah? Yeah?! Well how about the fact that yesterday I turned up for my usual morning train in to manchester and it was there. Then today I turn up and it was nowhere to be seen. Nowhere!!!! Explain that one! Eh? Eh?! Something big is afoot. It's gotta go right to the top I tells ya!

Purple Orange said:

Oh yeah? Yeah?! Well how about the fact that yesterday I turned up for my usual morning train in to manchester and it was there. Then today I turn up and it was nowhere to be seen. Nowhere!!!! Explain that one! Eh? Eh?! Something big is afoot. It's gotta go right to the top I tells ya!

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no. you are right. That one IS a conspiracy