Expiry time on travelcard issued on The Key

[jnjkerbin]

Yesterday, I purchased an outboundary day travelcard for travel today, and loaded it onto The Key*. I've done this many times before with point-to-point returns and seasons, but not with travelcards before, so thought I would look at the ticket information out of curiosity. I was interested to see that Expiry Date was set to 04/03/23 (as expected) but Expiry Time as 1710.

In contrast, when I purchase standard return tickets, this Expiry Time field is normally set as the classic 01/01/1970 01:00, presumably as the field is normally left blank.

Whilst I'm likely to be home by 1710 today, is this normal or would I be likely to experience issues trying to use this in the evening? Would be good to know for future reference.

*Normally I'd just get this from the TVM, but it was out of order yesterday and I didn't fancy the faff of sorting it out at the London end.

 

[KT550]

Yesterday, I purchased an outboundary day travelcard for travel today, and loaded it onto The Key*.

Although I can't help with your question, I'm keen to know how you loaded an outboundary day travelcard to The Key. (Presumably originating at a GTR station).

I know other TOCs allow this from their stations but was told by Southern it wasn't possible, despite allowing weekly/annual travelcards to be held in this way.

 

[jnjkerbin]

Although I can't help with your question, I'm keen to know how you loaded an outboundary day travelcard to The Key. (Presumably originating at a GTR station).

I know other TOCs allow this from their stations but was told by Southern it wasn't possible, despite allowing weekly/annual travelcards to be held in this way.

This was Southeastern's version of The Key, though I presumed they'd all be the same (maybe not?).

 

[E759]

Although I can't help with your question, I'm keen to know how you loaded an outboundary day travelcard to The Key. (Presumably originating at a GTR station).

I know other TOCs allow this from their stations but was told by Southern it wasn't possible, despite allowing weekly/annual travelcards to be held in this way.

Walk up to a TVM at the station, press the ITSO "button" at the top left of the screen. Follow the prompts.

 

[KT550]

Thanks. I was hoping you'd found a way to transfer day travelcards to ITSO via NFC using the Southern app.
A lot of TOCs allow this but GTR do not. Trying to avoid visiting the station TVM.

 

[Alex365Dash]

Thanks. I was hoping you'd found a way to transfer day travelcards to ITSO via NFC using the Southern app.
A lot of TOCs allow this but GTR do not. Trying to avoid visiting the station TVM.

The worse bit is if you’re trying to buy an outboundary Day Travelcard where GTR sets the fare, regardless of which smartcard you have, because of the way GTR sets fares that can be fulfilled to ITSO you struggle to buy them online anyway as the smartcard fares are different fare types to the usual fares!

 

[Capvermell]

The worse bit is if you’re trying to buy an outboundary Day Travelcard where GTR sets the fare, regardless of which smartcard you have, because of the way GTR sets fares that can be fulfilled to ITSO you struggle to buy them online anyway as the smartcard fares are different fare types to the usual fares!

I just buy day travelcards on The Key from the ticket machine at Ockley Station that is 17 miles or so south of the contactless or Oyster boundary station at Epsom but find it annoying that there isn't an option on Southern's website that if I tap in on the reader at Ockley and then out at Southern Victoria rail and then in again at Victoria London Underground that it will automatically sell me a Day Travelcard on The Key.

Also I have basically stopped using The Key lately because of the fact that you have to remember to tap on the barrier readers at Victoria or Balham (if connecting there to Southern) when they are open later in the day and because I find it very easy to forget to tap out on the reader at deserted Ockley on my own at 0037. Southern does send emails asking you to complete the journey on their website a few days later but its very easy to overlook them and all a huge hassle compared to buying a paper travelcard that doesn't have all these forgotten taps at open barrier or unbarriered stations problems. Having said that a huge number of TFL and Southern barriers now have defective paper ticket readers when the smart card readers for The Key are almost never defective (they have no moving parts to wear unlike the paper ticket readers) and it is also easy to crease or demagnetise a paper ticket so it won't work in the barriers and its also easier to lose or mislay a paper ticket compared to the big thick Key card that is thicker than most current credit or debit cards.

I don't know about buying Travelcards from Southern online as that always seems like hard work compared to just using the machine at the station when I know I'm going to travel that day and that the train is running..........

 

[MrJeeves]

I was interested to see that Expiry Date was set to 04/03/23 (as expected) but Expiry Time as 1710.

That's going to be some form of error but I've never encountered issues with travelcards on my Key, with one even letting me out at 11am the next day from Canary Wharf Elizabeth line!

 

[jnjkerbin]

For reference, the ticket is still showing as active rather than expired. One thing that just occurred to me that might explain it - 1710 minutes = 28.5 hours. 28.5 hours after midnight would be 0430 the following morning, the time your return journey needs to be finished by. That's the only logical explanation I can think of.

 

[Benjwri]

Thanks. I was hoping you'd found a way to transfer day travelcards to ITSO via NFC using the Southern app.
A lot of TOCs allow this but GTR do not. Trying to avoid visiting the station TVM.

If you really can’t go to a TVM, a number of those TOCs allow ITSO tickets for stations they don’t serve, for example c2c, so you could just order their smartcard and load the Travelcard onto theirs.

 

[Joe Paxton]

For reference, the ticket is still showing as active rather than expired. One thing that just occurred to me that might explain it - 1710 minutes = 28.5 hours. 28.5 hours after midnight would be 0430 the following morning, the time your return journey needs to be finished by. That's the only logical explanation I can think of.

That's a good bit of lateral thinking and does make sense - though if that is the reason behind it, it's a hopelessly confusing thing to show in the "Expiry Time" field!

 

[Capvermell]

That's going to be some form of error but I've never encountered issues with travelcards on my Key, with one even letting me out at 11am the next day from Canary Wh

That's definitely an error worth keeping quiet about rather than reporting it here where someone from a ToC is sure to want to fix it.........

 

[MrJeeves]

That's definitely an error worth keeping quiet about rather than reporting it here where someone from a ToC is sure to want to fix it.........

It only let me exit, rather than enter, and it only worked once and that was Elizabeth Line opening day...

 

[KT550]

If you really can’t go to a TVM, a number of those TOCs allow ITSO tickets for stations they don’t serve, for example c2c, so you could just order their smartcard and load the Travelcard onto theirs.

Thanks for the suggestion - I looked at c2c a few months ago but travelcards originating at GTR stations are not offered for loading to their smartcards.