Norther smart season taking a long time for guards to check

[ASharpe]

I've recently got a new annual season on a norther smart card and it seems every time it gets scanned on board the guard has to go through multiple steps of button pressing to get it to show up as valid, looks like checking out and or in.

I commute from Shipley to Leeds daily and this ticket goes a couple of stops beyond at each end to save me a bit on leisure travel.

Guards seem to be frustrated with their mobiles rather than the ticket or me and it always shows green or the guard will just move on after looking at the first screen.

Should I be checking in or out somehow or will me only using half the journey each day be causing it?
 

 

[skyhigh]

Should I be checking in or out somehow or will me only using half the journey each day be causing it?

It's nothing to do with you.

 

[Haywain]

It's nothing to do with you.

I think you mean that there's nothing the OP is doing that's causing this, rather than saying MYOB!

 

[skyhigh]

I think you mean that there's nothing the OP is doing that's causing this, rather than saying MYOB!

Yes!

Just to add, as it's an Annual season there's no need to tap in or out anywhere other than to get through barriers.

Back when I had some involvement with the scanners they used to do this check in/out thing randomly, apparently due to a bug with the software. It was no fault of the passenger.

 

[ASharpe]

Ah, it is a thing then. No big inconvenience to me.

Cheers

 

[northwichcat]

When they first came out many guards refused to scan them, making excuses about scanning them overheating their devices or draining the battery.

 

[skyhigh]

When they first came out many guards refused to scan them, making excuses about scanning them overheating their devices or draining the battery.

When smartcards first came out, conductors were provided with no equipment or training to scan them, so it was pointless. When an agreement was reached and app provided, it was true that it was incredibly battery intensive to scan smartcards and fiddly on a moving train. Same when the new Zebra machines were introduced, for a while there was an issue where scanning smartcards was causing significant battery drain. A software update fixed that.

 

[Adam0984]

They say if you tap it on the yellow smartcard readers at the station it solves the problem of the guard having to check it in

 

[Wallsendmag]

They say if you tap it on the yellow smartcard readers at the station it solves the problem of the guard having to check it in

“Check it in” What on earth is that?

 

[Nova1]

I used to travel regularly with west midlands railway using a season ticket loaded onto a smartcard.

Majority of guards just saw the smartcard and nodded and moved on... the few that checked often spent a good 2-3 minutes trying to get it to scan onto their device.

 

[Adam0984]

“Check it in” What on earth is that?

It's one of the button presses the guard appears to be doing, if you go through a ticket barrier then that does it but a station with no ticket barrier obviously it doesn't do it so tapping on the readers on the platform is rumoured to do that, so when the guard comes and checks it it's just a quick scan and accept not scan and check in, scan and accept

 

[scrapy]

All Northern stations were supposed to be fitted with yellow smartcard readers where passengers would be supposed to check in or out. This didn't happen and only a few lines have them and there is no requirement for a passenger to use them unless they have a Flexi season. When a passenger uses one at one end of the journey or uses a barrier to tap in but then doesn't check out it shows as an incomplete journey. The guard can just override this as it is of no relevance to the passenger but it's just how the system works, as Northern only did half a job installing the readers.

 

[Wallsendmag]

It's one of the button presses the guard appears to be doing, if you go through a ticket barrier then that does it but a station with no ticket barrier obviously it doesn't do it so tapping on the readers on the platform is rumoured to do that, so when the guard comes and checks it it's just a quick scan and accept not scan and check in, scan and accept

There's absolutely no reason for that with a season ticket.

 

[Solent&Wessex]

There's absolutely no reason for that with a season ticket.

Correct.

But that's not how someone in an office has designed them to work.

When you scan a Season on a Smartcard the scanner is expecting to see a journey. The journey is started by, say, going through the ticket gates at the origin station on the way home. If you don't end your journey by operating gates at your destination when you get home then the journey has started but not ended.

When you come to go back to work the next morning you start your journey without going through any gates as there aren't any. When the guard comes to check your ticket the scanner sees the previous journey as started but not ended so comes up with a message. You need to manually end the previous journey before you can accept the ticket for the next journey this morning.

Completely silly, I know, but that is how is has been designed, no doubt by someone in an office in London who has never been on a train outside of London and just assumes every station every where all over the country has ticket gates or similar.

Changing it now will probably cost someone a couple of £million so is unlikely to happen.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Correct.

But that's not how someone in an office has designed them to work.

When you scan a Season on a Smartcard the scanner is expecting to see a journey. The journey is started by, say, going through the ticket gates at the origin station on the way home. If you don't end your journey by operating gates at your destination when you get home then the journey has started but not ended.

When you come to go back to work the next morning you start your journey without going through any gates as there aren't any. When the guard comes to check your ticket the scanner sees the previous journey as started but not ended so comes up with a message. You need to manually end the previous journey before you can accept the ticket for the next journey this morning.

Completely silly, I know, but that is how is has been designed, no doubt by someone in an office in London who has never been on a train outside of London and just assumes every station every where all over the country has ticket gates or similar.

Changing it now will probably cost someone a couple of £million so is unlikely to happen.

Is that Star Mobile? Seems like a really bad implemntation, TTK is nowhere near as picky

 

[Solent&Wessex]

Is that Star Mobile? Seems like a really bad implemntation, TTK is nowhere near as picky

Yes!

 

[reb0118]

It's the same with ScotRail. Technically all smartcard journeys have to be tapped in & tapped out regardless of ticket type.

Ironically the majority of season ticket holders actually do tap in & out. However, flexi pass users not so much for some reason.

Also, the system will not allow you to tap in & out at an intermediate station.