Northern Smart Card

[Starmill]

E-tickets (new type) are only issued for journeys on which the TOC has a means to check them - not every journey. This rather backs up the premise you reject, doesn't it?

Even this is wrong. M-tickets were being sold on ScotRail routes for a while by trainline, even though ScotRail claimed that they didn't accept them because they couldn't read them. Several people were charged again and had to be refunded.

Same thing with ScotRail smartcards on CrossCountry. Tickets are sold at the same price and terms online on paper and on Smartcard and now on e-tickets. Some companies can't decide those terms don't apply because they dislike the ticket format - that's their problem.

 

[Starmill]

No that is incorrect, to introduce e-Tickets on a route the flow owning TOC has to get agreement from all other TOCs that could see the ticket on their services.

Sure, they're meant to do that. How good of a job of that has been done in some cases is another matter.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Err, please elaborate!

It’s so easy to sit back and give out these pearls of wisdom but when out their on their own it may not be so easy when faced with a pack of RPIs

 

[Wallsendmag]

Sure, they're meant to do that. How good of a job of that has been done in some cases is another matter.

I can guarantee that VTEC/LNER have followed this policy to the letter. When you have a look at how many flows the East Coast franchise owns and how many other TOCs they touch you may be able to imagine my frustration.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

It’s so easy to sit back and give out these pearls of wisdom but when out their on their own it may not be so easy when faced with a pack of RPIs

Which part of collaborating (as suggested in my post) is so difficult...

 

[TheGarner]

Quick one - I assume smart code renewal dates work the same as normal paper tickets? If it says it expires on the 4th April for example. You can use it on the 4th April and it will be classed as expired on the 5th for example?

 

[Haywain]

Quick one - I assume smart code renewal dates work the same as normal paper tickets? If it says it expires on the 4th April for example. You can use it on the 4th April and it will be classed as expired on the 5th for example?

Do you mean a season ticket? If so, it would always be usable on the expiry date, as would any other ticket.

 

[TheGarner]

Do you mean a season ticket? If so, it would always be usable on the expiry date, as would any other ticket.

I do mean a season ticket - Thought so, just wanted to make sure.

 

[robbeech]

It seems that even now, there are staff refusing to accept these and charging for new tickets because they have no idea what they are.

 

[TheGarner]

It seems that even now, there are staff refusing to accept these and charging for new tickets because they have no idea what they are.

I've never had anyone refuse it. It's actually been ok but I did have a very confused EMT guard/conductor on a service from Manchester to Warrington last night. A person sat in front of me also had one and the staff member asked if they were valid on the services with the person replying: Yeah. Then they saw mine and gave a very confused looking face but didn't question it. So it seems not all staff are fully aware of such smart cards. I did ask EMT a month ago if they were valid and they said yeah on twitter.

 

[py_megapixel]

Will these new cards follow the ITSO standard? Because from my understanding almost any ITSO ticket can be put on any ITSO card, and I already own an ITSO card!

 

[Haywain]

Will these new cards follow the ITSO standard? Because from my understanding almost any ITSO ticket can be put on any ITSO card, and I already own an ITSO card!

Yes, they are ITSO smart cards.

 

[Starmill]

Will these new cards follow the ITSO standard? Because from my understanding almost any ITSO ticket can be put on any ITSO card, and I already own an ITSO card!

Yes. A Transport for Wales ticket machine would happily sell me a Chester to Knutsford 7DS (for use on Northern services) on a ScotRail Smartcard. The Merseyrail ticket office staff refused to load me a Saveaway onto one though, and made me pay £1 for a Walrus card. I don't know if a Saveaway has been artificially restricted to one type of card or not.

 

[johntea]

I noticed you can request a Northern smart card through the Northern site to be delivered in the post (free!)

Have the large screen Northern TVMs got the facility to dispense them too?

 

[Haywain]

Have the large screen Northern TVMs got the facility to dispense them too?

I don't think they have.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Pretty sure they don't although it can be an optional extra.

 

[TiredCommuter]

Hello,

has anyone had any success with buying a northern season ticket to collect/download onto the smartcard via Northern's android app?

I've tried twice now and the ticket never appears when I use the check ticket feature on the app - each time when I've tried collect it at he station the machine gives a read error. Each time I've then (waiting a full weekend in some cases) en taken it to the ticket office, asked them to check it and it suddenly works. The Northern call centre basically say not to use the feature on the android phone so it sounds like they know it's buggy/rubbish but I'd be keen to hear from anyone who has made this work.

I thought this would be the avoid the queue nirvana to ease my journey, but it's nothing of the kind!