Police Smart Card

[Bensonby]

Hi all, long time lurker, long time train nerd, first time poster.

I’m a police officer in the Met Police and have been a member of the “ATOC” travel scheme since it’s inception. Essentially, for a monthly fee I have unlimited travel in south east England on National Rail services (circa 70 miles from CHX). Until now I have had a paper ticket which I show with my warrant card. However, as of today I have been issued with a smart card that I must use instead.

Apparently you must touch in and out at the end of a journey but apparently it’s also perfectly permissable to buy an extenstion ticket and, if so, you must not touch out beyond the scheme boundary or you will be charged a penalty. What is unclear is what happens with the “incomplete” journey on the smart card. We have also been told that there is no need to alight to touch out at the scheme boundary (that would be absurd and inconvenient). However, I’ve not been able to get a straight answer from the Met’s HR department and the T&C’s letter that came with the card was unclear.

Any ideas?

 

[Mojo]

Is the Smartcard one that has been issued by the police or is it with Train company branding (eg. “The Key” etc)?

 

[Bensonby]

It’s issued by (and remains the property of) the Rail Delivery Group. It has Met Police branding though. See the upload: I’ve covered my warrant number which would identify me.

 

[BurtonM]

It sounds OP is paying for freedom of the Network Railcard zone to me.

https://www.network-railcard.co.uk/clientfiles/files/Map.pdf

Is this basically the permitted area, in red?

If the card is prepaid then incomplete journeys are a non-issue, surely? That might be why they've neglected to say what happens.

I can see where issues might arise on an Oyster card with incomplete journeys, as it gets confused when every in doesn't have an out and charges accordingly.
But this card is already paid for so why should they be making sure they're charging you the right fare, if there's no fare to charge? It's already paid for, let 'em through.

Being in the Met, OP is clearly living in London, it sounds like OP's been given the card to open any gates within Oyster/TfL's remit, but whether they'll open gates on The Key etc is a mystery (I'd be inclined to say not) - Reading is a gated station for example, it wouldn't surprise me if the gates there didn't recognise it.
If this is true and OP was at a gated station not in Oyster but in the validity zone, I'd be prepared to find the gateline assistant in these cases and ask them to let you through. The entire Network Railcard zone isn't gated (or even staffed) in any case, and in those cases I'd just leave.

I think the way the ticket operates is some strange hybrid of a smartcard and paper ticket, where inside Oyster it works as contactless, but further out it has to be inspected by railway staff.

Regarding the penalty for touching out, that implies there are facilities outside the Network Railcard zone to do so that would be able to identify an invalid ticket and report that back to somewhere else, and I severely doubt that is true.
I think it's trying to say you'd get penalised for attempting to use the card outside the boundaries of its validity, and the 'touching out' is someone missing the point a bit/mis-phrasing.

I've found before as well that you can get out of the Tube using a contactless card that isn't the same card/smartcard used to enter, if that's true with payment cards then a gate isn't going to care much for a prepaid card, just open the gate.

If you're travelling past the boundary of where you're allowed for free, you can get a ticket from the last station inside the boundary to wherever else you're going - I don't think that'd be an extension/boundary zone ticket though, just a normal ticket.
The part where you 'don't have to get off at the boundary to touch out' is badly worded. It means if you have more than one ticket for the journey (as in the smartcard and a further paper ticket) that they together are valid for the whole journey, and no further action is required.

 

[Wallsendmag]

ITSO is coming to the whole network in the next 18 months , big changes afoot.

 

[Mojo]

Being in the Met, OP is clearly living in London, it sounds like OP's been given the card to open any gates within Oyster/TfL's remit, but whether they'll open gates on The Key etc is a mystery (I'd be inclined to say not) - Reading is a gated station for example, it wouldn't surprise me if the gates there didn't recognise it.

This is not the case. Travel on TfL services is operated by an Oyster card issued by TfL and has been the case for a few years now. The card in question is for the Metropolitan Police Atoc scheme for which the employee faces a charge and is also only available to those joining service prior to 2014.https://www.met.police.uk/globalass...ostapplied-to-join-the-mps-before-august-2013

 

[district]

It should work at any ITSO operated gateline; I have had a brief at my station about this. As far as we are concerned there should be no requirement to touch in/touch out as the product on the card is valid regardless (in a similar way to our staff ITSO cards).

That being said (and I know that forces' professional standards departments disagree) but any officer from any force should be able to travel for free and I don't know any member of staff who would strictly enforce police free travel.

 

[OwlMan]

Updated info attached from RDG/ATOC iKnowledge

 

[Bensonby]

That's all very helpful. Thanks. So it would appear that the direction to always tap in and out is guidance only for statistical purposes and an "incomplete" journey would only have an effect on statistics as the card allows "free" travel (i.e. it doesn't charge per journey). Is that reading correct? That would appear to be the only logical interpretation - otherwise buying extension tickets wouldn't be possible unless I "tapped out" at an intermediate station at the edge of the scheme boundary.

 

[district]

That's all very helpful. Thanks. So it would appear that the direction to always tap in and out is guidance only for statistical purposes and an "incomplete" journey would only have an effect on statistics as the card allows "free" travel (i.e. it doesn't charge per journey). Is that reading correct? That would appear to be the only logical interpretation - otherwise buying extension tickets wouldn't be possible unless I "tapped out" at an intermediate station at the edge of the scheme boundary.

Yes I would say it is for statistical reasons only, although perhaps they want you to touch in and out to encourage others to do so also, or to not give the impression you were fare evading (staff pass holders on certain companies are asked to do this to give the illusion more people are paying). If you touch in it also reduces the need for you to show your warrant card which someone passengers may take offence to if they know you are getting free travel (in the same way people get the jump when uniformed officers buy lunch in supermarkets!)