Season Ticket rejection in barriers

[ValleyLines142]

Good evening!

I've got a monthly season ticket between Radyr and Keynsham, which sets me back at £259.20!

For some reason, the ticket is rejected at Cardiff station, and so I have the humiliation of the barriers beeping and having to go and see a gateline assistant to let me through instead.

There are some days when I start my journey from Radyr, and some days where I start my journey from Cardiff.

I, up until yesterday where I was told by a gateline assistant, wasn't sure why my ticket was rejected. However, yesterday this said gateline assistant said that if the ticket did not have Cardiff as one of the two stations, then it wouldn't go through the barriers.

Now to me, that doesn't make a lot of sense. Firstly, last year I used to go to college in Penarth and had monthly tickets between Radyr and Penarth. However, my season ticket still would be accepted through the barriers; it was only unless my phone interferred with the magnetic strip on the back of the ticket to which it would stop working.

I did consider the possibility that maybe an interferance with the magnetic strip was the reason for my rejection with the ticket I hold now, but when I got a replacement at Cardiff ticket office, as soon as I put my ticket in the barrier, it would still get rejected.

Secondly, I never actually go to Keynsham, despite it being one of my end stations, I actually get off at either Bristol Parkway, Temple Meads and Filton Abbey Wood; I only set it to Keynsham as by doing this, or to, if I recall correctly, Yate or Bedminster, my ticket will be valid to all three of the terminals I alight at daily, for no extra price. My ticket works fine at all three terminals (well, Filton is unstaffed anyway, but at BRI and BPW I have no problems). Surely, by applying the rule at Cardiff, my ticket should reject in the barriers as 'Bristol Parkway' and/or 'Bristol Temple Meads' isn't one of the end stations on the ticket??

Can anyone shed some light on the situation? Not that it's an issue, just purely wondered why it keeps doing this!

Thank you!

 

[WelshBluebird]

As I understand it, barriers can be programmed quite specifically to reject or accept certain tickets.
I have personally found the barriers at Cardiff Central to be a bit picky with what tickets they accept, so I assume they are just programmed to accept a limited range of tickets? Not really sure, but I would assume that is the case anyway.

 

[Greenback]

In my experience, Central won't accept a Valleys Line Day Ranger, but Queen St will. As WelshBluebird says, it depends how the barriers have been set up.

Personally, unless my ticket has Cardiff on it, I go straight to the manual gate if I want to exit at Central for any reason.

 

[Eagle]

Might be that they're automatically rejecting all railcard-discounted tickets (the ones at London Waterloo are often set to do this, presumably to counter people travelling without a railcard).

 

[ValleyLines142]

Thanks for the replies folks! Yeah I go straight through the disabled access barriers as normally the staff leave it open and you just show it to them as you walk through!

 

[island]

If you tell us the two- or three-digit code displayed by the gate along with the "seek assistance" message, we should be able to narrow things down for you.

 

[ValleyLines142]

If you tell us the two- or three-digit code displayed by the gate along with the "seek assistance" message, we should be able to narrow things down for you.

I'll have a look tomorrow when I pass through! I don't go through the small ones now; as I say I walk through the disabled barrier which is left open with a member of staff there.