South Yorkshire smartcard rejected when used twice within 10 minutes

[AY1975]

I've discovered a snag with the South Yorkshire Travelmaster smartcards, in that if you get on a bus having already presented your card on another bus within the last 10 minutes, the card reader on the driver's ticket machine is programmed to reject your card. This is to stop people from misusing their cards by passing them on to someone else who might then try to use the same card on the same bus.

It is entirely legal to make a short-hop journey immediately followed by another journey, so when you load a weekly or monthly ticket onto your card, make sure you keep the receipt and put it in your ticket wallet with your card so you can show it to the driver if the machine rejects your card.

Most drivers are OK about you doing that if you tell them that you've just been on another bus, but I once had a Stagecoach driver who was adamant that my card wasn't valid. I offered to show him the receipt, but he would have none of it. I was only intending to go two stops, so I got off and walked instead. I then e-mailed a complaint to Stagecoach, and they got back to me and said the driver involved would be traced and spoken to.

If the same happens to you, make sure you write to or e-mail the bus operator involved, and say where you tried to get on and at what time, and describe what the driver looked like. If possible make a note of the fleet number of the bus involved and quote that too. This is usually a 5-digit number displayed on the front and back of the bus, and sometimes inside the bus as well, at the front by the entrance door.

 

[Harpers Tate]

It wouldn't be hard to program the card/machine interface to include (something like) the route number, bus number or service code as part of the on-card record.

 

[Citistar]

Passback restrictions on cards are not unusual, nor are they anything new. When First Badgerline/CityLine had Wayfarer IIIs with magnetic card machines, there was a passback restriction on those too.

Ten minutes does seem rather excessive though. Five is more common in my experience.

 

[LordCreed]

These have been a feature of Go South Coast ticket machines since the Key was introduced. Because I used to get two buses in short succession, I used to ask the first driver for a card report, which I could then show alongside my Key on the following bus. Also meant I could use it on the X53 with the ticket share arrangement.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Passback restrictions on cards are not unusual, nor are they anything new. When First Badgerline/CityLine had Wayfarer IIIs with magnetic card machines, there was a passback restriction on those too.

Ten minutes does seem rather excessive though. Five is more common in my experience.

If *passback* is to be avoided, I don't see why it would be technically hard simply for the ticket machine on that bus to block double-use on that bus only.

 

[Citistar]

If *passback* is to be avoided, I don't see why it would be technically hard simply for the ticket machine on that bus to block double-use on that bus only.

To be honest, i don't know if that is in the ITSO specification. Perhaps the intention is also to prevent a passenger passing a card to another person who would then use it to board another bus, a situation which is quite possible at school chucking out times with buses heading off in different directions.

 

[Deerfold]

The West Yorkshire MCard has the same restriction.