Ticket keeps getting damaged...

[skizz]

Morning,

This is a ticket related question rather than a fare so forgive me if I've put it in the wrong forum.

I have a Gold Card which worked fine for approximately 10 months until one day at Victoria, I got an 09 error putting it through the barriers, which I understand is indicative of a damaged ticket.

After a couple more attempts I had it replaced. Great, I thought.

Until I had the same problem a couple of weeks later. 09 error. Got it replaced on Monday (9th).

I've used it today, and it is again coming up with an 09 error and I'm racking my brain as to why this could be happening.

- My season ticket is on its own in a standard Southeastern wallet with no oyster cards or other interference.
- It stays in my coat pocket on its own.
- It doesn't go near my mobile phone or wallet.

What on earth could be causing this? Any ideas? There must be something I'm doing wrong!

Thanks in advance
Skizz

 

[andrewkeith5]

I recall there being some issues with ticket stock recently so it may be that you've just been unlucky and your station are working through a bad batch unknowingly. I think the issues are sorted now so I'm hopefully it'll just be a blip.

Or the barriers at Victoria are faulty, which isn't impossible

 

[skizz]

That could explain it - perhaps I'll pick up the replacement at my home station instead and see if that helps. I got my replacement from Victoria each time.

 

[Wolfie]

Morning,

This is a ticket related question rather than a fare so forgive me if I've put it in the wrong forum.

I have a Gold Card which worked fine for approximately 10 months until one day at Victoria, I got an 09 error putting it through the barriers, which I understand is indicative of a damaged ticket.

After a couple more attempts I had it replaced. Great, I thought.

Until I had the same problem a couple of weeks later. 09 error. Got it replaced on Monday (9th).

I've used it today, and it is again coming up with an 09 error and I'm racking my brain as to why this could be happening.

- My season ticket is on its own in a standard Southeastern wallet with no oyster cards or other interference.
- It stays in my coat pocket on its own.
- It doesn't go near my mobile phone or wallet.

What on earth could be causing this? Any ideas? There must be something I'm doing wrong!

Thanks in advance
Skizz

You've almost certainly done nothing wrong. I'm on my fifth Goldcard of the year (one lasted one day) issued by SWT at Waterloo. The previous one functioned fine, shame the printing smudged all across the ticket.....

 

[cb a1]

I'd echo the 'problem with card not cardholder' issue.

I've been getting annual season tickets for 10 years now. Usually last at least 6 months [I only replaced the last one because a guard complained she could barely read it as most of the ink had worn off].

One year though they were only lasting a month at a time, presumably till they got a new batch of tickets in.

 

[LexyBoy]

Indeed. Mine either last the full year, or pack in after a month. Dodgy ticket stock is what I've been told by staff.

 

[philjo]

Is your work pass a proximity card (i.e. for opening doors etc). A friend of mine had problems with his season not working in the barriers (getting the 09 error code) often within minutes after the ticket was printed. It turned out that his staff pass was the culprit. once he made sure they were kept in separate pockets he rarely had any problems using the barriers.

I'm on my 3rd reprint for my annual ticket so far this year due to the barriers no longer working (& the one I have the ink is now fading fast)

 

[CharlieSpotted]

I wonder if commuters in the Midlands will start to see similar problems now we have automatic barriers at New Street. I only use a monthly pass, so I doubt it would have time to wear out, but I'm sure many people will have annual ones.

 

[Flying Snail]

How long will it be before all stations have ITSO contactless readers on all barriers?

Once they are able to be read at all barriers it would make sense to start switching all paper tickets to disposable contactless ones instead and phase out the mag-stripe altogether.

Long term it would probably save money if all the mechanical barriers could be taken out of use, far less to go wrong with the contactless equipment.

It would also allow much more accurate routing and validity information to be stored so things such as disallowing open tickets to be used more than once or accurate validity for rovers so they reliably work where they should.

 

[LexyBoy]

What happens when your smartcard stops working? At least paper tickets remain human readable (mostly!).

 

[andrewkeith5]

What happens when your smartcard stops working? At least paper tickets remain human readable (mostly!).

I cite the example of the Glasgow Subway, which uses thermal printed tickets but encodes an ITSO chip instead of a mag stripe. Job done.

 

[higthomas]

What happens when your smartcard stops working? At least paper tickets remain human readable (mostly!).

There are many problems with just smartcard tickets at the moment. But I think disposable contactless, as suggested by Flying Snail and I seem to recall used on the Glasgow subway are a good solution. They have all the detail printed on them, but are contactless, meaning they can stay in a wallet permanently.

 

[CharlieSpotted]

I cite the example of the Glasgow Subway, which uses thermal printed tickets but encodes an ITSO chip instead of a mag stripe. Job done.

Who'd have thought that, of all the cities in the United Kingdom, it'd be Glasgow that got it right?

 

[andrewkeith5]

Who'd have thought that, of all the cities in the United Kingdom, it'd be Glasgow that got it right?

Almost got it right, anyway...their TVMs only accept card payments over £10 so if you only want a days travel you have to find a cash machine, which can be remarkably tricky!

 

[Flying Snail]

What happens when your smartcard stops working? At least paper tickets remain human readable (mostly!).

As others have mentioned, examples such as Glasgow where the tickets are issued the same way as currently with thermal printing on the front, just replace the mag stripe with ITSO for the digital information.

TBH I would imagine the occurrences of faulty tickets would be very low anyway, unless people intentionally damage them.

There is no reason the thin versions would not last long enough for an annual season. My staff bus ticket has been issued on this stock for several years as are all contactless tickets in Dublin except the PAYG Leap card (Oyster equivalent) which uses the thicker card.

If SPT can use them for singles (£1.60 adult, 90p conc, 70p child) then the cost of the stock shouldn't be an issue for NR tickets which are on average much higher than that. Go to any subway station and there will be piles of the things discarded by the gates, there is obviously still a lot of single/return users on the system.

 

[andrewkeith5]

As others have mentioned, examples such as Glasgow where the tickets are issued the same way as currently with thermal printing on the front, just replace the mag stripe with ITSO for the digital information.



TBH I would imagine the occurrences of faulty tickets would be very low anyway, unless people intentionally damage them.



There is no reason the thin versions would not last long enough for an annual season. My staff bus ticket has been issued on this stock for several years as are all contactless tickets in Dublin except the PAYG Leap card (Oyster equivalent) which uses the thicker card.



If SPT can use them for singles (£1.60 adult, 90p conc, 70p child) then the cost of the stock shouldn't be an issue for NR tickets which are on average much higher than that. Go to any subway station and there will be piles of the things discarded by the gates, there is obviously still a lot of single/return users on the system.

NFC chips (which is essentially all you need to make a ticket into an ITSO card, you just sandwich one between two layers of card/plastic) can be purchased extremely cheaply nowadays, I doubt it would be more than a single digit percent different to mag stripes in volume. There would be an insane cost to change all the ticket issuing facilities, made more insane by the fact that everything seems to cost a fortune in the rail industry, though.......

On the other hand, it's a logical step - IMO smart cards should be the way we are heading, and single use ITSO cards will need to be part of that - but for regular users, if I had my way it'd be done through NFC phones....