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What is this contactless terminal for at my station?

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There was one of the below at my local station(Martins Heron) However now there are 3. Does anyone know what they are for?

IMG_20200508_111016.jpg

Thanks in Advance!
 
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daveshah

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They are for touching in/out with ITSO tickets, smart cards, carnets, etc
 

CeeJ

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It's an ITSO card reader for people who use smart cards.
 

alistairlees

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Smartcard tapping in (or out) I assume. To be used for PAYG I assume. There's rather a lack of signage though.
 

pompeyfan

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It’s for ‘Touch’ smart cards. SWR have launched their own PAYG system to compliment this.
 

thenorthern

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ITSO tickets from South Western Railway. This is about them if you want to know more.


Some areas they are used for Concessionary Passes like in South Yorkshire.
 
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Thanks Guys,

I had a bit of a research from that link and it looks like it is mainly for season tickets. You can load a single or return onto it but it seems pointless to go online or on your app and load it on when you could just do it at a ticket machine. It would be great if it worked like an oyster card.
 

najaB

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You can load a single or return onto it but it seems pointless to go online or on your app and load it on when you could just do it at a ticket machine.
The advantage is that you don't have to queue for the ticket machine. Just buy, touch and go.
It would be great if it worked like an oyster card.
The problem is what would the 'maximum fare' be?
 

pompeyfan

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As I said earlier, SWR are rolling out their own PAYG card, where you top up with whatever amount you want and it will work out the cheapest journey. Not sure if it works over a 7 day period, but certainly can work out whether to charge peak, off peak or super off peak.
 

DelW

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Thanks Guys,
I had a bit of a research from that link and it looks like it is mainly for season tickets. You can load a single or return onto it but it seems pointless to go online or on your app and load it on when you could just do it at a ticket machine. It would be great if it worked like an oyster card.
The advantage is that you don't have to queue for the ticket machine. Just buy, touch and go.
The problem is what would the 'maximum fare' be?
As I said earlier, SWR are rolling out their own PAYG card, where you top up with whatever amount you want and it will work out the cheapest journey. Not sure if it works over a 7 day period, but certainly can work out whether to charge peak, off peak or super off peak.
Until recently, I think the only way to put a single or return onto SWR's smart card was to buy from a station ticket machine, which did make it pretty pointless. Only seasons could be bought online and added.

However as Pompeyfan says, SWR is at last introducing PAYG:

(web page describing "tap2go")

But unfortunately it won't work with railcards, despite Oyster having been able to cope with them for years. So still no use for me :'(
 

[.n]

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Until recently, I think the only way to put a single or return onto SWR's smart card was to buy from a station ticket machine, which did make it pretty pointless. Only seasons could be bought online and added.

I never succeeded pre-lockdown but it appeared to be possible in their Android app to buy and load a ticket as long as your phone was capable (my phone is, and I did manage to read information from my card). I'm not sure but its possible somebody else managed it
 

lkpridgeon

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I never succeeded pre-lockdown but it appeared to be possible in their Android app to buy and load a ticket as long as your phone was capable (my phone is, and I did manage to read information from my card). I'm not sure but its possible somebody else managed it
Yes you can now (since late February) reliably purchase and load the tickets from an Android device to your ITSO smartcard.

I've been using this regularly for Railcard discounted journeys where Tap2Go isn't economical. The main benefit to both of these systems as I see it is that I can get an itemised report of my travel activity. This means I don't have to keep the tickets around until next April. Prior to using these systems paper tickets were piling up and it was mayhem to store/review them.
 
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[.n]

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8 Apr 2016
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706
Yes you can now (since late February) reliably purchase and load the tickets from an Android device to your ITSO smartcard.

I've been using this regularly for Railcard discounted journeys where Tap2Go isn't economical. The main benefit to both of these systems as I see it is that I can get an itemised report of my travel activity. This means I don't have to keep the tickets around until next April. Prior to using these systems paper tickets were piling up and it was mayhem to store/review them.

Thanks for that, I always thought the issue I was having with making it work was because I was trying to use a railcard!!

I have a lot of tickets just sat around in a shoe box - I keep meaning to see if there are of any use to somebody on here - I vaguely recall there is some kind of ticket project
 
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This is ITSO though Oyster isn't
Well, there's no reason not to put a fare with a Railcard discount (or child fare, also unavailable) onto an ITSO card... It's the curse of IT, the 'Minimum Viable Product' I think. Better to get something out and make it work for everyone else later.
it appeared to be possible in their Android app to buy and load a ticket as long as your phone was capable
With Android it's been possible for at least a year, I think - can't remember exactly - to buy a ticket on the SWR app (and others, like Southeastern, etc.) and load onto a card. I only tried it once on SWR, and it ate the product and my money. The bug will have been fixed by now, I'm sure. Southeastern's app worked better, and the ticket is provided in a slightly different way, such that you can also opt to collect at the gate/reader as you pass through. This isn't an option on the SWR app, which implements 'direct fulfilment' straight to the card (or not ;)).
 
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