Progress of shift from paper to smart tickets - RDG

[whole diary]

[1st fan]

Yeah the issue I had with ordering online is that I couldn’t travel on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) the next day with the gold card discount without the record card to prove I was entitled. GWR confirmed this at Paddington saying that the Train Managers can’t read Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) cards. You also apparently can’t order an annual travel card on an Oyster card online far enough in advance that the record card will arrive same day as the new travelcard starts. It’s a mess and my renewal comes up soon.

[1st fan]

Happened to be passing StPancras earlier and stopped very briefly into the TFL^▸ (Transport for London) visitor centre there. The nice gentleman informed me that they can do annual travel cards. In my haste I didn’t check whether they could do them onto an oyster and a record card but as they have readers on the desk I hope so. This will solve the problem if so.

[Ralph Ayres]

They will ONLY be able to do them on Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) with a record card; the mag stripe ticket option was taken off long ago.  Looks like that's the best bet for now at least.

[1st fan]

Have now got an Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) with annual travelcard loaded onto it and a gold record card as well. Took less than a minute at the visitor centre and has made my life much easier.

[Bmblbzzz]

Somewhat tangential to this thread (if there's a more appropriate one, mods please move) but I was pleased to see that paper tickets are also getting smarter – or at least better designed. The ones I picked up on Monday for a journey tomorrow have all info on one card; that's time and reservation as well as destination, ticket type etc.

[ChrisB]

I've been getting these for ages....maybe they've recently upgraded the software in your TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine)?

[PhilWakely]

Somewhat tangential to this thread (if there's a more appropriate one, mods please move) but I was pleased to see that paper tickets are also getting smarter – or at least better designed. The ones I picked up on Monday for a journey tomorrow have all info on one card; that's time and reservation as well as destination, ticket type etc.

'Advance' tickets have been like that for some time.

[Bmblbzzz]

Somewhat tangential to this thread (if there's a more appropriate one, mods please move) but I was pleased to see that paper tickets are also getting smarter – or at least better designed. The ones I picked up on Monday for a journey tomorrow have all info on one card; that's time and reservation as well as destination, ticket type etc.

'Advance' tickets have been like that for some time.

That would be sensible. I was going to say "my last lot weren't" but probably I'm failing to distinguish between Advance and non-Advance with separate reservation.