Paddington ticket barriers read issue

[whole diary]

[Boppy]

Hi,

I've been a season ticket holder between Reading and London for many years now.  During that time I've experienced my season ticket failing at regular(ish) intervals as it's strip deteriorates and I go to the ticket office and they fill in an Encoding Failure Form and I get a replacement etc

At first I thought it just coincidence but now after carefully noting where the failures occur I find that for whatever reason the Paddington ticket machines are where 90% of such failures occur.  In the last year I've had one failure at Piccadilly Circus station and one at Reading station - and both these were with extremely worn out tickets (wording had faded etc).

Whereas at the Paddington barriers the tickets are often in good nick.  In fact the reason I'm posting this message now is that I've had to replace my ticket again just 2 weeks after the last encoding failure - both at Paddington barriers.

I've also noticed that "failures" at these barriers happen differently than at other places.  My ticket goes through the machine but instead of coming out with "Seek Assistance" the machine actually reads (or writes over?) the ticket again and then it pops out.

My questions are:

- Are the Paddington Barriers different to those at Reading and on the underground?
- Have other people experience a disproportionate number of failures at Paddington barriers?  My ticket goes through a barrier check 8 times a day of which 2 checks are at Paddington barriers but rather than an 25%ish failure rate there it's almost every time.

Note:  My ticket is stored away from any other items - wallet, phone etc so as not to risk interference with the magnetic strip.

Thanks,

Boppy.

[SDS]

Reading gates and the ones at Pic circus are the old style gates. Pad has newer ones.

[thetrout]

Going off on a tangant, but when I travel to London using an advance ticket. I buy a travelcard from a SWT^▸ (South West Trains) or FGW^▸ (First Great Western) guard from their avantix to use for my onward journeys in London. I have never been able to get a Gateline anywhere in London that accepts it

I'm starting to wonder if the Travelcard they are selling me is not valid... It's a Super Off Peak which AFAIK^▸ (as far as I know) is valid on a weekday so can't see why it complains!

[Brucey]

Going off on a tangant, but when I travel to London using an advance ticket. I buy a travelcard from a SWT^▸ (South West Trains) or FGW^▸ (First Great Western) guard from their avantix to use for my onward journeys in London. I have never been able to get a Gateline anywhere in London that accepts it

I'm starting to wonder if the Travelcard they are selling me is not valid... It's a Super Off Peak which AFAIK^▸ (as far as I know) is valid on a weekday so can't see why it complains!

My understanding is that tickets from Avantix^▸ (Ticket Issuing System used on board trains) Mobile machines aren't encoded as strongly as those from TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) or ticket offices.  A mobile phone or even a credit card can knock out the encoding on these tickets.

[Boppy]

Reading gates and the ones at Pic circus are the old style gates. Pad has newer ones.

I was wondering if that was indeed something to do with it and whether tickets are handled differently as a result.  Unless there's someone on the forum who's an expert in said machines I guess it will be hard to find out!

Cheers.

[thetrout]

My understanding is that tickets from Avantix^▸ (Ticket Issuing System used on board trains) Mobile machines aren't encoded as strongly as those from TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) or ticket offices.  A mobile phone or even a credit card can knock out the encoding on these tickets.

Thats worth knowing...! Thanks, where do I normally put my ticket? in a small pocket right next to my bank cards!!

Most of the staff i've encountered though just look at the ticket and open the barriers for me

[SDS]

Whats the code that comes up on the barriers?


http://www.cryptart.com/oyster/ - is a list of the different reject codes.
The Code can mean many things....
e.g. 07, 08 or 09 basically means it cant read your ticket.
133 means that the ticket has been through previously in the last 30 mins (i.e. youve given it to someone behind you to get out). That seems to come up a lot at PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains).
11* means some restriction, i.e. out of date, not valid yet, time restricted.

[adc82140]

This is interesting. I'm on my fourth goldcard ticket this year- the last three stopped working the Paddington barriers fairly quickly. There is no error code that comes up, and no sound from the barrier- my ticket is returned and the barrier does not open. My current ticket is tempremental at the moment, next time I pass a ticket office it'll get replaced again. However if I pass thorugh the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) barriers Waterloo, there are no problems (yes I do hold a valid ticket to do this, but it's easier just to use my goldcard!!) I wonder if there's something strange in the setup of the Paddington barriers?

[verypc]

- Have other people experience a disproportionate number of failures at Paddington barriers? 

I travel from Ashford International to Bristol Parkway and back once a week.  I buy advance purchase tickets and on several occasions have had to change the date, which has meant buying an excess ticket for the journey.  Without fail the excess ticket does not work at Paddington (or at St Pancras for that matter) but does work at Ashford, Bristol Parkway and at the Tube stations.  I usually avoid the barriers at Paddington though by accessing the platform from the footbridge (although the barriers they've recently installed there will no doubt be operational soon).

[JayMac]

A warm welcome to the forum verypc! 

[ChrisB]

....by accessing the platform from the footbridge (although the barriers they've recently installed there will no doubt be operational soon).

Errr, not done the trip recently?
Those barriers have been operational now for a few monmths, maybe a month?

[verypc]

....by accessing the platform from the footbridge (although the barriers they've recently installed there will no doubt be operational soon).

Errr, not done the trip recently?
Those barriers have been operational now for a few monmths, maybe a month?

I've been doing that journey since the end of September.  The barriers were installed shortly thereafter, but I have not seen them operational once.  I arrive at the station  around 11 am and return again just after 9.30 pm, so I guess they switch them off when they see me coming! 

[ChrisB]

I do suspect they're only manned in the peak....

[Boppy]

Hi,

Thanks for the link to the error codes SDS pad.

I get error codes starting 0x when I next try the ticket on say the London Underground barriers.  But when the ticket actually fails in the Paddington railway barriers I don't get any code - as it seems to go through twice before then just saying "Seek Assistance" - maybe similar to what adc82140 experiences?  It may be though that an error code does get flashed up briefly the first time the ticket passes through and I've missed it as that info vanishes as the tickets gets processed back through the machine a second time.

I'll keep an eye out for next time it happens.

Boppy.

[SDS]

Ive had something similar happen to my staff pass.
Went in, came out the top, gate grabbed it back and then spat it out the top error code 08
put it in again error code 09.

To spot the code you need to look at the green display to the right of the gate, and leave your ticket in the top. As soon as you 'reclaim' your ticket the code will vanish off the screen.