Great Western Coffee Shop

After my son saw a poster about the GWR Touch smartcard and asked why I hadn't got one (I managed to be one of the first people to get an Oystercard) I applied for one (after reading the posts on here about it being a soft launch)

A couple of days later the card arrived, but there's no details on the website about how to transfer a paper ticket to the smartcard.  I asked via the "question not in faq link" and they said any ticket office do that for me.

All excited I popped into the ticket office at Swindon to find that one staff member hadn't yet been trained, and the other staff member didn't have a working password.  They managed to read the card but couldn't work out how to transfer my ticket.  Undeterred I decided to try the next day at Paddington as I was sure they would be more prepared.  Had two staff members trying to work out how to do it as one thought it wasn't possible and the other was sure it had been added the day before but after about 10 minutes they couldn't find any option.

Unless I get some free time it looks like I'll be staying on my paper ticket until it stops working and see if they can re-issue it to the smart card, if not, it will have to wait until next years renewal  :(

Apologies for sounding a bit dim
Do you mean that my paper annual season card can be transferred over to a smart card?

Yep, once you have registered and received your card,  - and you can find a member of staff who knows how to do it!

If only all local transport (I'm in the Swindon/Bath/Bristol area) could operate with a Smart card covering buses and trains. The infrastructure seems to be there: virtually all local buses (Yes I did check the spelling) can read a ENCS CARD and an e-ticket, and the automated gates seem to do most things (although without the 'oyster style pad). One example of how transport operators and local regulators (such as county councils) can actually make life easier for us travellers. Oyster in London, although perhaps now dated, revolutionized travel there, why not here! At least GWR are starting with their SmartCard.

Nearly all rail operators are introducing smartcards and by the end of this year you should be able to use any of them anywhere including on tfl. Exactly how that will work, I'm not sure,  as, unlike Oyster you have to load a specific journey these cards, not just a monetary value.

Something different,  in that Cornwall Council are currently trying a smartcard for students which works on both trains and buses, so it is possible.

Thank you for that, am fed up of my card needing reprinting etc
Where can I find a link to how to apply?

There are still complaints on twitter regarding SWR (and SWT as was) travelcard smartcards not operating on TfL buses. This has been a long standing gripe. Are GWR's smartcards just for point to point journeys?

The old SWT smartcards could have train seasons and Megariders ('Stagecoach bus season') loaded on them at the same time. Not sure about the SWR ones as obviously the parent company has changed, but maybe the underlying tech/back end is still the same.

I'd have more confidence getting a paper ticket replaced promptly than a malfunctioning smartcard at the moment.

...your mileage may vary of course!

https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey/tickets-railcards-and-season-tickets/touch

Just seasons at the moment, any point to point journey by late spring...

I assume it's only season tickets for train journeys only so not travelcard season tickets?
Also does anyone know that if renewing online once you have one of these you'll still get the discount when the service has been below par or will that still require a trip to the station in person?

I'm not sure, but when delay repay is introduced then of course you'll be paying full whack at renewal. I assume "legacy" holders renewing will get a refund.

Thank you for that, all applied for
Delivery within 5 working days, then the real challenge trying to get someone at Weston train station to be able to transfer my annual pass onto this ticket

There's not a great deal of information on the page is there?

I think someone else asked earlier but can I replace my Annual Twyford > All Zones cards with it or will it only work for fixed journeys e.g. Twyford to West Drayton?

Edit: There's a lot more if you actually scroll down. doh!!

Thanks for the instructions - couldn't find them before. Just applied for mine - let's see how it works.

The swap in process is not fully available yet as not all permutations of seasons tickets between all stations are available for smartcards.

To see if you are in with a chance, search the season ticket calculator ensuring you tick the box for ITSO enabled fares, if no fares are found, your season ticket is not yet available on smartcards.  If it is you are in with a chance, but not guaranteed.

The swap over process takes a mimimum of 2 hours and you must be prepared to leave your smartcard with the ticket office for at least 2 hours for it to take place.

To effect a swap in, the ticket office staff member must log in to WebTIS and find your smartcard.

They then must select Add a ticket (swap in) and fill out the form using the details from your existing CCST - effectively replicating your ticket, which searches the season ticket calculator for your ticket, and will cost £0.  This is where the difference between a fare being available to buy and being available to swap comes in as the paid for fares might have been enabled, but the zero fare equivalents might not have.

Your must then leave your smartcard with the ticket office for at least 2 hours so the ticket transfer is processed and loaded on to your card. When you return, and provided the transfer has been sucessful, you then must surrender your CCST.

Yes I've seen the posts on the SWR forums. SWR are saying that the old SWT smartcards and the underlying systems need replacing or upgrading.
I moved to Bookham in summer 2010. There were smartcard validators already at the station but were not switched on. Last year they appear to have been energised and last month (December 2018) SWR announced that you can now use their smartcard at that station.

I could have opted for a smartcard when I renewed my annual Bookham to London Z1-6 ticket at the end of December but I chose not to for the following reasons:

• Reading the forums at https://forum.southwesternrailway.com ^* it seems that some users are having difficulty breaking their journey with a smart card. I often go to Epsom which is not (yet - coming soon) in the Tfl Oyster area. My paper (actually flimsy plastic) ticket lets me through the barriers and at Ashtead and Leatherhead. All are managed by Southern. I want to be sure that these glitches have been resolved before I switch.
• For the last 30 years I have been keeping my season ticket / travelcard in my back pocket. Can I do the same with a contactless smartcard?
• Will I be able at some point to load my annual ticket to my phone and just tap in and out?
  

^* Google Chrome does not like that website. I have been using Edge just for that site only.

What a palaver!                 

I thought Smart Cards were suppose to save time.

Thanks for the info Plymouthian

Do you mean the "Season ticket calculator" on this page? https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey/tickets-railcards-and-season-tickets/season-tickets
I can't see an option for buying anywhere?

I mean this dedicated season ticket 'mixing desk'
http://tickets.gwr.com/gw/en/journeyplanning/seasonmixingdeck

If you tick 'Only fares that can be loaded onto an ITSO SmartCard' and search for your season ticket, if your season is found, then staff should be able to swap you in at a ticket office as long as the £0 swap in has been made available (most now have).

BEWARE the procedure has changed TODAY (14/01/19) but has NOT YET BEEN RATIFIED or communicated to frontline staff.  Therefore staff are not currently trained in the new procedure of how to do a swap in.

The main change is that instead of recreating the ticket as originally retailed, the ticket is recreated with the start date of the day of the swap in to the end of the original ticket's validity.


Yes, a cock up... someone recoded the website, and this could change again by next week!

It will - but you are all trying to jump before the system can even walk. Hence the 'soft' launch - the vast majority of fares aren't available yet & there's just a trial going on.

Give it some months & this will get a full-scale launch. Order your smartcard in the meantime & be patient.

Also - yes, ITSO cards should work the TfL gates, I'm told - and other TOCs gates too, if your season is valid at that other TOC station.

HOWEVER, I am still concerned at obtaining out-boundary extension tickets. You still can't buy them online, so you have to fo to a ticket office - any ticket office!. What if that ticket office can't read your ITSO card - how do you prove you have a travelcard season?

And no, I don't want to buy (necessarily) a point-to-point ticket from whichever boundary station I pass through to my destination. I might return a different (but permitted) route!....be wary....

Thank you, it appears my annual Weston to Temple Meads ticket is good to be swapped to a card

I'm intrigued how a train manager knows where my ticket is valid when they ask, assume they will have to scan it somehow?

They will have mobile card readers, like TfL do.

The cock up has been traced to the fact that last year's fares have been deleted from the system, so seasons bought before 2 January 2019 can no longer be found in the database to transfer over. 
Therefore, the alternative swap in system is being verified this week.

My card was delivered yesterday, I will wait before this is resolved before I attempt to get my annual ticket uploaded

They seem a bit fussy about the photograph requirements - they won't accept the one of mine that was approved for use on a Passport.

Those that already have them - is the photo built into/printed on the smartcard - or is it simply for their use?

Also - if on the card, does the 'carry your photocard' instruction still apply (has it been specifically disapplied by fresh T&Cs?)

The photo is printed on the back of the smartcard, no idea if I need to carry my photocard as well.

Quick update - managed to get my paper ticket swapped to the smartcard at Paddington.  Left the card with them on Monday and told to collect that evening.  I received an email during the day letting me know that the system had crashed and to come back yesterday and collect - wonder if that was related to the change of procedures?  I actually collected this morning and it's worked fine on the tube but not tried it yet on GWR.

Your GWR touch smartcard is also your photocard, BUT you will still need your pink photocard for the time being.

Is that being made *very* clear in the T&Cs for the smartcard?

Does seem odd to need both, as the photocard number doesn't appear anywhere on the new SMART card, so there is no evidence they correlate other than the same person being on both photos

When I got my SWT (as was) smartcard without integrated photo I had to quote my photocard number. Presumably it's stored as a field on the card.

Do GWR ask for a photocard number before dispatching the smartcard?

If not, then that'll bewhy it's still currently needed. Your current season (that you transfer to card) will be tagged to your photocard, not your smartcard.

Renewal of season direct to smartcard will then obviate need for photocard, I guess

Quite simply current tickets are issued against your pink photocard and stored in GoldSTAR, smartcards are issued against an online database that is not initially linked to GoldSTAR.

In addition, especially as this has just launched, your pink photocard is still available as a back-up for when things go wrong (eg if you lose your smartcard, GWR will issue you a CCST back up until you get a replacement) or for when no smart fare is available.

 ;D ;D Simples  ;D ;D

Do I get the feeling of a system that might be more bleeding edge than leading edge?

When Oyster first appeared I was living with someone who was a TFL employee and had a staff nominee travelcard. I was given the oyster card as a replacement well before the public. I also had a paper record card just in case the oyster went wrong. Now as a normal travelcard holder I take my gold record card with my oyster because it's needed for claiming my discount on national rail.

As I had ordered one of these new fangled card thingy-ma-bobs I spoke to Ollie at Goring this morning, to find out what the process is (According to GWR I can use it as I get off at Maidenhead which has the readers). The bit I am confused about is actually loading the card - ie. once purchased my GOR-MAI season online, how to get it onto the card. It says to load it at Maidenhead, but then I assume I would technically be travelling from Goring to Maidenhead on Monday morning to load it, without a ticket - so that one confused me a bit.

Anyway, I digress, Ollie said he has the machine at Goring now to load onto the smart cards, but he didn't know much about it yet, but it does sound like its slowly being rolled out to more stations.

One question for anyone using them already - when it says to load it at the ticket gate / tap in/out at the ticket gate, is it the new bit they bolted to the gatelines which is used to read the QR codes on the mobile phone app?

Tell Ollie, he needs to put your card on to the smartcard reader attached to his ticket machine.
The on his Star TOM, select Other Tickets, then Read Smartcard.
Your ticket should then appear on his screen, if it is showing you are good to go.

The ticket barriers have a separate reader for ITSO smartcards just above the barcode scanner by where you would feed in a normal ticket.  It's quite obvious and has the standard yellow smartcard/contactless symbol.

I often travel from Weston and Temple Meads on a crosscountry train, have asked a few train managers about these cards, they have no idea about them or how to scan them

https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/tickets/smart

All I'll say is that every TOC has their own version and make no comment on how well staff know about the national scheme.

Ah! I did wonder if that was where it was, but frankly it looked like it was indicating where to feed the paper ticket into the slot above! I'd been wracking my brain trying to think if it was there before or not, but really couldn't remember!

Thank you plymothian!

Theoretically if you have purchased a smartcard season ticket online it should automatically load onto your smartcard the first time you tap it on the correct part of the gate, negating the need to go to the ticket office.
Best of luck with that!

I'm a tad michivious (sic) at times, on the train home last night was asked for my ticket, showed my annual paper ticket and was asked for the associated photo ID.
I pulled this new smartcard out with my photo on, I was met with the reply "sorry I didn't realise that you were staff" !!

If you have a paper ticket, you need to carry your paper photocard. If you want to use your smartcard photo(card), you have to have your ticket on your smartcard also. I wouldn't recommend trying to game the system as the T&Cs on both will catch you out.

Crosscountry crew are unable to read smartcards! A smartcard season valid Oxford-Reading is already catching them out. The  train manager the other night smiled and accepted my (other TOC) smartcard - I guess they have to, as they can't prove otherwise.

ITSO smartcards are readable at any ITSO-enabled gateline - doesn't matter which TOC issued it. Chiltern smartcards are readable already at GWR enabled gatelines. So theoretically, I could load a GWR ticket onto my Chiltern smartcard....I guess that's where we will ultimately get to - just having one smartcard available nationalyy for all tickets, regardless of which TOC issued the smartcard & ticket. Wish they'd get on with this!

I received email confirmation from SWR today that if I were to get one of their smartcards, I would not be able to tap on the gateline at Epsom (Southern Railway) to get out, I'd need to get a human to let me in or out. I've had my latest annual paper ticket (flimsy plastic really) for just over a month now and the print is starting to fade. It may not be long before I take the plunge and go contactless.

What they haven't done is enabled fares not set by them into their database - the gate reader can interrogate all ITSO cards.

Have been using my card since the start of last week
Odd thing some days it scans first time, other times it takes a couple of attempts and also failed to work twice
The other odd thing when it is being checked nobody has actually scanned it yet the guard keeps remarking that I am a GWR employee !

The genuine GWR employee card is a bit different in design, but possibly there are more of these in circulation at present than the version for the public.

I think a few guards have yet realise the difference, as staff travel cards were issued first and look very similar!