Great Western Coffee Shop

Rail Delivery Group Press Release  (https://www.raildeliverygroup.com/media-centre/press-releases/2019/469775633-2019-04-10.html)
Nothing really in this press release that relates to GWR though. The percentage of tickets bought online though is somewhat less at 22% than I might have guessed at but shows there is still a long way to go in assuming people can be required to purchase tickets that way.

GWR are likely to roll out their smartcard quite soon across more of their (barried) destination...

THen we'll all be claouring for cross-operator smartcard acceptance - ie registering one's TOC smartcard with our operators. I don't want (or need to) hold a smartcard from every operator I might use.....

Given that a very high percentage of people own a smartphone, you'd think that should be the common format? Or is it perceived to be less robust (may not be charged...) in comparison to a smartcard?

and not replaceable if lost.....

Co-ordinating and promoting a cross-accepted smart card might be the very thing you would expect a trade association to be leading on.

I thought I'd posted a link to the ITSO document set before, but apparently not - so here it is (https://www.itso.org.uk/services/specification-resources/itso-technical-specification/).

The whole ITSO system is predefined, including all the products to be loaded onto it (IPEs), though it does include a defined type for private produce entities. But there is this footnote:

I suspect that all products being introduced will use the compatible formats, and the only thing stopping you putting one TOC's product on another's ticket will be detecting who issued the ticket (ITSO platform). In other words they could enable cross-loading once they have persuaded themselves they want or need to.

I wonder if eventually we will be able to use a GWR card to buy tickets, for example , from the SWR site or even Trainline. Otherwise once you get a card you would be tied to the website belonging to the card publisher to purchase tickets, if you don't want paper tickets.
I am not sure how you could load a GWR card to the SWR site but it does have a numerical code on the card.

And is there anything to stop non-TOCs such as Trainline from issuing a smartcard?

From GWR.com

This was what I was referring to - a smartphone, not a smartcard....

I agree that holding multiple smartcards (one for each operator) would be a pain. The student card I had towards the end of my time at university was a 'smart' one that could unlock doors; when I boarded a bus and placed my railcard wallet, containing my university card and my (ITSO) Concessionary Travel Pass, on the bus ticket machine it would sometimes fail to read the ITSO card. The driver explained that the two cards could conflict with each other. I imagine having a student card, contactless bank card and multiple operator's ITSO cards could be rather annoying.

That's one of the reasons I returned the contactless debit card my bank supplied me with and asked them to give me a standard chip-and-pin only card instead. A passenger could purchase a ticket on an ITSO card, but the ticket machine might read their contactless bank card instead and they get charged again for their journey. The alternative of a smartphone, which could hold tickets from multiple operators, runs the risk of flat batteries rendering the passenger 'ticketless'.

TfL advise that you do not keep your Oyster card and any contactless cards in the same wallet as the wrong card could be read when tapping in or out

Recent information received suggests GWR smartcards will not be readable at TFL Crossrail stations.

THat sounds like a software issue. TfL gates are ITSO, so are GWR, so they *can* be read. TfL would need to load GWR fares to recognise the ticket, that's all.

GWR's smartcard is the fifth best in the country! Alternatively, you could look at it as being the fourth worst... in one person's opinion.
https://www.citymetric.com/transport/every-train-operating-company-smartcard-ranked-how-smart-card-4482

<this page blank>
(double posted due to connection failure or similar - and there's no way of deleting a post that I can see)


Edit to add - sorry, server issue encouraged the double post when it should not; I have posted an explanation as it's useful for everyone at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=21525.0 .   I will leave this here as a pointer to the explanation as you're not the only one to have this happen ... - Grahame

He seems to have ranked it by card design. I would put the GWR one ahead of the SWR one solely for the reason you don't need a photocard with the GWR version. GWR take a photo upload when you apply, SWR link to your paper photocard number when you purchase a smartcard season (the name must match that printed on the smartcard as well).

It's all a bit of a dog's breakfast.

He says his first consideration was how much use you can put each card to, but he's certainly paid attention to card design. I feel his secondary point was to say it's a bit of a mess having different cards for each operator.

I hadn't realised e-tickets could be used across other operators. I've just played around with the app to see if any of my recent journeys could have been bought as e-tickets from the GWR app

Bookham to Gatwick Airport
 Bookham to Leatherhead - SWR
 Leatherhead to Dorking - Southern or SWR
 Dorking to Gatwick - GWR

Bookham to Guildford
 Direct - SWR

SUCCESS - I can buy an E-ticket for those journeys.

Bookham to Brighton
 As above but then Southern or Thameslink or Gatwick Express from Gatwick to Brighton

 OR
 Bookham to Clapham Junction - SWR
 Clapham Junction to Brighton - Southern or Gatwick Express.

FAIL - None of those options offered e-tickets as an option.

 I am happy that the Gatwick journey is available as an e-ticket because I can buy the ticket for the reverse journey after clearing customs and go straight to the platform. Why not buy it in advance? It's sometimes quicker to take a different route home so I need to get near the station before I can be sure which route I want to take.

The FAQs you can download from gwr.com still don't realise that - though that was written last year. Obviously there's software teams beavering away at the purchase and download platforms for this, and for the smart(ish) cards, to add the missing functionality to them.