Smart cards?

[whole diary]

[a06285]

I'm currently buying a weekly Zones 1-6 Travelcard from Maidenhead, and am about to buy my first ever yearly ticket.

I was wondering if it's at all possible to get a smart card ticket, as seems to be the norm for at least one other train company with season tickets? If not, is it so imminent that I could conceivably hold out for it?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

[ChrisB]

Not in the next 12 months, I don't think

[Surrey 455]

I can't use ITSO smartcards at the moment. I start my journey from one of the few stations on the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) network that isn't enabled yet (even though the readers have been there for at least 6 years). I'd like to use them because I hear they are more durable than paper tickets. My annual ticket is not actually paper, its a thin flimsy piece of plastic. I usually have to replace it at least 3 times a year because the mag stripe fails or the ink on the front starts smudging so that bus drivers or ticket inspectors struggle to read it.

Smartcards seem to be widespread on the rest of the SWT, Southern and SouthEastern networks but I wonder if they would work if say

• I start my journey at an SWT managed and smarcard enabled station outside London and finished at Gatwick, where SWT do not go?
• I buy a journey extension to the season ticket already stored. Would I have to touch in at the start or during the journey?

http://swtsmart.co.uk/

[bobm]

I'm currently buying a weekly Zones 1-6 Travelcard from Maidenhead, and am about to buy my first ever yearly ticket.

I was wondering if it's at all possible to get a smart card ticket, as seems to be the norm for at least one other train company with season tickets? If not, is it so imminent that I could conceivably hold out for it?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

May I take this opportunity to offer our customary welcome to the forum to a06285?

There are a number of commuters from Maidenhead among our membership who will no doubt be keen to share their experiences on their daily journeys with you....   

[ChrisB]

Crossrail will, on start, allow use of Oystercards, but that is over 12 months away & will only allow use on Crossrail trains, not GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).

Anything else I think is probably in the next GWR franchise

[a06285]

May I take this opportunity to offer our customary welcome to the forum to a06285?

There are a number of commuters from Maidenhead among our membership who will no doubt be keen to share their experiences on their daily journeys with you....   

Thank you. Only been working in the city for a month now, but have discovered that a laissez-faire attitude to trains and tubes will probably save me the most stress!!

[a06285]

Crossrail will, on start, allow use of Oystercards, but that is over 12 months away & will only allow use on Crossrail trains, not GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).

Anything else I think is probably in the next GWR franchise

Cross rail is indeed a long time away, and would be especially useful given that my workplace is next to Farringdon station 

[JayMac]

Crossrail will, on start, allow use of Oystercards, but that is over 12 months away & will only allow use on Crossrail trains, not GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).

Is it confirmed that there won't be inter-available ticketing between London and Crossrail served destinations?

GWR's Franchise Agreement  requires the stations they operate, that will also be served by Crossrail, to retail Crossrail/Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) ticketing.

I suspect there will be similar fares integration as seen at Watford Junction and inward to London. There are inter-available fares and season tickets on that route with which you can use both the services of National Rail and Transport for London.

[ChrisB]

Indeed, it is such a long way off (in relative terms) that anything ticketing-wise is still possible, BNM.

Personally, I hope that Crossrail might instate it's own (lower) fares, simply to instil some competition - but you're right, if the go for the Watford Junction inwards style of ticketing, there'll just be the one interavailable fare. But those trains all stop all-stations.

[paul7575]

Personally, I hope that Crossrail might instate it's own (lower) fares, simply to instil some competition - but you're right, if the go for the Watford Junction inwards style of ticketing, there'll just be the one interavailable fare. But those trains all stop all-stations.

AIUI^▸ (as I understand it) all the recent extensions outside the traditional zones have either adopted existing LU zonal fares that match the price of existing NR^» (Network Rail - home page) fares, (e.g. putting the stations in zones 7, 8 or 9); or they have introduced new 'pseudo zones' as per the Watford Junction model.

Watford Junction is in a lettered 'Zone W' in PAYG^▸ (Pay as you go) internal operational terms, there are also Zones B, C, and G elsewhere.   You won't find any of these on the Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) fares map, they are all covered by the concept of 'special fares apply'. 

Someone has written a wiki article about this, as you'd expect:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stations_in_London_fare_zones_7–W

You can also find in the outer reaches of the map that zones are skipped, or the number isn't printed - so again using Watford Junction as an example you'll see on the Oyster map it is beyond Zone 8, but not in Zone 9, because number 9 is not printed.

I can't see Oyster to Reading being much different to other recent extensions, just going that bit further.   Lets hope they don't try and make it a complete mess like London to Gatwick, where different fares are charged if you pass through the specific Gatwick Express platforms at Victoria...

Paul

 

[Fourbee]

Smartcards seem to be widespread on the rest of the SWT^▸ (South West Trains), Southern and SouthEastern networks but I wonder if they would work if say

• I start my journey at an SWT managed and smarcard enabled station outside London and finished at Gatwick, where SWT do not go?
• I buy a journey extension to the season ticket already stored. Would I have to touch in at the start or during the journey?

The SWT smart website will not sell you a ticket to Gatwick AFAIK^▸ (as far as I know).

What happens if I forget to 'touch in' or 'touch out'?

    As long as you have a valid ticket on your Smartcard for your journey you will not be penalised for failing to 'touch in' or 'touch out'.

You can purchase season tickets some time before they are due to be valid on this smartcard scheme, but you must pick them up at the validator on the day nominated; they do not get sent before (hold the card flat on the reader until it has updated). They will also hold various Stagecoach bus tickets, but not the other way round (i.e. Stagecoach Smart bus smartcards cannot be used for rail tickets).

Not all guards bother carrying the PDA-type device used to validate the smartcard through the train.