"Smart ticketing goes nationwide"

[whole diary]

[Fourbee]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'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

He seems to have ranked it by card design. I would put the GWR one ahead of the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) 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.

[Bmblbzzz]

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.

[Surrey 455]

How mobile e-Tickets work
book your ticket from our app or website
choose ‘Download a mobile ticket’ as your delivery option if available
open your mobile e-Ticket from ‘My Tickets’ within our app – no need to activate it
hold your device against the reader to open the ticket gate*
Where they can be used
Available on single and return fares on most GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) routes*, as well as:

Arriva Trains Wales
CrossCountry
Southern
South Western Railway
West Midlands Railway

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^» (South Western Railway - about)
 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.

[stuving]

I hadn't realised e-tickets could be used across other operators.

The FAQs^▸ (Frequently Asked Questions) 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.