Using The Key on South West Trains

[eAi]

I just bought a single ticket on my Southern Vectis The Key and tried to use it on South West Trains. The ticket was purchased from a SWT machine and the journey involved a SWT and a CrossCountry train - between Swathling and Winchester. Is this a valid thing to do?

I spoke to a SWT employee at Southhampton Airport Parkway, and he thought it wasn't - he said that they only support their own smart cards and they only support season tickets. The reader at Swathling didn't seem to recognise my card, the reader at Southhampton Airport Parkway did - but said it didn't have a valid ticket, the ticket machine at Southampton Airport Parkway said I did have a valid ticket. All the online information about smart cards suggests you need to use the company's own card - but doesn't say this explicitly - and clearly the ticket machines don't enforce this!

 

[jon0844]

I thought the idea was that they're all ITSO cards but individually branded. If they can't work on other routes/services, how will they ever work for long distance travel with multiple operators?

What a total farce. It needed ATOC or the DfT to take charge of this and then allow TOCs to do nothing but branding.

 

[swt_passenger]

...he said that they only support their own smart cards and they only support season tickets.

He was wrong on that last bit. SWT only issue the Stagecoach Smart to SWT season ticket holders, but once they have one they can load other SWT single and return fares.

 

[TEW]

And a Travelcard on The Key would be valid on SWT services in Zones 1-6 too.

 

[jon0844]

And a Travelcard on The Key would be valid on SWT services in Zones 1-6 too.

Have all the issues been ironed out with regards to these, for use on the tube and, more importantly, buses?

I see Govia is now advertising The Key again on trains, but there's still no sign of day tickets or travelcards.. or PAYG.

I suspect Hatfield will get Oyster (confirmed now as late 2018) before The Key for PAYG/day tickets!

 

[eAi]

I thought the idea was that they're all ITSO cards but individually branded. If they can't work on other routes/services, how will they ever work for long distance travel with multiple operators?

What a total farce. It needed ATOC or the DfT to take charge of this and then allow TOCs to do nothing but branding.

I thought that was the point to.

I'd much rather these cards were National Rail branded and run by ATOC. That would be much clearer than this random mess of tickets. I've honestly no idea if they actually expect you to have one card per operator you travel with?

Does every guard/inspector across the country have a reader? Can you only buy tickets to stations that have readers?

 

[jon0844]

It would seem like that's the case. If nothing else, you get a card from, say, Govia, and then register it. Then you buy tickets on their website to download at a station.

I have to assume you can't register a card from another operator, or buy smartcard tickets from another operator website. That in itself shows where there will be problems in the future.

Now The Key will work on all Govia/Goahead sites, but I think you still need to register with different operators. I know I couldn't just use my Southern one on the buses in the Isle of Wight for example. But I can use the Southern one on Great Northern.

It's a total mess. And the day tickets are all removed now, so while I did manage to buy a day ticket before it officially launched, I can't now. Nobody can. What's more, the thing worked fine! An RPI even successfully read my card and saw my ticket on it!

 

[TEW]

Have all the issues been ironed out with regards to these, for use on the tube and, more importantly, buses?

I see Govia is now advertising The Key again on trains, but there's still no sign of day tickets or travelcards.. or PAYG.

I suspect Hatfield will get Oyster (confirmed now as late 2018) before The Key for PAYG/day tickets!

I think there are still problems with buses unfortunately. SWT have started rolling out Travelcard seasons on their smartcard and problems on buses are being reported, as with the Key.

 

[jon0844]

I think there are still problems with buses unfortunately. SWT have started rolling out Travelcard seasons on their smartcard and problems on buses are being reported, as with the Key.

I couldn't be doing with grief on buses. That would stop me getting a season on a smartcard, and I'm a strong advocate of smartcards and split tickets to get to use Oyster years ago.

 

[wibble]

What a total farce. It needed ATOC or the DfT to take charge of this and then allow TOCs to do nothing but branding.

A lot of this is down to the DfT's own delays.... SWT developed their own smartcard as part of a franchise commitment, and I'm sure Southern had a franchise commitment too.

 

[jon0844]

What it should have been is the DfT developing it, or setting out the requirements, and then the TOCs required to get it operational by a certain time within the franchise.

And now, given the way it was done, there should be new targets published and details on interoperability that each TOC must comply with.

There's absolutely NO sense of urgency. I remember my first experience with smartcard ticketing back in 1996 or 1997 in Hong Kong. Of course there's a cost, but the technology isn't cutting edge anymore. It has advanced and matured, yet we still can't for the most part take advantage.

The fact that seasons still don't work quite right is scandalous. Sure, a first world problem to some, but in its own right a total disaster.

 

[mattdickinson]

AGA and c2c Smartcards can be used on either companies TVMs (outside Greater London and 2 at Barking).

 

[fandroid]

Roger Ford recently wrote that DfT has just about given up on it and left it to the TOCs. He likened it to Mao's 'Great Leap Forward' ('let a thousands flowers bloom') He assumed that readers knew how that had been a total disaster.

 

[eAi]

I finally got a reply back from SWT customer service and they say that only their smartcard is valid on their trains, and that that isn't valid on Cross Country trains. How a normal user is expected to understand that I'm not sure - when ticket machines will sell you a ticket and the gate card readers are unbranded.

 

[jkdd77]

It sounds like SWT customers services don't know what they are talking about.

Can I use my Smartcard on other train services?
Yes...[snip]...
South West Trains Smart has been accepted on Arriva Cross Country services between Bournemouth and Basingstoke since 2009.

https://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/tickets-explained/smartcard/

In any case, logically, smartcards ought to have the same validity as the paper tickets they replicate, unless it is made clear to the customer at the point of purchase that this is not the case.