ITSO Enabled TVMs in the Oyster Area

[themeone]

There have been threads before about this where the consensus was that ITSO enabled TVMs are rare in the Oyster area, some exceptions being London St Pancras, London Marylebone and a few others.

It seems this information is recorded in nationalrail.co.uk under "Stations". If you look up a station and then click on "Ticket buying and collection" a popup will appear showing what Oyster and smartcard facilities are available. It correctly shows ITSO enabled TVMs at St Pancras and Marylebone ("Load smartcard at ticket machine") so I tried a few other stations I know reasonably well.

It claims you can also load smartcards at ticket machine at both London Waterloo and Clapham Junction but I've never noticed any ITSO enabled TVMs at either. Then I tried Reigate - not in the Oyster area admittedly, but the system incorrectly says no smartcard tickets can be purchased. This is definitely wrong as I recently purchased one there from the TVM.

 

[transportphoto]

Have you ever tried an ITSO card against an Oyster reader? You may be surprised.

 

[Edvid]

If you tap an ITSO smartcard against a Pearl (Oyster) reader on the Cubic TVMs (LU / Elizabeth line) or AFMs / MFMs (LU) you can see what's already loaded to it, but you can't load a ticket that way.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Station pages on NRE are reliant on TOCs updating them when something changes. There's no API they can call to check for TVM functionality.

 

[themeone]

Station pages on NRE are reliant on TOCs updating them when something changes. There's no API they can call to check for TVM functionality.

I assumed it would be something like that. In other words this is not reliable information. I am curious about Waterloo though - were there ever TVMs there which could load to smartcard? Or are there still some that I just haven't noticed? It's a big station after all.

 

[Wallsendmag]

There have been threads before about this where the consensus was that ITSO enabled TVMs are rare in the Oyster area, some exceptions being London St Pancras, London Marylebone and a few others.

It seems this information is recorded in nationalrail.co.uk under "Stations". If you look up a station and then click on "Ticket buying and collection" a popup will appear showing what Oyster and smartcard facilities are available. It correctly shows ITSO enabled TVMs at St Pancras and Marylebone ("Load smartcard at ticket machine") so I tried a few other stations I know reasonably well.

It claims you can also load smartcards at ticket machine at both London Waterloo and Clapham Junction but I've never noticed any ITSO enabled TVMs at either. Then I tried Reigate - not in the Oyster area admittedly, but the system incorrectly says no smartcard tickets can be purchased. This is definitely wrong as I recently purchased one there from the TVM.

How very dare you dismiss one of the finest London stations (Kings Cross) as "others"

 

[themeone]

How very dare you dismiss one of the finest London stations (Kings Cross) as "others"

Haha, sorry!

 

[fandroid]

Coincidentally I tried to use the TVMs at Waterloo yesterday to buy a ticket to load onto an SWR smartcard. I gave up when I saw the only smartcard icon on the screen was for Oyster. As the only TVMs I was aware of are those in a double sided bank in the middle of the concourse, I didn't look further.

As SWR's busiest station by a very big amount, it seems utterly bizarre to not have this facility there.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Coincidentally I tried to use the TVMs at Waterloo yesterday to buy a ticket to load onto an SWR smartcard. I gave up when I saw the only smartcard icon on the screen was for Oyster. As the only TVMs I was aware of are those in a double sided bank in the middle of the concourse, I didn't look further.

As SWR's busiest station by a very big amount, it seems utterly bizarre to not have this facility there.

You'd need to visit the Ticket Office

 

[themeone]

Have you ever tried an ITSO card against an Oyster reader? You may be surprised.

Touching an ITSO card on an Oyster pad on TVMs produces the "Error reading Oystercard" message in my experience. These are the older TVMs found at most NR stations in the Oyster area.

 

[transportphoto]

Touching an ITSO card on an Oyster pad on TVMs produces the "Error reading Oystercard" message in my experience. These are the older TVMs found at most NR stations in the Oyster area.

It’s been a while since I tried. I recall once being surprised an LUL Passenger Operated Machine successfully read an ITSO card.

 

[800002]

Have you ever tried an ITSO card against an Oyster reader? You may be surprised.

Did this once as Paddington, underground (ground level H+C/ district) with my staff travel pass / ID.
Was presently surprised to see the location and time, earlier that morning, that the pass was last used to enter the network!

 

[themeone]

This morning I noticed an ITSO enabled TVM at Epsom. I think it may be new, as I don't remember seeing it there before.

 

[kijeta]

I recall once being surprised an LUL Passenger Operated Machine successfully read an ITSO card.

LUL POMs* do successfully read ITSOs. In fact, they even show the most recent journey, as well as a list of stored products, shown in a table format that doesn't seem like it was designed for customers.

* But not other TOCs' TVMs' Pearl readers.