GTR Ticket Card

[kacper]

I asked Thameslink if I can get a ticket card from a ticket office at Stevenage and they said they have Great Northern ones. Are these not the same company, will I need 2 cards for Thameslink and Great Northern?

 

[alistairlees]

If you mean a smart card to add tickets to, then you can get one online. It will work for all TOCs in England.

The gtr response is not very helpful. They are indeed the same company.

 

[MrJeeves]

I asked Thameslink if I can get a ticket card from a ticket office at Stevenage and they said they have Great Northern ones. Are these not the same company, will I need 2 cards for Thameslink and Great Northern?

They have the same smartcard for all the GTR brands, and one will work on all the others (hell, your Thameslink account online also lets you log in on all the other brands' websites too!). Twitter is misguided here, as per usual with GTR.

It has been quite a number of years since GTR had branded Keys for each of the separate brands they operate under.

 

[kacper]

If you mean a smart card to add tickets to, then you can get one online. It will work for all TOCs in England.

The gtr response is not very helpful. They are indeed the same company.

Would my Greater Anglia card be fine for any other company then? Would an inspector be able to check it?

 

[MrJeeves]

Would my Greater Anglia card be fine for any other company then? Would an inspector be able to check it?

Yes, all* TOCs issue smartcards which use a unified standard called ITSO.

This means that you can use a Greater Anglia smartcard on GWR, or a GTR Key on LNER, or a TfWM Swift on Northern!

The only thing you miss out on is GTR's PAYG system called keyGo, which can only be set up with their own Key smartcards.

* Well, most.

 

[kacper]

Yes, all* TOCs issue smartcards which use a unified standard called ITSO.

This means that you can use a Greater Anglia smartcard on GWR, or a GTR Key on LNER, or a TfWM Swift on Northern!

The only thing you miss out on is GTR's PAYG system called keyGo, which can only be set up with their own Key smartcards.

* Well, most.

Thank you for the info, I don’t really need key go so i’ll be fine

 

[crablab]

This means that you can use a Greater Anglia smartcard on GWR, or a GTR Key on LNER, or a TfWM Swift on Northern!

This is not my experience...

 

[MrJeeves]

This is not my experience...

If you are buying tickets online or via an app, then you can only load smart tickets to your smartcard from that TOC.

GTR don't do this anyway (they used to, I seem to recall, but don't anymore) except for season tickets.

At a TVM, any smartcard should work fine.

 

[paul1609]

It also appears that my GTR key can no longer be used to buy out boundary day travel cards at Southeastern TVMs (Tonbridge)

 

[Wallsendmag]

This is not my experience...

What's your experience then? Smartcards work like carrier bags, you can use an Aldi bag in Waitrose

 

[crablab]

What's your experience then? Smartcards work like carrier bags, you can use an Aldi bag in Waitrose

I understand that's the intent of the ITSO spec.

My experience was that I couldn't use an SWR smartcard at GWR TVMs. Maybe the card was just dead.
I have a selection of ITSO cards - I'll go and try them at some point and see what happens.

 

[Wallsendmag]

I understand that's the intent of the ITSO spec.

My experience was that I couldn't use an SWR smartcard at GWR TVMs. Maybe the card was just dead.
I have a selection of ITSO cards - I'll go and try them at some point and see what happens.

Or maybe the TVM was faulty.

 

[OscarH]

This means that you can use a Greater Anglia smartcard on GWR, or a GTR Key on LNER, or a TfWM Swift on Northern!

Real TOC cards I've had no issues with being interoperable, however I've not had any luck loading rail tickets onto Swift ITSO cards in the Midlands

 

[MrJeeves]

however I've not had any luck loading rail tickets onto Swift ITSO cards in the Midlands

I've only been able to buy a point to point flexi season from any TVM in the TfWM area. Anything else just has one way/return greyed out on the screen. I would assume this is something TfWM have configured on their TVMs for whatever reason. I should try using my Swift on a GTR TVM at some point.

 

[Haywain]

however I've not had any luck loading rail tickets onto Swift ITSO cards in the Midlands

The TfWM Swift card is not a TOC smartcard.

 

[Joshua_Harman]

I’ve found that my GWR Smartcard doesn’t work anywhere outside of places that GWR Operate, when I use it around the Southampton sort of area it works with no issues, when I used it on another TOC’s services elsewhere in the country it didn’t work any of the gatelines..

 

[njr001]

I had no issue using a GWR Smartcard in TFL / Chiltern land. Loaded a Rickmansworth to Aylesbury Vale Parkway off peak day return. On return was dropped off at Amersham and had no problem at gate line.

 

[fandroid]

What are people's experiences of loading Smartcards when buying online and loading the tickets with a phone equipped for NFC?

I can do that on my SWR Touch Card, but only when buying tickets from the SWR app for journeys involving SWR stations . That allows purchase of one day Travelcards and offpeak day returns but not Evening Out tickets. I have a GWR Touch card too, but that doesn't seem to allow loading from the GWR app on the phone.

 

[Wallsendmag]

What are people's experiences of loading Smartcards when buying online and loading the tickets with a phone equipped for NFC?

I can do that on my SWR Touch Card, but only when buying tickets from the SWR app for journeys involving SWR stations . That allows purchase of one day Travelcards and offpeak day returns but not Evening Out tickets. I have a GWR Touch card too, but that doesn't seem to allow loading from the GWR app on the phone.

Try the National Rail Smartcard Manager App to load tickets onto cards. You'll only need the one app for any TOC.

 

[Surreytraveller]

What's your experience then? Smartcards work like carrier bags, you can use an Aldi bag in Waitrose

They really don't.

My child just started college has:
Zip 16/17 Oystercard
Normal Oystercard with Priv discount
Staff dependant pass on ITSO
Annual bus pass for local bus company on ITSO
Local council ITSO card to get child bus fares on other local companies

Plus their own Debit Card for other contactless payments. For a technology that's supposed to be integrated, it really isn't.

 

[Wallsendmag]

They really don't.

My child just started college has:
Zip 16/17 Oystercard
Normal Oystercard with Priv discount
Staff dependant pass on ITSO
Annual bus pass for local bus company on ITSO
Local council ITSO card to get child bus fares on other local companies

Plus their own Debit Card for other contactless payments. For a technology that's supposed to be integrated, it really isn't.

Sorry I thought this was a rail forum, only one of those is a Rail Smartcard and even that isn't issued by a TOC. In the world of TOC issued Smartcards you can load any ticket allowed on a smartcard to any card face to face/TVM*. Webtis must only be from the same TOC.

 

[Surreytraveller]

Sorry I thought this was a rail forum, only one of those is a Rail Smartcard and even that isn't issued by a TOC. In the world of TOC issued Smartcards you can load any ticket allowed on a smartcard to any card face to face/TVM*. Webtis must only be from the same TOC.

Sorry, I thought ITSO is an integrated smartcard usable on rail. And three of those items on my list can be used on rail. And my list is an example of the dis-jointed ticketing on public transport, including rail, in this country

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 10 Sep 2023 ==

And I've no idea what a webtis is

 

[OscarH]

Sorry, I thought ITSO is an integrated smartcard usable on rail. And three of those items on my list can be used on rail. And my list is an example of the dis-jointed ticketing on public transport, including rail, in this country

Oyster cards sadly aren't ITSO - they predate the standard, and no one ever invested the money to convert them

Definitely agree ITSO cards from different vendors don't interoperate as they should, TOC ones are fairly alright, but can have their issues, but I don't see a reason bus ones shouldn't hold rail tickets and vice versa, it was just easier not to bother

And I've no idea what a webtis is

The industry name for an online retail site (because we have to make up new words/acronyms for anything)

 

[Surreytraveller]

Oyster cards sadly aren't ITSO - they predate the standard, and no one ever invested the money to convert them

Definitely agree ITSO cards from different vendors don't interoperate as they should, TOC ones are fairly alright, but can have their issues, but I don't see a reason bus ones shouldn't hold rail tickets and vice versa, it was just easier not to bother


The industry name for an online retail site (because we have to make up new works/acronyms for anything)

I realise Oyster Cards aren't the same standard. Obviously at the time the rail industry wasn't interested/was too big a task to become involved, but its ridiculous someone has to have five different cards when one is perfectly technologically capable of working if there was joined up thinking

 

[fandroid]

Try the National Rail Smartcard Manager App to load tickets onto cards. You'll only need the one app for any TOC.

I have the National Rail Smartcard Manager app and have noticed that it has a button for loading tickets. I'll try it for my next local GWR journey.

 

[Wallsendmag]

I realise Oyster Cards aren't the same standard. Obviously at the time the rail industry wasn't interested/was too big a task to become involved, but its ridiculous someone has to have five different cards when one is perfectly technologically capable of working if there was joined up thinking

There’s also limited space for products on a Smartcard.

 

[johncrossley]

KeyGo couldn't be added to a Chiltern smartcard. There was a thread about it

Adding KeyGo to non-GTR smartcard

Can I add KeyGo to a non-GTR smartcard? For example, a Chiltern one.

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