ITSO progress

[mattdickinson]

A few areas of progress in the ITSO world:

The relatively new ticket collection machines at London Victoria
(Southern) have now had ITSO pads added.

The new TVMs on the Tyne & Wear Metro can read Go North East Key cards
and StagecoachSmart Bus cards.

National Express West Midlands buses (by far the largest bus operator
in the West Midlands) has agreed to join the Centro Swiftcard.

 

[notaspota]

The Southern 'key' card is being implemented at all stations across the Southern network apparently, all stations will support Pay-as-You-Go transactions by Winter 2013. I have no idea how realistic this is though, the current stations which have it have been weirdly picked - some terminus stations don't have it and some completely irrelevant stations which pick up a small amount have it.

As for Southeastern, they're being incredibly slow and have no clear plans to roll it out.

Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contactless_smartcards_on_the_railways_of_Britain

 

[bicbasher]

As for Southeastern, they're being incredibly slow and have no clear plans to roll it out.

Which will leave passengers using Southern's services through the Hastings area only being able to use it at Ore once the readers are installed, same with Marshlink passengers not being able to use it at Ashford.

 

[notaspota]

Which will leave passengers using Southern's services through the Hastings area only being able to use it at Ore once the readers are installed, same with Marshlink passengers not being able to use it at Ashford.

Not quite sure what you mean, as Soutern operates the Ashford to Brighton srrvice and Ashford to Hastings shuttle on weekends, it's very rare Southeastern actually operates via Marshlink other than HS1, but that's technically not Marshlink.

Also, Ore doesn't even have a permit to travel machine, let alone a ticket machine, so I think it's very unlikely anyway.

As of present, you can travel starting at Bexhill to Gatwick Airport using The Key via Southern, hopefully this will extend so their services will operate between Hastings and London Victoria fully along with the ability to purchase and assign advanced tickets to the card.

 

[swt_passenger]

What he means is that SE operated stations such as Ashford will not have ITSO readers. AIUI their (SE's) current franchise doesn't call for ITSO at all. They're not slow, they don't yet have to do it at all...

A similar problem exists on the west coast way where although SWT stations have ITSO readers fitted there is no obvious plan to bring them into use by SWT, so it's highly unlikely they can be used by SN. It was mentioned here a while ago that SN did not expect their system to operate into SWT's area, so that hinders all their westbound commuters who venture beyond Warblington...

 

[bicbasher]

I don't think it should be much of an issue using The Key on Southern Metro routes where the stations are managed by London Overground as I understand the gates and validator will be ITSO ready with users touching the Oyster readers. Buying the products on The Key/ITSO may be another issue though considering those ex Southern stations are being upgraded to use FasTIS at ticket offices and TfL's smartcard takes priority.

 

[mattdickinson]

What he means is that SE operated stations such as Ashford will not have ITSO readers. AIUI their (SE's) current franchise doesn't call for ITSO at all. They're not slow, they don't yet have to do it at all...

A similar problem exists on the west coast way where although SWT stations have ITSO readers fitted there is no obvious plan to bring them into use by SWT, so it's highly unlikely they can be used by SN. It was mentioned here a while ago that SN did not expect their system to operate into SWT's area, so that hinders all their westbound commuters who venture beyond Warblington...

Most of the Southeastern franchise area will be covered by the South East Flexible Ticketing project.