Metrolink smartcard woes.

[plugwash]

Last tuesday mum and I travelled from somewhere in the vicinity of stockport to the trafford centre and back. Mum was using a TFGM old persons pass (with train and metrolink validity added) while I was using a countycard* and a contactless debit card.

We arrived at picadilly by train, went to the metrolink stop mum touched in and we boarded a train to cornbrook. I did not touch in at this stage since my county card covered the first leg of my metrolink journey. We got to cornbrook and I touched in with my debit card, no problems so far and we boarded a tram to the traffprd center.

When we got to the trafford center, mum touched out fine, but when I tried to touch out it said "not authorised for travel" which was kind of strange as I was trying to touch OUT. I tried again and it gave an OK message.

After our visit we went to touch back in, again mum touched in fine but I got an error, I tried again and got a different error, on about the fourth or fifth attempt it finally accepted my card. I guess some kind of communication issue with the readers (there was a pretty big storm that day, maybe related, maybe not), but I dunno for sure.

We got back to deansgate and touched out, intending to catch a train to picadilly, but then realised we were too late, so mum tried to touch back in to catch a tram to picadilly. Unfortunately she got an error about touching twice, waited a few moments and tried again, same thing. Tried a different reader, same thing. There seemed to be no way to bypass this feature and touch back in, and in the end we boarded the tram anyway.

When we got to picadilly, mum touched her card against my advice and it recorded an "entry", she tried to touch back out but again got the dreaded "touched twice" message. At this point we gave up and left.I presume mums touch-in will have timed out at some point.

I just checked my bank account and it seems they did charge me correctly (£4.30 off peak day travelcard).

In the end, no real harm done though I don't know what would have happend if we had met a revenue inspector between deansgate and picadilly. Still this is the sort of experiance that puts people off smart ticketing.

* For those who aren't deeply familiar with TFGM ticketing, a countrycard is a season ticket that allows travel on busses and trains in greater manchester, plus the "city zone" of metrolink**. If you buy it from a rail station it's issued on special CCST stock, i'm not sure what it's issued in if you buy it from a TFGM travelshop.

** The metrolink maps no longer show a "city zone" despite the county card still using that description, i'm pretty sure it's equivilent to zone 1 though.

 

[zero]

The Hong Kong light rail has separate standalone readers for entry and exit, which would have solved one of your problems had it been implemented here.

Bidirectional readers also cause problems in unbarriered Oyster area stations.

 

[WatcherZero]

Smartcard readers usually have a timeout so you cant touch in/out within 1 or 2 minutes or so of a previous swipe to stop you accidentally swiping twice.

 

[507 001]

Had you encountered a CSR team and offered them the contactless card it would have automatically penalty fared you.

The CSRs don’t even know when this has happened.

 

[ic31420]

As a semi regular user of the metrolink (I live with 4 miles) these new ticket reader touching and out are a bit of a mystery to me. I always just buy a ticket from a tvm.

I think at the point of use they're not very well explained.

Edit.. thinking about it I'm usually on a System 1 bus & tram or bus, tram and train... Usually bought on the bus. They're great value.

 

[Neatro]

The ticketing system is very easy to use if you underrated it.

You seemed to over complicate it some how.

Here's what should have happened.

You with your countrycard tap in at deansgate and out at the Trafford centre. You then do exactly the reverse and that's your fare correct.

Your mum taps in at Piccadilly and out at the Trafford centre and it'll automatically work out your fare.

She then does exactly the reverse again on your way back.

You dont have to keep tapping in and out every time you get off a tram only where your journey starts and your destination in this case it's Piccadilly to the Trafford centre.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

You with your countrycard tap in at deansgate and out at the Trafford centre. You then do exactly the reverse and that's your fare correct.

Countycard, isn't it? Normally valid across the entirety of Metrolink (City) Zone 1.

Why tap in at Deansgate (on a tram journey to the Trafford Centre) with a Countycard?

Won't this result in a higher fare than tapping in at Cornbrook (located on the Metrolink Zone 1+2 boundary) where the fare onward to the Trafford Centre would then be £3.10 for an Off Peak Day Travelcard (Zones 2+3)?

 

[plugwash]

In retrospect, what I should have done is not use contactless at all and bought a zone 2+3 day travelcard on paper, but I wasn't sure whether I would use metrolink on the return journey, so I opted for contactless. This ended up costing me slightly more because i changed at deansgate rather than cornbrook on the way back and so was charged for a zone 1-3 day travelcard.

But that isn't the point of this thread. The point is that all the publicity on metrolink smartcards assumes the happy path. There is no information on what you should do if "computer says no" to your contactless bank card after you have started travelling for the day (it seems the answer is keep trying until it accepts it). There is no warning that if you tap out and then change your mind you will be blocked from tapping back in, nor any documentation on how long that block will be.

 

[Neatro]

Countycard, isn't it? Normally valid across the entirety of Metrolink (City) Zone 1.

Why tap in at Deansgate (on a tram journey to the Trafford Centre) with a Countycard?

Won't this result in a higher fare than tapping in at Cornbrook (located on the Metrolink Zone 1+2 boundary) where the fare onward to the Trafford Centre would then be £3.10 for an Off Peak Day Travelcard (Zones 2+3)?

But she went back to deansgate not cornbrook so zones 1-3. It would have been cheaper to get a 2-3 travel card and let her countycard (my phone corrected it the first time) cover zone 1.

So she's effectively gone zone 2-3 then 3-1 which the travel card doesn't cover it'll just convert it iirc to a 1-3 travel card as it's cheaper than a single 2-3 and then single 3-1.

But yes ideally they should have got on and off at cornbrook and let her card cover zone 1 but going off what they did catching the tram from deansgate in both directions the travel cards cheaper iirc.

 

[plugwash]

Yeah, as you say in retrospect a zone 2-3 travelcard would have been better.

but I didn't know what my return route would be when i set off, if i had travelled back on the bus then the contactless single would have been significantly cheaper, if i had changed at Cornbrook on the way back then contactless would have been the same price as a paper ticket, as it was it turned out slightly more expensive.

 

[Neatro]

Yeah just unfortunate where you got off to make it slightly more expensive.

My main point wasn't about the cost but you and your mum that you can just tap on where you start and tap out where you get off not every time you get off a tram.

It's similar to the underground but a little more confusing is all

 

[plugwash]

My main point wasn't about the cost but you and your mum that you can just tap on where you start and tap out where you get off not every time you get off a tram.

Afaict unlike in london you are supposed to tap out when changing modes, we were originally planning to get a train from deansgate to picadilly, but then realised we weren't going to make it. Unfortunately by the time i communicated that to mum she had already touched out.