Reading to Gatwick, via Contactless

[Jimini]

And for going to Gatwick, surely there will be a fairly substantial proportion of passengers with luggage who won't be that keen to change trains.

100%

 

[Tetchytyke]

it looks like someone (maybe GWR) has fixed it

They do read the forums, so I’m sure it was noticed and corrected quickly!

 

[MaidaVale]

But -- Reading resident here. We'd never even contemplate fannying around in town with the EL / Thameslink option.

Agreed. Even if I'm going down to Brighton, I'll typically cut across to Gatwick on the NDL and change there.

 

[talldave]

Nothing's ever straightforward with the railway, is it? I was going to suggest Reading to Clapham Junction then change for Gatwick. However, this link https://www.southwesternrailway.com/travelling-with-us/at-the-station/reading implies Contactless is valid for SWR from Reading but that doesn't tally with the map referenced earlier in the thread. If Reading accepts Contactless and so does Gatwick, how is the customer meant to know that despite paying using Contactless, that method of payment is not acceptable for some trains. With the current pretend renationalisation, it's ludicrous that the railway can't get its act together.

 

[Jimini]

Nothing's ever straightforward with the railway, is it? I was going to suggest Reading to Clapham Junction then change for Gatwick. However, this link https://www.southwesternrailway.com/travelling-with-us/at-the-station/reading implies Contactless is valid for SWR from Reading but that doesn't tally with the map referenced earlier in the thread. If Reading accepts Contactless and so does Gatwick, how is the customer meant to know that despite paying using Contactless, that method of payment is not acceptable for some trains. With the current pretend renationalisation, it's ludicrous that the railway can't get its act together.

You should read the Ascot races thread!

 

[rob.rjt]

It seems that Reading, Gatwick and Virginia Water are currently in the rather odd position of you being able to catch trains where both ends of the journey are in the contactless area, but the middle isn't. It doesn't help that TfL will give you a contactless fare between these two points even though you can't use that to get a direct train between those points.

As an aside, I wonder if you would be charged £9.60 to make the journey if you went via London

 

[johnny_t]

If Reading accepts Contactless and so does Gatwick, how is the customer meant to know that despite paying using Contactless, that method of payment is not acceptable for some trains.

Especially when the train that it is not valid on is a direct train that, literally, starts at Reading and terminates at Gatwick.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

Especially when the train that it is not valid on is a direct train that, literally, starts at Reading and terminates at Gatwick.

There's a rule I believe about valid routes which says that a route is always valid if there's a direct train. Perhaps the same needs to apply to contactless.

 

[Watershed]

There's a rule I believe about valid routes which says that a route is always valid if there's a direct train. Perhaps the same needs to apply to contactless.

It would certainly avoid a lot of the problems and confusion you see at the moment.

 

[reb0118]

There's a rule I believe about valid routes which says that a route is always valid if there's a direct train. Perhaps the same needs to apply to contactless.

Could the problem be that there is no route, nor indeed a ticket for contactless? Well, not until the journey has been completed and tapped out correctly.

 

[AdamWW]

Could the problem be that there is no route, nor indeed a ticket for contactless? Well, not until the journey has been completed and tapped out correctly.

I don't think the routing guide applies to contactless.

So long as you stay within a PAYG area and don't exceed time limits I don't think you can be penalised for taking a non permitted route. (Happy to be corrected if wrong).

 

[talldave]

It would be interesting to hear Trading Standards' view on this crazy situation.

 

[Haywain]

There's a rule I believe about valid routes which says that a route is always valid if there's a direct train.

That applies to tickets bought before travel, and only those routed 'Any Permitted'. Contactless simply works by calculating the fare for any journey within the contactless area, but restricts travel to being within that area.

 

[AdamWW]

That applies to tickets bought before travel, and only those routed 'Any Permitted'. Contactless simply works by calculating the fare for any journey within the contactless area, but restricts travel to being within that area.

It also applies to tickets bought during or even after travel.

 

[Haywain]

It also applies to tickets bought during or even after travel.

But not to contactless.

 

[talldave]

That applies to tickets bought before travel, and only those routed 'Any Permitted'. Contactless simply works by calculating the fare for any journey within the contactless area, but restricts travel to being within that area.

Define "the area". SWR's website refers to Contactless being accepted at Reading and then waffles on about services to Waterloo. But there's no definition of an "area" that includes Reading and Waterloo, so what does Joe public conclude?

Possibly that this is another rail industry shambles being trialled in one part of the country before being rolled out as a semi-national mega-shambles. The result of which is paying customers being penalty fared or having significant sums of money extorted from them under threat of being taken to court?

 

[AdamWW]

Define "the area".

Lines shown on the PAYG map.

If SWR aren't linking to the map or equivalent that's not very helpful.

 

[MotCO]

There's a rule I believe about valid routes which says that a route is always valid if there's a direct train. Perhaps the same needs to apply to contactless.

Likewise, isn't there a rule that a route is valid if it is the shortest route between two points? I would have thought a direct train from Reading to Gatwick would have met this requirement.

 

[fandroid]

Define "the area". SWR's website refers to Contactless being accepted at Reading and then waffles on about services to Waterloo. But there's no definition of an "area" that includes Reading and Waterloo, so what does Joe public conclude?

Possibly that this is another rail industry shambles being trialled in one part of the country before being rolled out as a semi-national mega-shambles. The result of which is paying customers being penalty fared or having significant sums of money extorted from them under threat of being taken to court?

This is what I found when searching for Contactless on the SWR Website. This map clearly shows only the inner suburban stations with services to Waterloo.


I'll look for the GWR map

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Oct 2025 ==

Here is the GWR website info on Contactless. A list of their stations between the zone 6 boundary on the mainline and Reading

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Oct 2025 ==

I know we've seen problems reported before with Reading being a contactless station but only for services along one route, notwithstanding that there are stations at the far end of two other direct routes where contactless is also accepted. The other trap is trying to use it for journeys towards Waterloo from Reading.

 

[MaidaVale]

SWR's website refers to Contactless being accepted at Reading and then waffles on about services to Waterloo. But there's no definition of an "area" that includes Reading and Waterloo

I really wouldn't take very much on the Reading page on the SWR website as gospel considering they're also claiming they operate the direct service to Bristol via Swindon (which is obviously a GWR service). I don't recall them ever having operated the Sunday-only 158/159 services from Reading (that normally terminate at Salisbury) to Bristol via Salisbury either, and if they did, it certainly would've taken a lot longer than 1hr14m, so it can't just be extremely outdated info. (I think it did go to Exeter from Reading on a Sunday at one point though). You could shave off a good 5-10 mins from their Waterloo claim too for the most part.

 

[talldave]

I really wouldn't take very much on the Reading page on the SWR website as gospel considering they're also claiming they operate the direct service to Bristol via Swindon (which is obviously a GWR service). I don't recall them ever having operated the Sunday-only 158/159 services from Reading (that normally terminate at Salisbury) to Bristol via Salisbury either, and if they did, it certainly would've taken a lot longer than 1hr14m, so it can't just be extremely outdated info. (I think it did go to Exeter from Reading on a Sunday at one point though). You could shave off a good 5-10 mins from their Waterloo claim too for the most part.

View attachment 189751

Experts might know it's inaccurate but the average customer will see that contactless is available at Reading, contactless is available at their destination and the operator of the contactless fares system quotes them a price. At what point are they meant to know that it's the paint job on the carriages that determines if they're going to end up "fined"?

 

[akm]

It seems that Reading, Gatwick and Virginia Water are currently in the rather odd position of you being able to catch trains where both ends of the journey are in the contactless area, but the middle isn't. It doesn't help that TfL will give you a contactless fare between these two points [Reading and Virigina Water] even though you can't use that to get a direct train between those points.

As an aside, I wonder if you would be charged £9.60 to make the journey if you went via London

Sure, why not? You get a generous 200+ minutes to do it too!

If there's only one fare defined for contactless, then if you journey from the start station to the end station (keeping to maximum journey time) that's the only thing you can be charged.

 

[talldave]

Just been invited to complete a survey on PAYG ticketing whilst on an SWR Waterloo to Reading service!

 

[fandroid]

Just been invited to complete a survey on PAYG ticketing whilst on an SWR Waterloo to Reading service!

They probably actually mean their own Tap2Go contactless PAYG, although I wouldn't be surprised if they fail to be clear about that

I've submitted a complaint to SWR about their Reading station page, but that's not relevant to the OP's problem.

 

[talldave]

They probably actually mean their own Tap2Go contactless PAYG, although I wouldn't be surprised if they fail to be clear about that

It's a DfT survey on Feb's contactless PAYG extension. Ironically I've only used this route since July so can't report a great improvement due to contactless because I've never used anything else on this route!!

 

[Hadders]

I've had a couple of these surveys in the last week. One on a Chiltern train, the other on a GWR service that was first stop Reading.

My view is that the questions are writtten in such a way that you're going to say you're in favour of contactless.

 

[CyrusWuff]

My view is that the questions are writtten in such a way that you're going to say you're in favour of contactless.

A survey skewed to get the answer the people commissioning it want? Heaven forbid!