"Seek Assistance" everywhere I go!

[GospelOak117]

Something is really irritating me at the moment

Recently, for about the past month. Every ticket I ever purchase from the self service machine stops working after one or two passages through ticket barriers. I regularly purchase all-zones day travelcards and travel around London off-peak, in addition to pre-paid long distance returns that I collect from these self service machines.................but every ticket I buy causes the gates at any station to say "Seek Assistance"; which gets very frustrating having to ask staff to be let through gates up to 10 times per day. I get them from the machines as there is always a queue at the window or no staff at all.

Does this happen to anybody else?

Also; the ticket I have today is not working as usual but I am going out tonight and getting the last train home. When I get back the gates will probably be closed and my ticket won't work. If there is no staff there to let me through at this time what am I supposed to do? I will have to jump the barrier, it is stupid.

 

[Chapeltom]

Something is really irritating me at the moment

Recently, for about the past month. Every ticket I ever purchase from the self service machine stops working after one or two passages through ticket barriers. I regularly purchase all-zones day travelcards and travel around London off-peak, in addition to pre-paid long distance returns that I collect from these self service machines.................but every ticket I buy causes the gates at any station to say "Seek Assistance"; which gets very frustrating having to ask staff to be let through gates up to 10 times per day. I get them from the machines as there is always a queue at the window or no staff at all.

Does this happen to anybody else?

Also; the ticket I have today is not working as usual but I am going out tonight and getting the last train home. When I get back the gates will probably be closed and my ticket won't work. If there is no staff there to let me through at this time what am I supposed to do? I will have to jump the barrier, it is stupid.

Surely if barriers are closed then there should be staff to assist if necessary? If not, I would agree it would be ridiculous. One of my journeys for example, the ticket won't work in Manchester Oxford Road barriers whenever I've broke my journey/recommenced it there and the ticket has been spat out, there have been staff there or the barriers have been open.

There should be always staff there to assist when barriers are closed.

 

[Mojo]

I have a cost with magnetic pockets which once stopped a ticket of mine working. Even a fridge magnet will wipe/scramble the code on a train ticket.

 

[GospelOak117]

The trouble is that even the quiet suburban stations on most of my local lines now have barriers, they are a pest!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I have a cost with magnetic pockets which once stopped a ticket of mine working. Even a fridge magnet will wipe/scramble the code on a train ticket.

I thought it might be putting it in my wallet with my credit cards as someone once told me this can wipe pay as you go oyster cards; so today i put the ticket in a pocket of it's own but it has still happened.

 

[revenueadvice]

Mobile phones are rumored to damage the magnetic strips on the tickets so don't keep it near a phone. Anything with a magnet could also do it. Not disbelieving you but I find it strange that every ticket you buy does it...Do you have a discounted ticket? Some gatelines are set to reject tickets with certain rail cards..

If barriers are in operation they should always be manned for health and safety. Some stations that have a main entrance and a back entrance which isn't very busy may not have staff at that gate all of the time (usually only at peak) but there should be a help point which a video intercom system so you can show your ticket and they can remotely let you out.

One theory on why tickets stop working is that they are kept with Oyster cards..This is not correct. My staff pass is kept next too my Oyster card permanently and it has always worked!

 

[GospelOak117]

Mobile phones are rumored to damage the magnetic strips on the tickets so don't keep it near a phone. Anything with a magnet could also do it. Not disbelieving you but I find it strange that every ticket you buy does it...Do you have a discounted ticket? Some gatelines are set to reject tickets with certain rail cards..QUOTE]

Yes I have a 16-25 railcard, but it has only started happening for the last month, whereas I have been using this discount for 9 years.

 

[revenueadvice]

Do you know what code comes up on the gate when it says "seeks assistance"?

 

[GospelOak117]

No, I haven't seen it, I will have a closer look tonight!

 

[revenueadvice]

09 is a common code . Generally just means the ticket doesn't work. I have a list of the codes at work. Although they are codes for gatelines made by "Cubic" i'm unaware if there are other manufacturers of gatelines!

 

[TUC]

Rail companies could try investing in something beyond 1970s technology. In an era when you can get on a plane with a ticket on a mobile phone or even just a reference number, magnetic strips are quaint to say the least.

 

[revenueadvice]

I had heard that 2014 is meant to be there year when smart cards are rolled out across national rail but how the plans for this are progressing I do not know!

 

[maniacmartin]

Mobile phones with batteries that go flat! The magnetic ticket is superior to that for my needs.

 

[GospelOak117]

09 is a common code . Generally just means the ticket doesn't work. I have a list of the codes at work. Although they are codes for gatelines made by "Cubic" i'm unaware if there are other manufacturers of gatelines!

On the London Underground and and many of London's major stations the gate barriers are archaic and do not display any information other than an illumination of "seek assistance", all of the others though seem to be of the same type so they may be the ones you mentioned.

 

[barrykas]

On the London Underground and and many of London's major stations the gate barriers are archaic and do not display any information other than an illumination of "seek assistance", all of the others though seem to be of the same type so they may be the ones you mentioned.

All the Cubic gates, at least, display a code along with the "Seek Assistance". You just have to know where to look for it. On the older style gates it's a two digit LCD on one side of the main display unit, and on the newer ones it's displayed in the bottom right corner of the display.

 

[Sprinter]

Thanks for David McKay from another forum I frequent here is a list of barrier codes used on LUL (probably similar on NR)

00 - Valid Ticket
01 - UTS Gate Fault (Invalid Tables) / Bad Data
02 - Wrong Type/Direction of use for this type of ticket
03 - Wrong type of National Rail only (No TfL/LU validity)
04 - UTS Gate Fault (Check Table Error)
05 - Technician signed onto machine (Gate in test mode)
06 - Wrong mode or test ticket (Not Valid for travel)
07 - Code Unreadable (Usually when ticket is upside down)
08 - Recoding Error, gate failed to correctly recode ticket. Replace the ticket.
09 - Ticket damaged, usually bent demagnetised or corrupted ticket - replace.
10 - Carnet Validated (Carnet Validator Only)
11 - Out of date, ticket expired.
12 - Not valid at this time (e.g. OPTC before 0930, Freedom pass before 0900)
13 - Additional Fare Payable (Under value, additonal fare due)
14 - Not Valid, and is not excessable
15 - No onward validity
16 - Outside zone - ticket invalid station
17 - Not issued here - platform ticket from another station
18 - Not valid here - Not valid at this station (Station Permit at wrong station)
19 - Start date in future (Not valid yet)
20 - Oyster card expired
21 - Ticket already used for entry (Double entry)
22 - Ticket already used for exit (Doube exit)
23 - Carnet not validated on entry
24 - Has season ticket but out of zone with insufficient Pre-Pay to cover extension
25 - Unstarted journey (Not validated on entry)
26 - Entry and exit at same station (Customer possibly decided not to travel)
27 - Pre Pay not enabled
28 - Pre Pay stopped (PAYG capacity disabled)
29 - Season ticket disabled
30 - Oyster Card stopped (Hot listed Oyster card)
31 - Invalid from OSI (Out of Station interchange)
32 - Invalid Into OSI (Out of Station interchange)
33 - Illogical Interchange through gates [1]
34 - Exit not allowed - Pre Pay not vaidated on journey
35 - Out of money! - Insufficient Pre Pay
36 - Out of money! - No valid season ticket
37 - Unknown
38 - Unknown
39 - Unknown
40 - Unknown
41 - Ticket used three times in quick succession (Zig Zag) at same station (entry-exit-entry or exit-entry-exit or purchase-entry-exit)
42 - Double use in one direction (Pass back)
43-50 (Unused/Unknown)
51 - Already used for 1 journey (single) or 2 journeys (return)
52 - Pass Reported Lost or Stolen [2] (Hot listed)
53 - Permit Reported Lost or Stolen (Black listed) [2]
54 - Cancelled magnetic ticket (Cancelled due to use before start date) [Possible dumb bell]
55 - Already used for journey
56 - Unknown/Unused
57 - Station not covered on period ticket
58-60 Unknown/Unused
61 - Too long spent making interchange
62 - Too long spent on journey (carnets only)
63 - Too long on platform (platform tickets only)
64 - Too long on excess (Fare-Paid tickets only)
65 - Entry time exceeded on platform ticket
66-69 Unknown/Unsued
70 - Near Field Radio error (Usually, two Oyster Cards presented at the same time, or other Oyster processing error), or other unspecified Oyster Card error
71 - Multiple cards (More than one Oyster card detected)
72 - Unknown/Unused
73 - Ticket given back for possible emergency use (e.g.. substitute bus service) and is not valid at this station
74-81 Unknown/Unused
82 - Illogical use of ticket
83 - Permit not valid at this time, used before time of validity
84-89 Unknown/Unused
90 - Gates set to reject this monitored ticket type (normally child-lock)
91 - Unknown/unused
92 - Card directory corrupt
93 - Card contents corrupt
94 - Card communications failed - Bad swipe of card/Card not read
95 - Unknown/unused
96 - Reader initialisation failed
96/98 - Unknown/unused
99 - UTS Gate Fault (Check Time-out)

 

[Mojo]

On the London Underground and and many of London's major stations the gate barriers are archaic and do not display any information other than an illumination of "seek assistance", all of the others though seem to be of the same type so they may be the ones you mentioned.

All gates display this information. I am not aware of any BR gates which use the same style as on the Underground (except Kings + Thameslink which now provides access to the LU station only). The code on these older, pneumatic gates, is on the side.

In addition to the codes provided by Sprinter (which apply to both LU and BR), there are additional three-digit codes which are only used by BR gates, which can be found here: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/passenger_oriented_display_error#incoming-161338.

 

[Mike395]

In addition to the codes provided by Sprinter (which apply to both LU and BR), there are additional three-digit codes which are only used by BR gates, which can be found here: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/passenger_oriented_display_error#incoming-161338.

Be careful with taking these as correct on any TOC - some of the codes numbered 100+ are TOC-specific e.g. 125 on FCC is a railcard block, not a ticket invalid to exit

 

[island]

Mythbusters demonstrated once that common magnets will not wipe a magnetic stripe.

 

[HLW]

Does this happen to anybody else?

Yes. My last annual season ticket had to be replaced twice because it stopped working in the gates, the current one lasted one day before it stopped working. It's always error 09 I think.

I do wish they'd use smart cards or something that works.

 

[barrykas]

Mythbusters demonstrated once that common magnets will not wipe a magnetic stripe.

They may not wipe the magstripe on a credit card, but they'll definitely wipe the one on a rail ticket, as the thousands of people who've experienced same from putting their ticket near a mobile phone case or handbag with a magnetic clasp will attest to!

 

[gingerheid]

I had a mobile phone that wiped any train ticket it came near; even if, for example, the train ticket was in my left jacket pocket and that was brushing against my wallet with my ticket in my left trouser pocket.

 

[Paul Kelly]

I wouldn't say "even if"; it's probably that brushing motion (and the consequent tiny changes in magnetic field) that caused most of the damage.

 

[A1]

I've never seen a tube or mainline station that has barriers locked and nobody around. If the tube or railway station has no staff at the gates, the gates are put into open mode etc.

Are these tickets coming from the same self-service machine perchance? There was one machine at a mainline station that used to issue me duff magnetic strips occasionally (twice in less than a week). Never got around to complaining about it - for all I know, it could have been a bad batch of ticket stock, or the machine wasn't encoding them correctly.

 

[RPI]

Be careful with taking these as correct on any TOC - some of the codes numbered 100+ are TOC-specific e.g. 125 on FCC is a railcard block, not a ticket invalid to exit

Code 135 should be any special rule, e.g. railcard block, generally anything 13x is potentially "dodgy"*, 133 is a passback but also shows if you go out of the station then try to come back in soon after, 134 is used before.

*I use the term loosely.

 

[wilsontown]

This has annoyed me, too. I normally get a 1 month season ticket, but it has been known to stop going through the barriers at Leeds on day 2 of its validity. It's a bit annoying to have to find someone to let me in or out of the station, but at least I'm doing this at Leeds where there are normally plenty of people about.

I've also noticed that sometimes the ticket will sometimes start working again later in the month. Not sure why this would be, presumably they wouldn't set the barriers to reject season tickets?

Basically, barriers are an irritating farce and I doubt they do much to mitigate fare evasion, but that's another thread...

 

[jon0844]

The failing of the gates is mostly down to the limitations of the old paper tickets. Smartcards will be a lot better when they're nationwide.

And it's worth noting that every BlackBerry and some others, like some Motorola phones, have magnets to trigger actions when docked or put inside certain cases. Some tablets have them too, for the same reason or to hold on a cover.

I killed lots of tickets when I had a BlackBerry!

 

[GospelOak117]

Thanks for David McKay from another forum I frequent here is a list of barrier codes used on LUL (probably similar on NR)

00 - Valid Ticket
01 - UTS Gate Fault (Invalid Tables) / Bad Data
02 - Wrong Type/Direction of use for this type of ticket
03 - Wrong type of National Rail only (No TfL/LU validity)
04 - UTS Gate Fault (Check Table Error)
05 - Technician signed onto machine (Gate in test mode)
06 - Wrong mode or test ticket (Not Valid for travel)
07 - Code Unreadable (Usually when ticket is upside down)
08 - Recoding Error, gate failed to correctly recode ticket. Replace the ticket.
09 - Ticket damaged, usually bent demagnetised or corrupted ticket - replace.
10 - Carnet Validated (Carnet Validator Only)
11 - Out of date, ticket expired.
12 - Not valid at this time (e.g. OPTC before 0930, Freedom pass before 0900)
13 - Additional Fare Payable (Under value, additonal fare due)
14 - Not Valid, and is not excessable
15 - No onward validity
16 - Outside zone - ticket invalid station
17 - Not issued here - platform ticket from another station
18 - Not valid here - Not valid at this station (Station Permit at wrong station)
19 - Start date in future (Not valid yet)
20 - Oyster card expired
21 - Ticket already used for entry (Double entry)
22 - Ticket already used for exit (Doube exit)
23 - Carnet not validated on entry
24 - Has season ticket but out of zone with insufficient Pre-Pay to cover extension
25 - Unstarted journey (Not validated on entry)
26 - Entry and exit at same station (Customer possibly decided not to travel)
27 - Pre Pay not enabled
28 - Pre Pay stopped (PAYG capacity disabled)
29 - Season ticket disabled
30 - Oyster Card stopped (Hot listed Oyster card)
31 - Invalid from OSI (Out of Station interchange)
32 - Invalid Into OSI (Out of Station interchange)
33 - Illogical Interchange through gates [1]
34 - Exit not allowed - Pre Pay not vaidated on journey
35 - Out of money! - Insufficient Pre Pay
36 - Out of money! - No valid season ticket
37 - Unknown
38 - Unknown
39 - Unknown
40 - Unknown
41 - Ticket used three times in quick succession (Zig Zag) at same station (entry-exit-entry or exit-entry-exit or purchase-entry-exit)
42 - Double use in one direction (Pass back)
43-50 (Unused/Unknown)
51 - Already used for 1 journey (single) or 2 journeys (return)
52 - Pass Reported Lost or Stolen [2] (Hot listed)
53 - Permit Reported Lost or Stolen (Black listed) [2]
54 - Cancelled magnetic ticket (Cancelled due to use before start date) [Possible dumb bell]
55 - Already used for journey
56 - Unknown/Unused
57 - Station not covered on period ticket
58-60 Unknown/Unused
61 - Too long spent making interchange
62 - Too long spent on journey (carnets only)
63 - Too long on platform (platform tickets only)
64 - Too long on excess (Fare-Paid tickets only)
65 - Entry time exceeded on platform ticket
66-69 Unknown/Unsued
70 - Near Field Radio error (Usually, two Oyster Cards presented at the same time, or other Oyster processing error), or other unspecified Oyster Card error
71 - Multiple cards (More than one Oyster card detected)
72 - Unknown/Unused
73 - Ticket given back for possible emergency use (e.g.. substitute bus service) and is not valid at this station
74-81 Unknown/Unused
82 - Illogical use of ticket
83 - Permit not valid at this time, used before time of validity
84-89 Unknown/Unused
90 - Gates set to reject this monitored ticket type (normally child-lock)
91 - Unknown/unused
92 - Card directory corrupt
93 - Card contents corrupt
94 - Card communications failed - Bad swipe of card/Card not read
95 - Unknown/unused
96 - Reader initialisation failed
96/98 - Unknown/unused
99 - UTS Gate Fault (Check Time-out)

thanks for getting those!

so I was using the travelcard last night and the code that kept coming up for this one (a travelcard) was 07 - which according to this is Code Unreadable, which is interesting. Maybe this particular machine is failing to print them properly? And I am definately putting the ticket in correctly

 

[Malderon]

I have resigned myself to the fact that I can basically never get through a barrier with a ticket bought with a 16-25 railcard anymore. In fact if work are paying for my ticket (which is the case for most of my train travel these days) I don't bother buying a railcard ticket at all such is the absolute nightmare of not being able to use the barriers at London Bridge at rush hour.

Although I've only tried once, I also had a problem getting through the barriers with an Oyster that had been loaded with a 16-25 railcard. My main problem with this was that if the barriers don't open for me, how can I be sure that it has counted me as "Touched in"

The thing I hate most is that the attendants always seem annoyed that they are having to let me through - and yet I was told before that it can be at the attendants discretion to put the railcard block on (although this may have been misinformation!)

I don't mind barriers at all but I do feel like the blanket blocks for 16-25 railcards are a bit much. I would think given that there are still ticket inspections on the trains as well these would be enough to deter people just buying tickets online and saying they had a railcard, or what used to happen with child tickets and the attendants would just use their judgement and stop people they thought might not be valid