Smartcards coming to Southeastern

[Stats]

Smartcards have been announced for Southeastern from December 2016.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/smart-ticketing-to-transform-travel-for-southeastern-passengers

Smart ticketing to transform travel for Southeastern passengers

Journeys between London, Kent and parts of East Sussex will be simplified as Southeastern signs up for smart cards.

Rail passengers in Kent and parts of East Sussex will soon benefit from more convenient and smoother journeys thanks to a £5.5 million plan to roll out smart cards across Southeastern’s network.

Southeastern will bring in smart cards, initially for season tickets only, as an alternative to paper tickets from December 2016. This follows a deal with the Department for Transport as part of the government-funded South East Flexible Ticketing (SEFT) programme. Work will now begin to upgrade Southeastern’s ticketing systems and equipment to allow passengers to use smart cards to travel across the majority of Southeastern’s network.

Smart cards provide significant benefits including the ability to purchase online and avoid ticket office queues, and quicker entry through automatic ticket barriers.

Rail Minister Claire Perry said:


“As part of our long-term economic plan we are bringing our railways into the 21st century. We are making the biggest investment in rail since the Victorian era while taking advantage of technology like smart cards.

“Smart ticketing is a common sense innovation that makes life easier for passengers. It allows for more straight forward journeys and I’m delighted Southeastern will be rolling them out across much of their network.”

For passengers, benefits will include:
•easier purchase of tickets online and collection at stations
•shorter queues at ticket offices
•more durable tickets that do not wear out as quickly as paper ones
•much quicker and more reliable passage through automatic ticket barriers

David Statham, Managing Director for Southeastern, said:


“I am very pleased that we have agreed a deal with the Department for Transport that will allow us to bring in smart cards on our network.

“These will allow our passengers to beat those Monday morning queues as they will make it much easier and quicker for passengers to buy weekly, monthly or annual season tickets online and load on to their smart card before setting off on their journey.”

Southeastern is the latest operator to sign up to the government’s £80 million SEFT programme, delivered in partnership with the rail industry and transport operators. SEFT aims to promote seamless and convenient travel on different types of transport across London and the south east by encouraging operators to introduce new ticketing technologies.

Because SEFT is government-backed, smart cards will operate seamlessly between different train companies across the region. It also offers the future potential for more flexible ticketing products that could not work on paper-based tickets. When SEFT is complete, 250,000 season ticket holders across the south east will be able to swap paper tickets for smart tickets, accounting for 202 million journeys per year.

Other train operators which have previously signed similar commitments include c2c, South West Trains, Govia Thameslink Railway and Abellio Greater Anglia.

Smart ticketing in the north has also received backing from the government, with £30 million announced in the summer budget 2015 to Transport for the North (TfN), part of which will go towards the rollout of Oyster-style smart ticketing.

 

[plcd1]

Noteworthy that the total cost of SEFT has gone from £45m when last trumpeted by the Chancellor to £80m now with barely a murmur of complaint. I doubt a 78% cost increase would be tolerated if a local authority was responsible.

So this leaves us with confirmation awaited as to what happens with FGW, Chiltern Trains and London Midland so far as SEFT's coverage is concerned. I don't know if Virgin Trains' services are in scope or not.

I love the reference to "because this is government backed the cards will work seamlessly across multiple operators". Other than Southern's the key working on the TfL network I'm not aware there is any interworking between operator smartcard systems yet.

 

[Greeby]

There's nothing smart about throwing good people out of work. And that's all these things are being brought in for.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Does this mean Southern's The Key will finally be extended from Bexhill along to St Leonards Warrior Square, Hastings, and towards Ashford Int'l?

 

[kieron]

There's nothing smart about throwing good people out of work. And that's all these things are being brought in for.

If they've already budgeted £80 million for something, it stands to reason that they expect some of that money to be spent on staff.

While I appreciate that the smart card scheme may be being designed so as to limit the amount of interaction ticket office staff can have with it, the people who will attempt to carry out the changes the politicians desire can't all be that evil.

 

[talldave]

...paper remains my ticket of choice, so much more flexible. And at least when the ticket gates reject it you have something to discuss with gate line staff!

But I never interact with ticket office staff so using a smartcard would have no impact.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I mainly use TVMs so for me switching to a smartcard would have no appreciable effect on ticket offices.

 

[mattdickinson]

Noteworthy that the total cost of SEFT has gone from £45m when last trumpeted by the Chancellor to £80m now with barely a murmur of complaint. I doubt a 78% cost increase would be tolerated if a local authority was responsible.

So this leaves us with confirmation awaited as to what happens with FGW, Chiltern Trains and London Midland so far as SEFT's coverage is concerned. I don't know if Virgin Trains' services are in scope or not.

I love the reference to "because this is government backed the cards will work seamlessly across multiple operators". Other than Southern's the key working on the TfL network I'm not aware there is any interworking between operator smartcard systems yet.

Virgin Trains and Virgin Trains East Coast are both participating in SEFT but as neither run any stations within the SEFT area I would expect their involvement to be limited to acceptance of other TOC cards.

 

[maniacmartin]

Here is my prediction based on what's happened in other UK smartcard schemes:

• Paper ticket prices will now rise substantially over the next few years and Transport Focus/DfT won't intervene as 'passengers can still get the cheapest fares on smartcards'.
• BoJ won't be possible on non-seasons
• Gateline disputes when the card doesn't operate the gate much harder.
• You won't be able to use split ticketting on through trains with a smart card as you can't get to the gates to touch whilst staying on the same train.
• Interavailable routes will become expensive as their smartcards won't interoperate properly.
• Perhaps paper off-peak tickets will be withdrawn totally as happened in suburban London routes when Oyster came in
• Ticket offices will be staffed less and smartcard problems will have to be resolved with a remote callcentre
• Interoperability will probably be years away, so if you use multiple TOCs you will have to carry even more plastic cards to get the fares that previously could just buy paper tickets for

I hope my predictions turn out to be false...

 

[Hadders]

I hope my predictions turn out to be false...

I fear that your predictions will turn out to be right.

 

[wibble]

Here is my prediction based on what's happened in other UK smartcard schemes:

• Paper ticket prices will now rise substantially over the next few years and Transport Focus/DfT won't intervene as 'passengers can still get the cheapest fares on smartcards'.

That's unlikely - TOCs are unable to offer a different price for the same product just because one is on a smartcard, the other on paper. A fare that is currently regulated by the DfT will remain regulated, even if it's on smartcard.

• BoJ won't be possible on non-seasons

Why not? That would require a substantial change to the National Rail Conditions of Carriage and would require DfT approval. Politcally, the DfT are unlikely to impose this as you would have to remove BoJ for all ticket types.

• Gateline disputes when the card doesn't operate the gate much harder.

Part of that will be down to the TOC owner not programming their gates properly. All gate line staff should have the ability to read a smartcard. If they can't, the customer shouldn't be penalised unless the rejection code on the gate indicates that there's not valid product on the smart card.

[*]You won't be able to use split ticketting on through trains with a smart card as you can't get to the gates to touch whilst staying on the same train.[/LIST]

I guess that would be an issue!

• Interavailable routes will become expensive as their smartcards won't interoperate properly.

It wouldn't be in a TOC's interest to offer an interavailable product if it couldn't be used on other TOCs. A smartcard TOC would either not offer a particular journey on smartcard, or the other TOCs would have the means to check the smartcard.

• Perhaps paper off-peak tickets will be withdrawn totally as happened in suburban London routes when Oyster came in

I can't see Off Peak paper tickets being removed entirely from National Rail - it would be all paper tickets being removed, or none at all.

I think the motivation to remove off peak paper tickets in London was driven by TfL...

• Ticket offices will be staffed less and smartcard problems will have to be resolved with a remote callcentre

...or at a self-service ticket machine, or online, or through an app. Damn those customer for not suing ticket offices more!

• Interoperability will probably be years away, so if you use multiple TOCs you will have to carry even more plastic cards to get the fares that previously could just buy paper tickets for

Southern and c2c's smartcards already work on TfL, SWT's smartcard already work on Stagecoach buses...

I hope my predictions turn out to be false...

 

[talldave]

Then it's going to be mayhem! TOCs don't even appear capable of training their staff to understand paper tickets or programming ticket barriers correctly. So dealing with intangible things they can't see is going to be beyond them.

My hope is that their incompetence in dealing with anything other than trains means that smartcards will be delayed until they can introduce the bare minimum that keeps the politicians happy whilst continuing with paper "because that's the way we've always done it".

 

[button_boxer]

SWT's smartcard already work on Stagecoach buses...

When did that change? Last I was aware, while Stagecoach rail and bus smart cards are identically branded you can't use a card issued by the bus division on a train or vice versa.