Southeastern Keys & Plusbus

[Argyle 1980]

I've just tried to buy a ticket for journey from Hythe to Ramsgate (bus Hythe to Folkestone Central the train)
On GWR it issues both the train and bus tickets as apple wallet tickets. The southeastern site however has shown fulfilment onto the key for a total fare of £14.50. I don't have an issue using the key just not sure how it would work on the bus if you didn't have anything physical or digital to show driver.

 

[Edvid]

The southeastern site however has shown fulfilment onto the key for a total fare of £14.50. I don't have an issue using the key just not sure how it would work on the bus if you didn't have anything physical or digital to show driver.

ITSO fulfilment of PlusBus tickets should not be offered.* The bus ticket machines will almost certainly fail to recognise your Key Smartcard and the driver will refuse entry, even if you have a smartcard manager app (e.g. National Rail) on your phone and use it to display the ticket details.

[* I believe Southeastern are the only TOC that do so; likely a legacy of the previous (Govia) Southeastern entity]

 

[Alex365Dash]

[* I believe Southeastern are the only TOC that do so; likely a legacy of the previous (Govia) Southeastern entity]

GTR have also fulfilled PlusBus to their Key Smartcard in the past in selected areas where it’s supported - unsure if it still is, but keyGo is supported on Brighton & Hove and Metrobus buses within the Brighton/Seaford, Lewes, Eastbourne, Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, Crawley/Gatwick, Dorking, Horsham and Redhill/Reigate PlusBus zones.

 

[KT550]

GTR have also fulfilled PlusBus to their Key Smartcard in the past in selected areas where it’s supported - unsure if it still is, but keyGo is supported on Brighton & Hove and Metrobus buses within the Brighton/Seaford, Lewes, Eastbourne, Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, Crawley/Gatwick, Dorking, Horsham and Redhill/Reigate PlusBus zones.

I've used PAYG KeyGo as tap on tap off on Metrobuses in Sussex and it's capped at the PlusBus price if a valid PAYG rail journey also taken same day.

 

[stadler]

GTR have also fulfilled PlusBus to their Key Smartcard in the past in selected areas where it’s supported - unsure if it still is, but keyGo is supported on Brighton & Hove and Metrobus buses within the Brighton/Seaford, Lewes, Eastbourne, Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, Crawley/Gatwick, Dorking, Horsham and Redhill/Reigate PlusBus zones.

Plus Bus on railway smartcard tickets might possibly work on Brighton & Hove and Metrobus but it is also valid on Compass Bus / Cuckmere Buses / Stagecoach South / Stagecoach South East and i very highly doubt that their machines would be able to read it.

 

[Argyle 1980]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I knew it was definitely possible to load various products onto virtually any ITSO card. Remember Virgin use to use generic Stagecoach smart cards and I've loaded various Southern and Southeastern tickets onto my (now defunct) Plymouth Citybus/Go Cornwall Bus Key but that was when they were all Go Ahead.

I'll use a third party TOC to get my ticket Saturday that issues the plusbus as an Apple pass. Think it's something i might contact SE customer service about in new year. It might well be that they are indeed valid znd accepted by Stagecoach but if they aren't then it technically makes the ticket having no fulfillment options if booked online.

 

[Edvid]

I'll use a third party TOC to get my ticket Saturday that issues the plusbus as an Apple pass. Think it's something i might contact SE customer service about in new year.

PlusBus eTickets sold by LNER and the Raileasy sites (Trainsplit / RTT / this forum) can be added to Apple Wallet as well.

Southeastern not selling them at present is, unfortunately, a position shared with the majority of TOC and third-party retailers despite eTickets being enabled nationwide in the Retail Control Service back in April. Whether this is down to the individual retailer or whoever provides the booking system (several TOCs are contracted with Trainline, for instance) I don't know.

 

[MrJeeves]

Whether this is down to the individual retailer or whoever provides the booking system (several TOCs are contracted with Trainline, for instance) I don't know.

I simply expect that PlusBus does so few sales for a lot of retailers in the grand scheme of their operations that they don't deem it worthwhile to spend a bit of development time on supporting fulfilling it as an E-Ticket.

Either that, or they've seen the chaos around E-Ticket acceptance on here and decided that customer support burden isn't one they want to wield!