SWR barriers refusing ticket today

[Spongthrush]

Outbound and inbound from Winchester today my mobile ticket would not open the barrier. Outbound I was asked if I had my senior railcard with me - but it wasn't checked - and on return I had my railcard inspected after the staff member let me through manually.

I was told that any mobile ticket bought with a railcard would not work. This clearly wasn't 100% true as my son's 26-30 railcard mobile ticket scanned fine. But if every railcard-bought mobile ticket requires a manual inspection, surely this will cause chaos at busier times? And why let people through the barrier when they (presumably) could then just walk away rather than just check tickets on the train or platform....I guess they don't know who's bought using a railcard until the barrier beeps....or why not integrate the user's railcard into the purchasing process?

 

[AlterEgo]

What was the error code on the gate?

 

[Spongthrush]

What was the error code on the gate?

Sorry, no idea, where does it show that? I just put phone on thee scanner and it beeped.

 

[AlterEgo]

Sorry, no idea, where does it show that? I just put phone on thee scanner and it beeped.

Depends on the type of barrier, but without knowing that, we can't be sure why your ticket was rejected.

They may have decided to reject all railcard tickets so they can be checked, as a matter of revenue protection. It doesn't have to be a permanent thing, and it doesn't have to be all railcards either.

 

[Spongthrush]

Thanks, as a casual user, I wasn't aware that they could program the barriers to do that. Still seems a little odd to check for valid railcards once through the barrier and 'landside' but I guess it would at least put purchasers off fraudulent purchases!

 

[DelW]

SWR have been intermittently setting gatelines in either direction to reject railcard discounted tickets for the last few months. The regular gateline supervisor at my local station told me that last summer, when for the third time in about a week my newly bought magstripe ticket was rejected. It's a real pain at Waterloo, where finding an assistant and then persuading them that your ticket is valid slows you down considerably while everyone else streams past onto the train. The daft thing is that they rarely ask to see your railcard, which makes it all pretty pointless. Probably it's on some management list of KPIs that a certain proportion of such tickets have to be rejected, but no-one thought to set a similar target for actually looking at the railcards.

 

[Hadders]

My local GTR station routinely blocks railcard discounted tickets and Advance tickets so they can be manually checked. Unless I'm travelling with an undiscounted Anytie ticket I don't even bother trying the barriers these days.

The reality is, there are so many tickets so inspect staff cannot do it most of the time, so you end up getting waved through most of the time.

 

[DelW]

My local GTR station routinely blocks railcard discounted tickets and Advance tickets so they can be manually checked. Unless I'm travelling with an undiscounted Anytie ticket I don't even bother trying the barriers these days.

Which is all very well until you come up against those gateline assistants who believe that everyone whose tickets won't work the barriers must be a fare-dodging criminal.

Its inconsistent too - at Waterloo, often a ticket will work the tube barrier, or the East barrier, but not mainline. It's just another example of the way TOCs love to make their passengers' journeys just that bit more inconvenient, and to make them feel as if they've done something wrong even when they're travelling with completely valid tickets.

 

[winks]

Can confirm paper tickets weren’t working on SWR either yesterday (17-01-25)

Error code 135 on the gates ….

 

[island]

135 Special rule set to reject ticket

 

[galwhv69]

It is the SWR Ticketless Travel Survey period at the moment, so gatelines are meant to be set to reject discount tickets so they can be checked manually

 

[redreni]

It's actually somewhat reassuring to hear that the staff who let you through seemed to know the Railcard was the issue, meaning the friction created to enable a manual check wasn't completely pointless. With senior railcards, even if the staff member doesn't feel they have time to inspect the railcard each time, they presumably would if the person looked too young to qualify. It has been my experience when using railcard-discounted tickets at barriers that they are often rejected but no checks of any kind are done.

It is the SWR Ticketless Travel Survey period at the moment, so gatelines are meant to be set to reject discount tickets so they can be checked manually

Interesting. Normally my Network Railcard-discounted paper tickets are rejected by SWR barriers, but the same tickets on Smartcard or e-ticket are accepted. Perhaps I can expect additional friction when using e-tickets during the survey period?

 

[Sonic1234]

Perhaps I can expect additional friction when using e-tickets during the survey period?

They can't set special rules for e-tickets yet, due to the gate software.

That's why you have the ironic situation on GTR where they set an Advance ticket block to ensure people use Southern's Advance tickets correctly, but most of these are now e-tickets. All you end up blocking are long distance cross-London "&connections" tickets which GTR don't care about (they have a policy saying you can use any service in such a case)

 

[Mark J]

Interesting. Normally my Network Railcard-discounted paper tickets are rejected by SWR barriers, but the same tickets on Smartcard or e-ticket are accepted. Perhaps I can expect additional friction when using e-tickets during the survey period?

I find that with the Sunday Out London Terminals returns I usually buy, which allow a break of journey anywhere along the route.

When I stop off at Clapham Junction for breakfast, the barriers will not allow me through on a paper ticket. When I've used e-tickets, I can pass through without hassle.

 

[Pieman007]

They can't set special rules for e-tickets yet, due to the gate software.

That's why you have the ironic situation on GTR where they set an Advance ticket block to ensure people use Southern's Advance tickets correctly, but most of these are now e-tickets. All you end up blocking are long distance cross-London "&connections" tickets which GTR don't care about (they have a policy saying you can use any service in such a case)

I guess that's why my HAV-ECR Advance ticket works at Havant but never at East Croydon.......I never even bother trying at there now.....but they do have "Revenue Support" staff on the gates for the last 6 months or so.....

 

[Vexed]

Had my railcard discounted ticket rejected both ways at Southampton Central gateline today. No railcard checks, even though coming back through just now there were 4-5 revenue protection staff standing by by the barriers.

 

[winks]

If you have a Touch smartcard you can avoid the disappointment at the gateline and pass through….

 

[Vexed]

Indeed, I even used mine for Swaythling to Central today. Can't use one for route Three Bridges Travelcards though.

 

[Haywain]

Can't use one for route Three Bridges Travelcards though.

You can if you can find a ticket office or TVM that will sell that ticket for smartcard fulfilment.

 

[Vexed]

You can if you can find a ticket office or TVM that will sell that ticket for smartcard fulfilment.

That's what I thought. I tried an SWR S&B TVM and only the any permitted ones showed up. Then went out of the smartcard menu and there was the option of any permitted or route Three Bridges for paper tickets.

GTR haven't added smart Travelcards to the fares data, maybe this is why? If that's what these SMART tickets are that duplicate every fare GTR controls on brfares are for.

Regardless I usually value the speed of SWR so purchase other tickets most of the time.

 

[MrJeeves]

GTR haven't added smart Travelcards to the fares data, maybe this is why? If that's what these SMART tickets are that duplicate every fare GTR controls on brfares are for.

It's not. They're just holdovers from when GTR did weird things with their Smartcards.

In the data feed that controls this, the ticket type (ADT/ODT) is set up for smartcard fulfilment, but (for my test from Portsmouth to Zones 1-6) only the Any Permitted flows for these ticket types between these stations are enabled for it.