Ticket barriers - does the delivery medium matter?

[CharlieSpotted]

Or rather, should it...

Here's the scenario:

My partner and I hold a Two Together Railcard and frequently travel from Wolverhampton to Birmingham. It's usually at the weekend so we buy Off Peak return tickets with our Railcard discount applied.

If we buy these on the WMR app and have them as eTickets with an Aztec code, they open the barriers.

If we buy these from the ticket machines and have them on CCST stock, they don't open the barriers.

Exact same ticket, with the same discount (Two Together) and restrictions (none) - only the medium changes. Only happens in Wolverhampton - all good at New Street.

Now that I think about it, there's a second potential example...

I use a Flexi Season ticket to commute to work. When WMR launched these during Covid they were only available on an ITSO card and I was sent a LNWR branded one to load them to.

The ITSO card would always be rejected by the barriers in Wolves (but again, not in Birmingham).

I now buy them as eTickets which are displayed in the app as Aztec codes, and these open the barriers just fine.

Again, exact same ticket (as far as I can tell, anyway), only the delivery medium varies.

I can understand rejecting certain ticket types for additional checks, but I cannot understand why the medium should make any difference.

Can anyone shed any light?

 

[swt_passenger]

Or rather, should it...

Here's the scenario:

My partner and I hold a Two Together Railcard and frequently travel from Wolverhampton to Birmingham. It's usually at the weekend so we buy Off Peak return tickets with our Railcard discount applied.

If we buy these on the WMR app and have them as eTickets with an Aztec code, they open the barriers.

If we buy these from the ticket machines and have them on CCST stock, they don't open the barriers.

Exact same ticket, with the same discount (Two Together) and restrictions (none) - only the medium changes. Only happens in Wolverhampton - all good at New Street.

Now that I think about it, there's a second potential example...

I use a Flexi Season ticket to commute to work. When WMR launched these during Covid they were only available on an ITSO card and I was sent a LNWR branded one to load them to.

The ITSO card would always be rejected by the barriers in Wolves (but again, not in Birmingham).

I now buy them as eTickets which are displayed in the app as Aztec codes, and these open the barriers just fine.

Again, exact same ticket (as far as I can tell, anyway), only the delivery medium varies.

I can understand rejecting certain ticket types for additional checks, but I cannot understand why the medium should make any difference.

Can anyone shed any light?

Yes, it’s been explained a few times in other threads, basically on many ticket barriers the software that reads magstripe tickets is original, and that for ITSO cards, or for optically reading e-ticket Aztec codes is completely separate to the process for magstripes, and the rules applied can often be set up differently.

 

[Adam Williams]

Or rather, should it...

No, it's a stupid design. I seem to recall there is less data available on a magstripe ticket than an E-Ticket, though..

 

[Benjwri]

No, it's a stupid design. I seem to recall there is less data available on a magstripe ticket than an E-Ticket, though..

But currently barriers can’t tell if e tickets are railcard discounted, whereas they can on magstripe. Barcodes hold more data but in reality the gates can read less of it for now.

 

[Adam Williams]

But currently barriers can’t tell if e tickets are railcard discounted, whereas they can on magstripe. Barcodes hold more data but in reality the gates can read less of it for now.

There really is no excuse for this! Entirely possible for a competent software engineer to write an E-Ticket decoder in less than a week with spec-in-hand

 

[CharlieSpotted]

But currently barriers can’t tell if e tickets are railcard discounted, whereas they can on magstripe.

Which is pretty dumb, but does at least explain what's going on with the first scenario in my post!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Mar 2023 ==

Yes, it’s been explained a few times in other threads, basically on many ticket barriers the software that reads magstripe tickets is original, and that for ITSO cards, or for optically reading e-ticket Aztec codes is completely separate to the process for magstripes, and the rules applied can often be set up differently.

I had missed it being discussed previously. Thank you.

It seems that the implementation of the different media is pretty disjointed. It's not something you would want in an ideal world but, hey, we know we don't live there!

 

[kkong]

I can understand rejecting certain ticket types for additional checks, but I cannot understand why the medium should make any difference.

Can anyone shed any light?

This sounds like a similar situation to what I have been experiencing.

Cubic ticket gates always rejecting LNER Advance paper mag-stripe tickets

I have noticed recently (past couple of months) that every time I try to use an LNER Advance mag-stripe ticket, the ticket gates reject it. Error code 105 (I think) on the Cubic ticket gates. I have encountered this at multiple stations operated by ScotRail - always with LNER Advance tickets...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Wallsendmag]

Yes, it’s been explained a few times in other threads, basically on many ticket barriers the software that reads magstripe tickets is original, and that for ITSO cards, or for optically reading e-ticket Aztec codes is completely separate to the process for magstripes, and the rules applied can often be set up differently.

Depends whose gates you are talking about for Cubic you are correct for S&B you are incorrect.