Mag stripe tickets not read by gates....

[Cesarcollie]

Hopefully someone in the know can help......!! Two days running I've bought off peak return tickets on Greater Anglia to LU Zones 1 & 2. First day from a machine, second day from a ticket office. The boarding station has no barriers. On both days, the ticket has failed to open the National Rail barriers at LST on arrival or departure, OR the entry or exit gates in both directions on LU. So each time I've had to find a 'manned' gate, and they've opened it. This is presumably a system failing, not a one-off faulty machine or ticket. Does anyone know why?

 

[Hadders]

Poor programming of the barriers. The barriers at Liverpool Street seem to have been reprogrammed when TfL started operating as since this change I can never get the barriers there to work when using a Stevenage - London Zones 1-6 Super Off Peak Travelcard,I'm travelling with Greater Anglia or TfL Rail. Before TfL Rail stated operating it was never an issue.

Strangely the same thing's started to happen at Paddington recently.....

 

[Haywain]

It's more likely that the issuing machines are failing to encode the tickets correctly. This can be very difficult to establish, especially at a station without barriers, but isn't that uncommon. Another possibility, albeit less likely, is that you are placing the tickets close to an electronic device that is messing with the mag stripe.

 

[Hadders]

Come to think of it I had a problem when the new VTEC TVM was installed at Stevenage. One day travelcards wouldn't open any LUL barriers but worked fine everywhere else. It was fixed following a post on this forum

On the Liverpool Street/Paddington issue it could be the TVM but it doesn't matter whether I use a GTR or VTEC TVM to buy my ticket, the same thing happens - but it only happens at Liverpool Street and Paddington. Everywhere else works fine.

 

[Cesarcollie]

It's more likely that the issuing machines are failing to encode the tickets correctly. This can be very difficult to establish, especially at a station without barriers, but isn't that uncommon. Another possibility, albeit less likely, is that you are placing the tickets close to an electronic device that is messing with the mag stripe.

Thanks. No - tickets are in my wallet in one pocket, phone is elsewhere!!

 

[Haywain]

Come to think of it I had a problem when the new VTEC TVM was installed at Stevenage. One day travelcards wouldn't open any LUL barriers but worked fine everywhere else. It was fixed following a post on this forum

It was already under investigation as the volume of complaints from Peterborough far outweighed those from Stevenage!

On the Liverpool Street/Paddington issue it could be the TVM but it doesn't matter whether I use a GTR or VTEC TVM to buy my ticket, the same thing happens - but it only happens at Liverpool Street and Paddington. Everywhere else works fine.

There may be a problem with barriers at Liverpool Street and Paddington but I would suggest it is mostly unrelated to the problem the OP is having as their tickets are not working any LUL barriers either.

 

[Wallsendmag]

It's more likely that the issuing machines are failing to encode the tickets correctly. This can be very difficult to establish, especially at a station without barriers, but isn't that uncommon. Another possibility, albeit less likely, is that you are placing the tickets close to an electronic device that is messing with the mag stripe.

Didnt Richard have to go to RSP to see what was actually encoded on the tickets ?

 

[Haywain]

Didnt Richard have to go to RSP to see what was actually encoded on the tickets ?

That's right, we needed to use RSP/RDG to give a reading of the mag stripe in order to understand the problem.

 

[HughT]

If my experience is anything to go by, then Haywain's suggestion re incorrect coding by the issuing machine seems correct. I travelled CBG-LST and return last Sunday on a GA Super Off-Peak Day Return. The tickets, purchased online and then collected from a CBG machine, failed to operate the LST barriers in either direction. On Wednesday, I repeated the journey on an "ordinary" Off-Peak Day Return, purchased and issued at the same time as the Sunday tickets, and all was fine. So I know that the machine in question at CBG is capable of getting it right, but not with all ticket types. It certainly looks as though the Super OPDR tickets were wrongly encoded. (I don't have much experience of LST to fall back on, since I was using GA to avoid KGX and the GTR problems...)

 

[Haywain]

If my experience is anything to go by, then Haywain's suggestion re incorrect coding by the issuing machine seems correct. I travelled CBG-LST and return last Sunday on a GA Super Off-Peak Day Return. The tickets, purchased online and then collected from a CBG machine, failed to operate the LST barriers in either direction. On Wednesday, I repeated the journey on an "ordinary" Off-Peak Day Return, purchased and issued at the same time as the Sunday tickets, and all was fine. So I know that the machine in question at CBG is capable of getting it right, but not with all ticket types. It certainly looks as though the Super OPDR tickets were wrongly encoded. (I don't have much experience of LST to fall back on, since I was using GA to avoid KGX and the GTR problems...)

That is quite possibly a failure to add the Super Off Peak tickets to the logic for the Liverpool Street gates. This would not be surprising as that is a GTR product.

 

[Wallsendmag]

That is quite possibly a failure to add the Super Off Peak tickets to the logic for the Liverpool Street gates. This would not be surprising as that is a GTR product.

The problem as ever with all these changes/new products is until they turn up you don't know they are out there. Every fares round we try to find the changes but always miss some.There is no system or process whereby when TOC A introduces a new product they inform the staff who maintain the gating logic from TOC B.

 

[HughT]

Heads need knocking together! Why isn't the task of coming up with an appropriate system/process the responsibility of the RDG? I have every sympathy with those on the ground who are trying to make the rail network function properly, but what Wallsendmag describes is a clear organisational failure. And a waste of Wallsendmag's time!

 

[Wallsendmag]

So much of my time over the past few years has been spent trying to make the East Coast gatelines fit for purpose. We're finally getting somewhere near where we would like to be with Barcodes but the latest Fares Round has brought about so many route changes that many Mag Stripe tickets are now failing. It's a never ending process.

 

[infobleep]

The problem as ever with all these changes/new products is until they turn up you don't know they are out there. Every fares round we try to find the changes but always miss some.There is no system or process whereby when TOC A introduces a new product they inform the staff who maintain the gating logic from TOC B.

Could such a process of sending out fare changes be introduced?

Part of my job involves Street Naming and Numbering and every month we send out notifications of new addresses to certain internal and external parties who need to know, e. g. Royal Mail. Couldn't something be implemented between the TOCs?