Technical question about ITSO smartcards

[MikeWh]

Someone on my site has hit an issue with a day travelcard issued on a Greater Anglia smartcard for Amersham to zones 1-6. It worked fine at all Met stations except Chesham, Croxley and Watford (the ones not on the direct route from Amersham). It didn't work at Brentwood either. They said:

I checked the smartcard at a POM at Harrow and the origin is given as AMSHAM, destination R1256, and route R40232.

Has anyone any idea what route R40232 means and/or if there is another route that should be being used?

 

[Adam Williams]

Is R40232 not just route code 40232 - i.e. AAA LDN ZONE 7-9 (Also valid for travel in London Fare Zones 7-9.)?

I'm not sure there are other routes for that flow?

 

[MikeWh]

Is R40232 not just route code 40232 - i.e. AAA LDN ZONE 7-9 (Also valid for travel in London Fare Zones 7-9.)?

Well that is what it should be (wasn't sure where to check easily). I've just obtained a GA smartcard for myself so I'll be testing this shortly.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Unfortunately, this is a known issue with gatelines at that end of the Metropolitan Line, which LU have been unable to provide any explanation for. Knowing what error code is displayed on the gate may help though!

 

[_csd]

Hi,

I’m having the same problem too, and was going to create a thread on this until I saw this one.

I loaded an Amersham - Zones 1-6 AAA Z7-9 day travelcard onto my EMR smartcard and it works at almost all the stations in zone 7-9 I’ve been to (Watford HS, Rickmansworth, Bushey) but not Watford Met, the card is rejected with code 77. It is not recognised by the ticket machines there either; you place the card on the reader and it just says “your purchase has been cancelled”.

Contacted TfL and got this reply:

“There is no arrangement at TfL for the issue or acceptance of ITSO-based Travelcards that include zones 7, 8 and 9. Accordingly, this Travelcard should not have been issued on an ITSO card. I would therefore advise the Train Operating Company, who issued you with the ticket, that this practice should be discontinued.”

So they don’t seem to be bothered to do anything about it, and the unpredictable nature of the gateline staff there when presented with ITSO smartcards means its 50/50 as to whether I’m let through so I’ve given up using the card for now, but it’d be excellent if it could be fixed.

 

[Watershed]

Hi,

I’m having the same problem too, and was going to create a thread on this until I saw this one.

I loaded an Amersham - Zones 1-6 AAA Z7-9 day travelcard onto my EMR smartcard and it works at almost all the stations in zone 7-9 I’ve been to (Watford HS, Rickmansworth, Bushey) but not Watford Met, the card is rejected with code 77. It is not recognised by the ticket machines there either; you place the card on the reader and it just says “your purchase has been cancelled”.

Contacted TfL and got this reply:

“There is no arrangement at TfL for the issue or acceptance of ITSO-based Travelcards that include zones 7, 8 and 9. Accordingly, this Travelcard should not have been issued on an ITSO card. I would therefore advise the Train Operating Company, who issued you with the ticket, that this practice should be discontinued.”

So they don’t seem to be bothered to do anything about it, and the unpredictable nature of the gateline staff there when presented with ITSO smartcards means its 50/50 as to whether I’m let through so I’ve given up using the card for now, but it’d be excellent if it could be fixed.

TfL are displaying their usual arrogance when it comes to ticketing, claiming that they can choose whether or not to accept a ticket which has been issued by someone with the apparent authority to bind them (in this case, a TOC retailer).

They are completely wrong; whilst they're free not to sell AAA Zone 7-9 Travelcards on ITSO if they so wish, they have to accept any such Travelcards that are sold. It is a breach of the Travelcard Agreement and basic consumer and contract law to refuse to do so.

Of course, as you allude to, it's a practical issue as much as anything else - if you regularly use these tickets at the affected gatelines, you're going to encounter less hassle by having the the tickets fulfilled as paper tickets.

 

[_csd]

TfL are displaying their usual arrogance when it comes to ticketing, claiming that they can choose whether or not to accept a ticket which has been issued by someone with the apparent authority to bind them (in this case, a TOC retailer).

They are completely wrong; whilst they're free not to sell AAA Zone 7-9 Travelcards on ITSO if they so wish, they have to accept any such Travelcards that are sold. It is a breach of the Travelcard Agreement and basic consumer and contract law to refuse to do so.

Of course, as you allude to, it's a practical issue as much as anything else - if you regularly use these tickets at the affected gatelines, you're going to encounter less hassle by having the the tickets fulfilled as paper tickets.

Thanks for your reply.

Glad to hear it should work, I might contact them again and see if I can get any further, doubt I will though.

This is the problem with these cards, they are excellent when they work, and (in my experience) are less likely to be rejected than paper tickets at gatelines, but when things go wrong it is a lot harder to resolve than paper, as with that they can see the validity, but even after showing the gateline staff at Watford Met the details of the ticket after scanning the card on my phone they still weren’t having it.

 

[MrJeeves]

the card is rejected with code 77

For the benefit of casual readers...

 

[MikeWh]

I've just used the Amersham to 1-6 AAA 7-9 on my GA card at Dartford (8). Error code was 57.




Full disclosure: This was for testing purposes only, and I was travelling with a 60+ Oyster too, so I could not be accused of fare evasion.