UK ticket barriers printing on tickets

[AdamWW]

The new (Vix?) ticket barriers at Cardiff Queen Street, put in I believe so that contactless bank cards can be used for PAYG travel, print the location, date and time on the front of credit card sized tickets.

I can see the logic to making it clear when the ticket went through a barrier without having to read the magnetic stripe, but I'm a bit suprised to see them bother with something like this given that card tickets are such minority pursuit these days.

 

[transportphoto]

When did this start? I put a ticket through the barriers there a few weeks back and it came out untouched as it were.

 

[Tram203]

That's going to make an awful mess of paper tickets which are, legitimately, put through such barriers on multiple occasions - e.g local day rangers.

 

[AdamWW]

When did this start? I put a ticket through the barriers there a few weeks back and it came out untouched as it were.

It was doing it yesterday.

That's going to make an awful mess of paper tickets which are, legitimately, put through such barriers on multiple occasions - e.g local day rangers.

And season tickets!

I'd assume it's programmed not to do it on multiple-use tickets.

For other ones, I don't suppose there's a specific protocol for encoding "I've printed on this ticket, so don't do it again" but I believe they do register that they've been through a barrier so presumably they could be programmed only to print the first time. Or if it counts how many times it's been through a barrier maybe it could print on a different bit of the ticket each time.

 

[JaJaWa]

Can someone share a photo of a printed-on ticket

 

[styles]

I don't have a photo but there are descriptions in this post from November: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/ccsts-question.277158/

If they are the new Transport for Wales barriers, yes, they will print on to the ticket itself AND write to the magnetic strip. It will print something like CDQ 1811 0930 (Cardiff Queen Street, 18/11 09:30).

If they're the old gates found most other places, the magnetic strip is written to say what location code and date/time it was used.

There's a few modes depending on the ticket type, but the final exit print is on the front of the ticket, vertically on the right hand side, from the top orange band to just above the bottom orange band.

 

[D1537]

That's going to make an awful mess of paper tickets which are, legitimately, put through such barriers on multiple occasions - e.g local day rangers.

The local day ranger round here (Tyne and Tees) is routinely rejected by ticket barriers, so I end up waving it at the staff at Darlo and Newcastle (who are used to it by now).

 

[styles]

That's going to make an awful mess of paper tickets which are, legitimately, put through such barriers on multiple occasions - e.g local day rangers.

I would assume it only prints on certain ticket types and ultimately, only when the ticket is no longer valid for travel.

 

[Tram203]

For other ones, I don't suppose there's a specific protocol for encoding "I've printed on this ticket, so don't do it again" but I believe they do register that they've been through a barrier so presumably they could be programmed only to print the first time. Or if it counts how many times it's been through a barrier maybe it could print on a different bit of the ticket each time.

Steady on - a lot of barriers can't / don't even know which tickets are valid and which aren't, I reckon expecting one to be clever enough to realise or determine a) this ticket is valid, b) do I or do I not need to deposit a load of ink all over it and c) do I need to open or not, is stretching it a bit!

 

[AdamWW]

Steady on - a lot of barriers can't / don't even know which tickets are valid and which aren't, I reckon expecting one to be clever enough to realise or determine a) this ticket is valid, b) do I or do I not need to deposit a load of ink all over it and c) do I need to open or not, is stretching it a bit!

Well the ones at Queen Street seem to be clever enough not to recognize as valid a season ticket that the older barriers alongside do.

 

[Wallsendmag]

The local day ranger round here (Tyne and Tees) is routinely rejected by ticket barriers, so I end up waving it at the staff at Darlo and Newcastle (who are used to it by now).

They aren't VIX gates at these locations so not at all relevent.

 

[Trainbike46]

Steady on - a lot of barriers can't / don't even know which tickets are valid and which aren't, I reckon expecting one to be clever enough to realise or determine a) this ticket is valid, b) do I or do I not need to deposit a load of ink all over it and c) do I need to open or not, is stretching it a bit!

Some gates retain tickets at the end of their validity, so clearly the gates at least sometimes know!

 

[sheff1]

Some gates retain tickets at the end of their validity, so clearly the gates at least sometimes know!

Some retain tickets before the full validity has been used.

 

[AdamWW]

Some retain tickets before the full validity has been used.

I've had a ticket valid to Queen Street retained by the (non Vix) barrier at Cardiff Central. The member of staff there told me that was correct as leaving at Central ends the validity.

 

[kkong]

I've had a ticket valid to Queen Street retained by the (non Vix) barrier at Cardiff Central. The member of staff there told me that was correct as leaving at Central ends the validity.

Conversely, some tickets issued to Glasgow Central / Queen Street are retained when exiting at Queen Street, while others (from the same origin station) are returned.

I've yet to work out exactly which ticket types cause each behaviour.

Causes confusion as I'm used to walking through the barrier but find myself blocked until I remove the ticket which has no further utility.

 

[Tom B]

Not sure if it still happens, but a few times on GNER and successors I seem to remember having tickets clipped with a stamp of the headcode embossed.

 

[stadler]

Not sure if it still happens, but a few times on GNER and successors I seem to remember having tickets clipped with a stamp of the headcode embossed.

Yes those are the Zifa stampers. If you go back fifteen or twenty years those were very common. Almost all TOCs issued those to their Guards and RPIs and you would always get them. They are very expensive so most TOCs no longer buy them or use them. But i have seen a few Guards on LNER still use Zifa stampers in the past few years so some Guard still have their and they still exist. But it is getting rarer these days.

 

[eta]

Can someone share a photo of a printed-on ticket

Here you go (taken just now)

 

[saismee]

If these are thermal tickets then there won't be any messy ink to worry about. The only concern here is how illegible it is!

 

[Steddenm]

If these are thermal tickets then there won't be any messy ink to worry about. The only concern here is how illegible it is!

Aren't all tickets thermal now?

 

[cool110]

The only concern here is how illegible it is!

Not that much of a concern given that the main purpose is to "cancel" fully used tickets, since they don't have the ability to retain them as Cubic gates do.

 

[saismee]

Not that much of a concern given that the main purpose is to "cancel" fully used tickets, since they don't have the ability to retain them as Cubic gates do.

Maybe just retaining them would be better... I can already imagine how much litter this would produce. The areas around stations are already bad enough for littered tickets even when it does retain them.

Aren't all tickets thermal now?

I'm not well-versed in how tickets are printed, but I'd assume so.

 

[Envoy]

I see that it is a return from Merthyr to Cardiff Queen Street and it cost £9.20. What would it have cost if this person had used tap & go with a bank card? I thought the daily cap was £9 in the SE Wales Metro region?

 

[crablab]

The only concern here is how illegible it is!

I don't think it has to be very legible - it's more like a clip. If there's any dispute, the magstripe itself can be read.
I imagine the purpose is to prevent reuse of open returns (by defacing the ticket to aid casual inspection) and prevent lazy delay repay fraud.

 

[xotGD]

I don't think it has to be very legible - it's more like a clip. If there's any dispute, the magstripe itself can be read.
I imagine the purpose is to prevent reuse of open returns (by defacing the ticket to aid casual inspection) and prevent lazy delay repay fraud.

If I was claiming Delay Repay I would take a photo of my ticket before putting it in the barrier.

 

[eta]

I see that it is a return from Merthyr to Cardiff Queen Street and it cost £9.20. What would it have cost if this person had used tap & go with a bank card? I thought the daily cap was £9 in the SE Wales Metro region?

£8.40, per the fare finder. This was deliberately terrible value for money — I specifically wanted to buy a paper ticket to see what the printing looked like

edit: though really it would have been £9.20 for the zones 1-7 cap, since I also went to Penarth that day! (I did that part on pay as you go)

 

[Envoy]

It seems to me that the TFW contactless tap & go is not always the cheapest - especially for those with a Railcard or Bus Pass.

 

[AdamWW]

It seems to me that the TFW contactless tap & go is not always the cheapest - especially for those with a Railcard or Bus Pass.

It shouldn't ever cost more than paper tickets for anyone paying full adult fares, as it automatically works out what paper tickets would have cost and charges no more. And it seems to be fairly sophisticated at doing this.

 

[deecee16]

Presumably similar gates are in use at Southampton Central.
The attached ticket issued on 30 January is overprinted with NOT VALID FOR TRAVEL

 

[AdamWW]

Presumably similar gates are in use at Southampton Central.
The attached ticket issued on 30 January is overprinted with NOT VALID FOR TRAVEL

Oh dear.

In principle doing that rather than eating it seems helpful for anyone needing a Delay Repay claim, but given that this is non standard I can see if causing trouble with someone looking at a claim and deciding it can't have been a valid ticket.

I'd have thought something like "TICKED USED FOR TRAVEL" would achieve the same end and be less confusing.