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[email protected] · November 14th 14, 11:20 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article ,
(Kevin Ayton) wrote:

On 14/11/2014 20:05, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Fri, 14 Nov 2014 12:51:11 -0600,
wrote:
[snip]

I find that explanation very odd. So all the unibus services run in
various cities in England with route numbers prefixed with "U" can't
accept ITSO cards? I frankly don't believe that.

There are 5 "U" routes in Southampton and a route called Unibus in
Canterbury. While designed for students they're normal public services
and will accept ITSO concessionary passes from English local
authorities. Exeter city services are famously lettered rather than
numbered.

There are also loads of letter prefixed routes across the UK and I'm
amazed that there could be even a partial situation whereby some
routes cannot read and accept ITSO smartcards. This is particularly
the case where local authorities rely on electronic data for usage
information for reimbursement purposes.

Note I'm not saying Ms Pidgeon is "lying". I just don't buy the
explanation as surely the issue has arisen before now and should have
been resolved?

[/snip]

Paul, you are right - it is a very opdd explanation.
It seems to have conflated two issues. Yes, there are some
constraints within ITSO which can prevent certain letters being used
in certain circumstances to record a route number in a trasnaction
record. But that can be circumvented, and in any case the transaction
record doesn't have to show the same route number that the public
sees.

More likely the ITSO on Prestige rollout hasn't hit all the buses
yet. The buses need both the ITSO 'shell and product keys' so they
can read the ENCTS cards and the concession products on them., and
they also need the 'commercial rules' to know that they can accept
these cards. My guess would be that one or the other hasn't bee
completed yet.

Just my £0.02 contribution

Don't they all have to handle ITSO cards now to allow Southern's "The Key"
card to be handled correctly and charges deducted?

--
Colin Rosenstiel