On 14 Dec, 12:13, "Paul Scott" wrote:

"Mizter T" wrote:


Indeed - unless one could 'pick-up' a season ticket ordered online or
by phone by touching on the validator, or perhaps (ala Oyster) extend
a journey beyond the limits of the season ticket held. It would be
great if a straightforward pay-as-you-go functionality (again ala
Oyster) were to be implemented, but there are undeniably issues of
doing so on a network that has many ungated stations where it might be
misused/abused.

As I've suggested before it isn't just the gating question - the main issue
with PAYG on a large network with maximum peak single fares priced
approaching £50, is what amount does a prepay user need on his card, and
what initial deduction does the system make, comparable with TfL's £4.00
'entry charge'?

All those who think joint ITSO/Oyster prepay can be simply 'switched on' on
mainline TOCs please explain...


Of course there's that too! But that is linked in to the issue of
gating - both are basically part of the more fundamental issue of
implementing a system which attempts to ensure passengers pay the
correct fare, along with attempting to eliminate or minimise
opportunities to 'work the system'.

The basic issue is one of intention - conventional pre-purchased
tickets spell out the passenger's intention of where they want to
travel (complex routing issues aside!), a pay-as-you-go system does
not.

Whilst a pay-as-you-go system on SWT might on the face of it sound
neat, as you rightly say it simply isn't as easy as that - in fact
it's not easy at all! (So I'm definitely not in the category of people
who think it could just be 'switched on'!) A while back someone who
seemed to be familiar with ITSO suggested that apart from season
tickets their other principal usage would be for pre-booked tickets -
so whilst that would encompass traditional specified train Advance
tickets (of which there aren't many on the SWT network), I guess it
could also include standard tickets purchased beforehand - perhaps
they might attract a discount if purchased online? In both cases the
'virtual tickets' could be picked up from the standalone smartcard
validators at stations.

I can't really see any benefit of issuing 'virtual tickets' on
smartcards which are purchased at booking offices or TVMs over issuing
paper tickets, but perhaps I'm just not being imaginative enough. I
guess single journey extensions to smartcard season tickets could also
be applied to the smartcard, instead of being issued as paper tickets.

I haven't read the DfT documentation on the South Western franchise -
does that provide any clues as to what ITSO smartcard ticketing should
be used for (and what advantages it might provide)? Or does it merely
say it should be implemented?