Rail company issued travel cards not working on the underground

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TadleyBaggie
TadleyBaggie Posts: 6,055 Forumite
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in Public transport & cycling
I travel quite a lot from Basingstoke to London via the train, since I have a seniors railcard, getting the London travel card as part of the rail ticket works out cheaper. However of late I've had issues where the London Underground gates will not accept the ticket,I then have to get a LU staff member to open the gate, which to be honest has not been a problem, it just slows down the journey.

The same ticket works fine on the rail main line gates, so it's not a case that the metallic strip is totally unreadable. One LU employee tried to tell me that putting the ticket in close proximity to a credit card in my wallet was the cause, as it "scrambles" the strip. I don't buy that.

It happened on two different occasions recently, I realised I'd used the same South West Trains (small blue unit) collection point both times to print the ticket. So the next time I used one of the regular larger collection points, and had no problems on LU.

Anyone else seen this type of behaviour?

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  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344 Forumite
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    Sounds to me like you should be speaking to SW Trains to suggest that they look at their collection point.
  • rach_k
    rach_k Posts: 2,236 Forumite
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    It is possible that the strip can be messed with by other things e.g. magnets (maybe on a wallet/purse or bag) or mobile phones. The strips on disposable-type tickets aren't as resistant to it as things like credit cards which have to last much longer. I don't know whether it can be partially messed up and whether some ticket machines would be more sensitive to that, but I'd give keeping the ticket separate from your phone and any magnets a go. It won't hurt to try!
  • Biggles
    Biggles Posts: 8,209 Forumite
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    The last few times I've travelled overground and had to change stations in London, I've just been sent ordinary rail tickets, which have no mag strip.

    I just walk straight to the manned gate, tell them it doesn't work the barriers, and they let me through immediately, they're as good as gold. They barely even look at the ticket. It doesn't slow the journey down at all.
  • Kite2010
    Kite2010 Posts: 4,304 Forumite
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    Biggles wrote: »
    The last few times I've travelled overground and had to change stations in London, I've just been sent ordinary rail tickets, which have no mag strip.

    I just walk straight to the manned gate, tell them it doesn't work the barriers, and they let me through immediately, they're as good as gold. They barely even look at the ticket. It doesn't slow the journey down at all.

    Ordinary rail tickets which don't have mag strips? :question:
  • Biggles
    Biggles Posts: 8,209 Forumite
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    Kite2010 wrote: »
    Ordinary rail tickets which don't have mag strips? :question:
    Sorry, they have mag strips. Just not ones that work on the underground.
  • wealdroam
    wealdroam Posts: 19,181 Forumite
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    Biggles wrote: »
    Sorry, they have mag strips. Just not ones that work on the underground.

    There may be the odd one or two which don't work, but your sweeping generalisation has no foundation.
  • Biggles
    Biggles Posts: 8,209 Forumite
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    wealdroam wrote: »
    There may be the odd one or two which don't work, but your sweeping generalisation has no foundation.
    It isn't a 'sweeping generalisation', it refers only, as I said, to 'the last few times I've travelled overground and had to change stations in London'.

    I know not whether that's typical or not.
  • t0rt0ise
    t0rt0ise Posts: 4,276 Forumite
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    National Rail travelcards often don't work on LU gates, giving either an 09 or an 07 error code. It's well known and is NR's problem which they don't bother to resolve.
  • stclair
    stclair Posts: 6,844 Forumite
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    Some conductor tickets are paper now so it's a pain when you're travelling through London as they don't even fit through the barriers.
    Im an ex employee RBS Group
    However Any Opinion Given On MSE Is Strictly My Own
  • thebigstillmeister
    thebigstillmeister Posts: 188 Forumite
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    Hi,

    I've started having issues with my tickets these last couple of months, thought i'd search this site and found this post,

    I also travel from Basingstoke to Waterloo for work,.. been doing this for over 2 1/2 years and never really had any issues with my tickets,..

    However at least 4 or 5 tickets (monthly and weekly) in the last few months have randomly stopped working, I then have to get a replacement, (today it stopped working again!)

    I notice they always stop working when I get to Waterloo, step off the train and go though the first barrier to get in to the station, then go down to the underground, then the first set of barriers it will then not accept my ticket, from this point on the ticket is useless,.. I then have to search around for someone to let me through the gates all day till I get back to Basingstoke and get a replacement,

    I'm sure its either the first set of gates off the train or the first set on the underground that is 'breaking' my ticket,
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