Jan Vojáček Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 I just received my smartcard today. What can actually do with it? Looking online it seems I can buy tickets, but then still have to go to the ticket machine at the station to effectively load them onto it. Is that the case or can I just buy tickets online, wait the 4hrs and then stride onto the train like I own the place? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19QOS19 Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 I just received my smartcard today. What can actually do with it? Looking online it seems I can buy tickets, but then still have to go to the ticket machine at the station to effectively load them onto it. Is that the case or can I just buy tickets online, wait the 4hrs and then stride onto the train like I own the place? You SHOULD be able to do the latter. TE's and Conductors have a scanner on their machines to check the card. I'm sure you're supposed to scan it on the wee machines at the stations you depart and arrive at as well. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time for it to load. On more than one occasion I've had folk with those cards say they loaded it the night before and in the morning it still hadn't activated. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan Vojáček Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 8 minutes ago, 19QOS19 said: You SHOULD be able to do the latter. TE's and Conductors have a scanner on their machines to check the card. I'm sure you're supposed to scan it on the wee machines at the stations you depart and arrive at as well. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time for it to load. On more than one occasion I've had folk with those cards say they loaded it the night before and in the morning it still hadn't activated. That would be pretty handy. I'm in no rush to do it so I might just wait until the system properly beds in (like 2022 or something). Cheers 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirkyblue2 Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 If you have an Android phone get the Scotrail app and it sometimes lets you load the card. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingscot Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 Smartcards also give cheaper 'Smart tickets'. They are restricted in terms of time, but I find them fine for heading in for a pint later at night, although they don't work at weekends. You can also load credit to the smart card and use it on the subway. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beefybake Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 On 1/4/2018 at 11:29, flyingscot said: The second point is figures being twisted for a political point. VTEC asked to renegotiate the contract that they operate under because the Government has not delivered the infrastructure they agreed to when they entered into the franchise. This allowed it to pay the premiums required in future years with longer new trains. The government decided the best course of action was to 'take back the keys' if you will to settle the argument. No money is been given to VTEC so there is no bailout, the franchise is being terminated early. Sure, they won't make the future payments, but someone else will although likely not as much but that is mainly the fault of the public side of the industry. For avoidance of doubt VTEC paid £272m in 2017, the public East Coast paid £215m in 2015. On nationalisation, I think it is a simplistic argument for a complex issue that for me doesn't address the core issues at play and opens up a host of questions. Where does the money come from to do this? Do we nationalise everything including ROSCOs and prevent use of private maintenance firms? Privatisation is not an ideal system and can be improved, but nationisation and exposure to short-termist politicians and even more exposure to government budgets and micromanagement isn't in my view the answer. In 1990s people hardly loved BR and still complained about high fares! The high fares issue is entirely on government policy. They believe that railway passengers should pay the costs not taxpayers. If they wanted to reduce fares they could, but would have to find the money from somewhere or raise taxes! It's not the private operators. In the end , it's not a 'simplistic argument' when a majority of the electorate are dissatisfied, and demand change. In this case, it's renationalisation. In the 1990's, rather a lot of people were in fact OK with British Rail, despite decades of under investment in the network, particularly the rail infrastructure. Aside from the ideology of privatisation ( private = good, public service = bad )..., a specific objective of the Conservative government then was to avoid public investment in the rail system. And so they privatised the lot. Responsible for the infrastructure they made Railtrack Plc. In subsequent years, due to under investment there were several high profile fatal rail accidents. The aftermath of these basicaly busted Railtrack. They approached the ( by then Labour ) government for a bail out. As this involved immediate matters of public safety, the government made money available. Railtrack promptly used this money to pay their shareholders a dividend. The government then forced Railtrack into administration, and created the publicly owned Network Rail to run the infrastructure. The reality is that privatisation is essentially a lie. The whole idea of private companies is that their shareholders invest in a risk. If the company does well, the shareholders profit from the increase in value of their shares, and from dividends. If the company does not make a profit, then the shareholders lose money. The franchise system allows the train operators to walk away when things don't go well. That means that privatisation has failed. It is indeed quite simple, not the smoke and mirrors stuff that you put up. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingscot Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 2 hours ago, beefybake said: In the end , it's not a 'simplistic argument' when a majority of the electorate are dissatisfied, and demand change. In this case, it's renationalisation. The rail industry is incredibly complex and always has been in many ways. There is nothing simple about it. Let's be honest, the majority of the public/electorate don't know understand about the railways and the detail of their operation. The public simply want their trains to run on time be clean and for it to be cheap. People are very quick to say 'nationalise it' but what I was getting at is how do we achieve this? What structure do we put behind and how would that benefit passengers? Post 1990s however we never have had a true privatised network in the UK, because politically and socially (as well as financially) it would not be viable. We essentially have a nationalised railway with private train operating companies running public franchises using trains from private leasing firms. I think we can improve on this structure, however we need to be honest about it and what it would achieve. Nationalisation isn't going to be able to manage to do everything that is promised. It is 'having your cake and eating it'. Do we really believe getting rid of Virgin Trains will suddenly slash ticket fares, improving punctuality and give everyone a seat any time soon? A nationalised BR as it was in 1990 is probably no use now given the vast changes that have occurred since, plus one of the successes of the current system is the ability to extract money from the governments for upgrades in a way BR couldn't. We need a better system, but saying 'nationalise it' is easy without people understanding what that involves. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lambie's Pigeon Feed Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 New electric trains on the Edinburgh to Glasgow line are not as comfortable as the old ones and the lighting is too bright. Much better doors on the bogs though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajwffc Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 New electric trains on the Edinburgh to Glasgow line are not as comfortable as the old ones and the lighting is too bright. Much better doors on the bogs though. The electric trains on the E&G are not the new ones but the newest of the older ones that Scotrail already had. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honest_Man#1 Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 22 hours ago, 19QOS19 said: You SHOULD be able to do the latter. TE's and Conductors have a scanner on their machines to check the card. I'm sure you're supposed to scan it on the wee machines at the stations you depart and arrive at as well. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time for it to load. On more than one occasion I've had folk with those cards say they loaded it the night before and in the morning it still hadn't activated. I've just ordered my card too, and I'll be using it to add a monthly season card onto. Can I just stroll on in the morning? -1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19QOS19 Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 I've just ordered my card too, and I'll be using it to add a monthly season card onto. Can I just stroll on in the morning? Providing it's uploaded in time then yes. But as I said above, sometimes it hasn't uploaded in time. I think you get a confirmation email so if you have any hassle that's your proof. I'm sure you're supposed to scan your card before you board at the wee yellow stand thing. I'm sure someone on here who travels can confirm that. On board staff can validate it anyway. Still relatively new to thrm myself as they're like hens teeth south of Auchinleck. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paco Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 You are supposed to ‘tap in’ at the ticket validators on all platforms. It’ll only really be an issue though if your destination has barriers, they won’t let you through as your journey hasn’t began, according to the card. Otherwise you can just stroll on. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al B Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 I have a smartcard, have done for about 6 months and I've never once tapped it on the little yellow thing at the station. I buy a weekly online on a Sunday to start from the Monday and occasionally it hasn't loaded by the time the conductor checks it, but I just show my confirmation email and it's fine. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HTG Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 I'll not entertain any further argument on this. Scotrail has descended to "complete sack of shite" service levels over the last 2 - 3 months. Especially if you are a commuter. Abellio make me pine for the days of First. What a fucking shambles they are. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scary Bear Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 The Scotrail Smartcard is a good idea badly executed. I bought my weekly smartcard at 9pm last night. 6am this morning I try and load up the ticket at the station and hear that depressing buu-du-du sound from the yellow touch screen. As has been said you then get your phone out and show it to the guard. It probably is about time that Scotrail got some bad PR again. Another fare rise, albeit only £2, so a weekly ticket is now £57.50 and a daily ticket has risen 50p to £14.80. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnightswoodBear Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 I was late for my usual train this morning so got the next one. I may need to start getting the later train as the talent on board is of a far greater and milfier quality than the earlier train. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleslie99 Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 You know the rules........Pics or gtf 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherchance Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 Smartcard works well for me. Albeit my photo on it has worn away, and some inspectors come the c**t about it, or worse hit out with some dreadful patter like “looking a bit washed out there son!” or similar. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honest_Man#1 Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 4 hours ago, Scary Bear said: The Scotrail Smartcard is a good idea badly executed. I bought my weekly smartcard at 9pm last night. 6am this morning I try and load up the ticket at the station and hear that depressing buu-du-du sound from the yellow touch screen. As has been said you then get your phone out and show it to the guard. It probably is about time that Scotrail got some bad PR again. Another fare rise, albeit only £2, so a weekly ticket is now £57.50 and a daily ticket has risen 50p to £14.80. I bought my monthly ticket to be loaded onto the smartcard at 3pm yesterday. Put it on the yellow touchpad at the station (I assume that's all you need to do to load on your ticket, instructions were hopeless for how to actually 'collect' the ticket) and got a big DECLINED message. Luckily the barrier at Central was open but no idea whether I'll get through the barrier on the way back. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19QOS19 Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 I bought my monthly ticket to be loaded onto the smartcard at 3pm yesterday. Put it on the yellow touchpad at the station (I assume that's all you need to do to load on your ticket, instructions were hopeless for how to actually 'collect' the ticket) and got a big DECLINED message. Luckily the barrier at Central was open but no idea whether I'll get through the barrier on the way back. There was a problem being worked on yesterday with them. Hopefully sorted soon. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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