Scotrail "smart" cards?
A few years after London made its Oyster smart card unnecessary by integrating contactless bank cards for Tube and bus journeys, Scotrail has finally enabled Flexipasses on their own proprietary smart cards.
My home station is a ticketless station. I feel there are a couple of aspects of the scheme for smartcards that have not been user-tested from the point of view of users of small rural commuter stations. Of which there are many on the Glasgow-Edinburgh lines and many more throughout Scotland.
I'd like to always arrive with plenty of time for my train in the morning, but sometimes the train is even early. At Kirknewton, Scotrail have placed the Edinburgh-bound smartcard reader by the main car-park entrance, halfway along the platform, about 50m from the entrance nearest the road where late arriving passengers - some detained by the level crossing - scramble for the train.
Maybe Scotrail's business analysts imagine that everyone always arrives for a train with 90 seconds to spare, accepting they will just have to be late for work if they're not able to run another 50 metres before the train doors close. Maybe Scotrail's business analysts should take a train occasionally, and see how often they're on time.
So I'll have to buy a paper ticket on the train if that happens...
Scotrail really should make their prospective Smartcard passengers more aware that they "tap out" only for Scotrail's convenience. At Kirknewton, 20 or so often get off my evening train. I won't be standing in a queue of 20 waiting for everyone to "tap out".
https://www.scotrail.co.uk/smartcard/smart-flexipass#faq477114
So, we'll see how it goes. I think Scotrail have missed a trick by not enabling either the guard on the train, or validator terminals on the trains, to allow passengers to "tap in". The gates at Edinburgh know whether I'm tapping in or out, because they know which side of the gate I'm on.
They've also missed a trick by not replacing the whole program with a contactless bank card system.
If this proves to be as much a pain as I think it might be, I may well just revert to using paper tickets, they're easier to get out of my wallet, and all I need to activate them is a pen, not up to four hours! They cost me the same, the only limitation is I have to buy them in Edinburgh in person, not online.
My home station is a ticketless station. I feel there are a couple of aspects of the scheme for smartcards that have not been user-tested from the point of view of users of small rural commuter stations. Of which there are many on the Glasgow-Edinburgh lines and many more throughout Scotland.
I'd like to always arrive with plenty of time for my train in the morning, but sometimes the train is even early. At Kirknewton, Scotrail have placed the Edinburgh-bound smartcard reader by the main car-park entrance, halfway along the platform, about 50m from the entrance nearest the road where late arriving passengers - some detained by the level crossing - scramble for the train.
Maybe Scotrail's business analysts imagine that everyone always arrives for a train with 90 seconds to spare, accepting they will just have to be late for work if they're not able to run another 50 metres before the train doors close. Maybe Scotrail's business analysts should take a train occasionally, and see how often they're on time.
So I'll have to buy a paper ticket on the train if that happens...
Scotrail really should make their prospective Smartcard passengers more aware that they "tap out" only for Scotrail's convenience. At Kirknewton, 20 or so often get off my evening train. I won't be standing in a queue of 20 waiting for everyone to "tap out".
https://www.scotrail.co.uk/smartcard/smart-flexipass#faq477114
So, we'll see how it goes. I think Scotrail have missed a trick by not enabling either the guard on the train, or validator terminals on the trains, to allow passengers to "tap in". The gates at Edinburgh know whether I'm tapping in or out, because they know which side of the gate I'm on.
They've also missed a trick by not replacing the whole program with a contactless bank card system.
If this proves to be as much a pain as I think it might be, I may well just revert to using paper tickets, they're easier to get out of my wallet, and all I need to activate them is a pen, not up to four hours! They cost me the same, the only limitation is I have to buy them in Edinburgh in person, not online.
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