MPTE Walrus Smart Card

[Barney]

RE: MPTE Walrus Smart Card

(13/10/2015 09:42)Enviro400 Wrote:  It shouldn't take as long as it does to read the card though, nor should it corrupt the data if it is taken off after a couple of seconds. I am a student and my student card has a similar near-field chip in it used for accessing buildings after hours. That is immediate, sometimes activating before it has even touched the reader. When I first got an NFC pass I kept my student card with my pass and about 10cm from the ticket machine (before I'd even had chance to put it on) and it would corrupt the reader.

Maybe these tickets need a stronger chip with a larger field of interaction. It isn't the fault of the ticket machine if it can attempt to read a stronger chip from 10cm away, surely?

The Walrus card and the software involved is clearly not up to scratch unlike the old paper tickets (please excuse the awful pun). There is a fundamental truth in the old adage: Buy cheap, buy twice. It would be interesting to learn how much Merseytravel has paid for this system and how much other transport undertakings have paid for a system that works properly. I suspect that it cost a lot more.