Name: NationalRail Smartcard Manager
Rating: 2 (62 reviews)

Updating

NationalRail Smartcard Manager

National Rail

Released: 2021-06-21

Free 0%

Version 1.0.10

Free 0%

Version 1.0.10

Released: 2021-06-21

iPhone Screenshots

Description

The National Rail Smartcard Manager app allows you to view and load your Season Tickets, as well as activate your Flexi Season passes using your mobile device and smartcard.

What's New in Version 1.0.10

Bug fixes and performance improvements.

Seller

Name

Train Information Services Limited

URL

Information

Developer

National Rail

Version

1.0.10

Size

17.8 MB

Game Center

VPP Device Licensing

Yes

Rating

Rated: 4+

Compatibility

iOS 11.0 or later

Devices

iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone SE (2nd generation), iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone SE (3rd generation), iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 16e, iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone Air, iPhone 17e, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro, iPad Pro (Cellular), iPad Pro (9.7-inch), iPad Pro (9.7-inch) (Cellular), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (10.5-inch), iPad Pro (10.5-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (11-inch), iPad Pro (11-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air, iPad Air (Cellular), iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 (Cellular), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Air (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini Retina, iPad mini Retina (Cellular), iPad mini 3, iPad mini 3 (Cellular), iPad mini 4, iPad mini 4 (Cellular), iPad mini (5th Generation), iPad mini (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (7th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi), iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi + Cellular), iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (9th Generation), iPad (9th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (6th Generation), iPad mini (6th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (5th generation), iPad Air (5th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (10th generation), iPad (10th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (M5) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 11-inch (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air11M4, iPad Air11M4Cellular, iPad Air13M4, iPad Air13M4Cellular, iPod touch (6th Generation), iPod touch (7th generation)

Languages

English

App Store: Customer Ratings

Ratings & Reviews

2.0 of 5 (62 Ratings)

App Store: Customer Reviews

2026-04-14

Don’t rely on it

It’s bad. Just really, really bad. I’ve complained to GWR, and they don’t care. And it hasn’t been updated in years, which tells you how much National Rail care.

For one, it throws a ton of errors that you’re just supposed to ignore. Keep trying, and you’ll usually get there.

But then sometimes, it just doesn’t work. You can have a smartcard full of tickets ready to go, but the app just won’t activate one. And you know the train company will fine you if you board without a ticket. So you don’t have any choice but to buy another ticket — a paper one, that actually works.

I’ve wasted so much time and money on this app, it’s ridiculous. With all the duplicate tickets I have to buy, there’s no point in renewing my flexi-season anymore. It’s cheaper just to buy paper tickets every day.

EDIT: I loaded £60 of flexi tickets onto my card, and the app refuses to activate them, and GWR say it’s none of their business. What an absolute scam of a system. I quit. The bus takes longer, but at least it’s honest.

2025-11-02

Terrible app

My children use this to travel to school but they get stopped all the time by ticket staff accusing them of not having tickets because the app doesn’t work. It constantly says, ‘sorry we couldn’t find your tickets’. We are constantly on edge and anxious. How is this an experience? Terrible.

2025-09-11

Unable to activate pass

App reads card alright but comes up with an error trying to active a pass

2025-05-08

Doesn’t work at all

Used to be fine but now it doesn’t work at all. I have contacted National Rail and the company I bought my ticket from and no-one knows how to fix it. Useless.

2024-10-31

Just not reliable

A necessary app for all Smartcard users as there is nothing else but just isn’t working. Everytime I attempt to view/activate ticket it successfully reads the Smartcard and then crashes/app closes. Normally after 12+ attempts the app stays open and finally displays info on the tickets held on card. Note this is happening iPhone 11 Pro, and app deleted and reinstalled multiple times. Finally there is no means in the app to feedback bug and the app support link here on the store simply opens up the generic national rail contact page.

2024-10-16

Worst App Ever?

Possibly. Absolutely horrendous user interface. Constantly bugs out, no idea if I’ve activated my ticket or not for that day. Now way to see how many days I have remaining that month once ticket is purchased. Constantly crashes. The list goes on.

The RDG/National Rail need to earmark some money to sort this out.

2024-06-19

Works but still has a glitch

Validating the smart card is straight forward enough, and it seems to work better than it did when first brought out.

However, even when validation has been successful, it still shows an error message “sorry, we’re unable to read your Smartcard” - I know now to ignore this message because when I go through the process again, it says it has already been validated!

In summary, it works but can be confusing from the messages which pop up.

2024-04-02

Fails too often

Fails to give any information more times than not. Would be useful if it worked reliably

2024-01-27

Doesn’t work!!

Horrible app. Reads card just fine however takes ages to get it to activate, if at all!

2023-08-21

Doesn’t work

I’ll just carry on keeping track myself of how many out of 8 days I’ve got left on my flexi-season tickets. GWR say this app is the only way to track that countdown but it can’t actually do it. The app knows I’ve got a GWR smart card but can’t read what’s on it

2023-08-08

Awful

App can read the card fine but totally refuses to activate it. This app shouldn’t have been released if it’s performance is this bad..!

2023-06-27

Useless

Downloaded the app to be able to load my flexi tickets. Never works just get errors!!

2023-06-19

Hopeless!

Often takes 30 mins to read my Smartcard…constant inability to read the card and idiotic meaningless error messages. Long overdue for an upgrade to fix the problems with this awful app.

2023-05-30

Bug ridden

Have nothing but trouble trying to activate a 8 trips in 8 day smart card. Sometimes it works and other just reports errors. Quite a problem because a colleague got fined by Transpennine Express because this app wouldn’t activate a trip (we travel from an open station so no barriers to cancel the card on entry to the platforms). The apps needs to be lot reliable than it is!

2023-04-20

Rubbish

Does not work and when you do get it work it will be after extreme perseverance.

This app writer/developer should find a new job well away from anything to do with IT.

2023-03-31

Bugs ironed out

Had no problem with this app. I guess the poor reviews were right at the time, but now it works fine.

2023-02-22

Absolute embarrassment of an app

This is an absolute embarrassment of an app. It needs to do two things; 1. Read what ticket you already have loaded, 2. Add on new tickets. It can rarely do either.

I’m not sure who actually developed this, but I’d recommend that they look to employ someone else, maybe a professional instead? This is one of the worst apps I have ever had the misfortune to try and use.

2023-01-26

Needs an update

Works in principle but seems to have had issues since November ‘22 in terms of loading and activating the card

2022-10-11

Unable to read card error

This app is atrocious. I can’t activate my ticket because it unable to write back to the card. These is nothing wrong with my card so sort it out for goodness sake !!

2022-04-29

Terrible system

App on iPhone 12 Pro always struggles to read the smart card and after several attempts to “Load ticket” (NOT the “Activate ticket” option) it activates it anyway without asking.

With a flexi season ticket, the only way to check how many passes you have left is to load the smartcard on this app. Why don’t they show this information online where you purchase the ticket?

The cynical in me thinks this is a known bug that they have no incentive to fix it. You cannot unactivate it.

2022-04-20

Does not work with iPhone 6s

NFC tag reader does not work with iPhone 6s.

Why such a complex set-up to buy a flexible season train ticket?

Why not just allow to buy on the railways app and directly on your account (and therefore avoiding a smartcard and avoiding an additional app to enable the smartcard)?

2021-11-30

Unspecified Error Messages

This app often gives “unspecified” error messages. These messages need updating with specific text so you know what the issue is.

The app also needs to be able to tell you when the whole Smartcard network is down for maintenance or upgrade as it has been on a number of occasions.

2021-11-20

No way to contact app support

App started ok. Now it never works when you try to activate the ticket as there is a SSL error - this has been the case for two weeks. There is no way to report this to developers, hence the 1 star, as they clearly don’t monitor the service

2021-11-03

Ticket History

No way to see your preloaded smart card ticket. You always have to scan your card to see details.