Back to school travel with Southeastern the Key smartcard

College and sixth form students are being urged to help railway stations promote safety ahead of the ‘Back to School’ rush by encouraging students to register for The Key travel card, an ITSO enabled smartcard from Southeastern rail.

The Key smartcards are able to be loaded with a range of tickets, from individual journeys to season tickets, including being able to use with a railcard.

This includes the 16-17 Saver National Railcard, introduced to the Southeastern network this year – which allows 16-17 year olds to continue to travel at the 50% reduced rate of child tickets.

John Backway, Head of Retail at Southeastern, said: “We want to do everything we can to make it easy for students and their families to manage their travel as they head back to school or college. Throughout the pandemic, Southeastern has been committed to providing a safe experience for all travellers and we see contactless, convenient ticketing as an important part of this for students returning to the railways.

“Although we have tens of thousands of Key Card users, only a few hundred of those are students – and this is what we are actively trying to change ahead of September; to establish contactless travel as the norm amongst young passengers.”