Great Western Coffee Shop

Good news ... 10:04 at Melksham today toward Swindon.   29 on + 7 - 3 = 36/10

Bad news - the conductor did not have a working ticket machine, so couldn't collect fares / sell tickets.  Anyone for Chippenham was "in luck" again, ORR tickets stats will be wrong, etc.    From the report I had, sounds like the lack of working ticket machine may be for the whole shift too - 3 round trips.

Were there no ATEs at Chippenham either, manning the exits?

Don't know - but typically there's no ticket check on leaving trains at Chippenham.   In the morning peak there's often a couple of chaps / chapesses with Avantix helping the booking office, but when the commuter peak is over, it's an open station.

Helping being the operative word there - on the number of occasions where I have been unable to buy a ticket on the train from MKM I have sometimes walked past said chap at the foot of the stairs without comment to queue inside for the "proper" ticket facilities. Usually though I smile and nod in their direction.

Sometimes people stop there and have tickets checked but I wonder whether that is because they feel that is what should be happening rather than because checks are actively taking place.

As with a lot of things, this probably depends a great deal on the member of staff.

I have noticed in recent times my ticket is asked for less and less on the TransWilts.  Whether that is because it is busier and therefore more work involved for the conductor I don't know - but it is frustrating.

I can think of four trips in the last couple of months when there have been no checks - and one was all the way to Salisbury.

On Wednesday I cheerily mentioned to the guard (or customer stakeholder assistance operative, or whatever it is they're called this week) that it would be a good thing once the new installed ticket machine at Melksham was up and running, only to receive the lugubrious response "I doubt it, it'll probably be wrecked by vandals inside a week"

I didn't see much point in voicing the opinion that if perhaps they hadn't installed a machine which still had slots for coins and notes despite only being intended to take card payments then the problem probably wouldn't have arisen in the first place.

Thank you, Phil - I gave up banging my head against a brick wall over that issue at Nailsea & Backwell station, some time ago.  ;) :D ;D

Picking up on this thread of a while back ... TVM is up and running and has proven a darned sight more reliable than the information point.   It's taking sufficient of the business (standard tickets on credit / debit card) to give the conductor more time to get through the train and sell all the cash and special fares. A few issues as with other TVMs of the cheapest fare for the journey often not being offered (London especially) and screen visibility, but otherwise "so far, so good".