Great Western Coffee Shop

The 2 TVMs at Swindon have been replaced by new models. I used one yesterday and it took quite a bit longer to obtain my ticket due to different layouts/options to the previous machines.
I guess they will become familiar in time, but in the short-term this could cause delay for passengers. There were no staff on hand to assist when I bought my ticket but it was a quiet time of day.
Presumably these new machines will start appearing at other stations.
The machine for collecting pre-paid tickets hasn't changed.

Shows how much attention I was paying when I walked past them earlier!!

Is there still the advance purchase collection machine in the booking hall?

If that's the pre-paid ticket collecting machine I mentioned - then yes! (Edit: well it was there when I used it on Monday!)

Last Thursday at 06:20 the two new machines hadn't been commissioned and were still wrapped in plastic and the pre-paid machine hadn't woken up yet. Big booking office queue!

These new TVM's have also appeared at Didcot Parkway. One has a massive touch screen similar to those used in other retail establishments.

They were certainly due an upgrade. One of the machines was refusing all cards for a couple of weeks. A particular pain on a card only machine.  ::)

Although the card slot is lower down, at least the screen for the PIN terminal is at a better angle and height for those of us over 5ft 6in tall.

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/tvmswi.jpg)

Seems the machine at Newton Abbot needs a little attention to detail with regards to the illuminated sign at the top however!

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/tvmnta.jpg)

It also has to be usable by someone in a wheelchair, hence those of us that are over average height will have to put up with bending over. Those in a wheelchair would have a bigger problem trying to stand up.

I don't disagree with that - the problem was more the angle than the height.  If you have varifocal lenses it was nigh on impossible to get your head at the right inclination without pulling a muscle or looking like Quasimodo.

The (additional) machine recently installed at NTA is significantly better than the one that (should be) about to be replaced as I understand that it is also an information point as well as issuer of tickets. However, I can't help thinking that the installed software is from the Microsoft school of programming - namely 95% of the functionality will probably never be used.