Ticket Vending Machines vs. Disability

[whole diary]

[grahame]

d) TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) can only provide the tickets I need on a small proporton of occasions; either there's no TVM available, or I'm buying in advance in anticipation of a journey that starts from another station, or I'm splitting.

Selling tickets with another origin station is something TVMs in this country can do. Southern have it enabled on their TVMs, there's a button on the screen which says something like tickets from other origins. [snip] ...

Didn't realise that - I stand corrected. I should have written:

d) TVMs at the stations I use are only programmed to provide the tickets I need on a small proporton of occasions; either there's no TVM available, or I'm buying in advance in anticipation of a journey that starts from another station and the machine isn't a Southern one, or I'm splitting. 

Really has the same effect, though - it's won't rather than can't and I still can't use the machine unless I web program it in advance and then collect my tickets hours later.

[swrural]

My earlier post had too many typos, apologies.

I just do not think it is appropriate either to force people to use machines, or to make life hell for them (see half hour queues to get out of terminus stations).  There has to be a method for wayside stations (Keynsham - wayside?) that stops this rot, and if the GW^» (Great Western - used as an abbreviation for the area / lines under the Great Western franchise, as opposed to FGW which includes "First", the company operating them too. For tickets - about) franchise has to be re-bid, I hope this particular inhumanity will be addressed (I did say hope).

[Chris from Nailsea]

... TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) (as I now understand I must call them) ...

No problem, swrural - and, as we have several members here who have been known to point out that we collectively are perhaps a little too ready to use abbreviations without considering our less expert audience, I've taken the liberty of renaming this whole topic with the full name.

Hope this helps - with my apologies to 'thetrout' for renaming his topic. 

[Brucey]

Have a look at http://www.flickr.com/photos/janepbr/3340254241/in/photostream/ for an ideal ticket machine. Walk up, and it clearly lists destinations covered. Put your money in, and it gives you the ticket.  Perhaps we have taken 10 steps forward and 25 back?

Machines this simple still exist in London.  Choose your destination, feed it ^4.30 then collect ticket.  No different ticket types, no returns, no routeing options and no peak restrictions.  Unfortunately this "easy to use" system never works out cheapest.

[JayMac]

And a very simple machine existed, all too briefly before being trashed, at Clifton Down station. I see little hope of it being repaired or replaced.

[TonyK]

And a very simple machine existed, all too briefly before being trashed, at Clifton Down station. I see little hope of it being repaired or replaced.

I saw that when passing through. That poor machine looked very vulnerable. I reckon the damage would have taken a fair time to perpetrate, always a risk at an unmanned station without alarms or CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele-Vision). The matter of ticket purchase needs some imaginative reworking. If we can buy tickets via the Internet, we should be able to home-print or have a readable code sent to our mobile phone. I am sure disabled people especially would welcome anything that gives a chance to buy a ticket from the comfort of an armchair, without the hassle of queueing at either a machine or a counter.

I also like Blackpool Tram's idea. A day rover ticket covering the trams and buses can be bought on a tram from the conductor, for ^4.50. The same can also be bought at Pay Point shops for ^3.50, as can a variety of group tickets. The Flexity 2's hold over 200 people, and are heavily used. A lone conductor is all that is needed to check all tickets and collect fares from anyone who doesn't like a discount. For lines such as the Severn Beach line, with very low fares, lots of passengers, and very short gaps between unmanned stations, such a scheme would be good for revenue protection.