TVM present, but not operating - advance ticket pickup.

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Question - if I book an advance ticket and find when I come to pick it up shortly before my train departs that the Ticket Vending Machine at the station I'm leaving from is not operational, how do I stand?

[TaplowGreen]

Question - if I book an advance ticket and find when I come to pick it up shortly before my train departs that the Ticket Vending Machine at the station I'm leaving from is not operational, how do I stand?

Can they not print it for you in the ticket office? I've had the same problem at Taplow but the legendary Ted has always managed to do it for me in the office!

[ChrisB]

yes, if there is one and it is open.

Otherwise I understand you can travel with card & print-out/email & collect at change station/destination. not your fault you can't collect....

[PhilWakely]

This happened to me a couple of months ago on a trip from Pinhoe to Salisbury. The TM^‡(resolve) told me to jump off at Honiton and pick up the tickets there. Fortunately, he was keeping his eye on me and there wasn't a queue, so it didn't hold the train up - might have been tricky if the TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) had not been on the platform we arrived at.

[grahame]

Question - if I book an advance ticket and find when I come to pick it up shortly before my train departs that the Ticket Vending Machine at the station I'm leaving from is not operational, how do I stand?

Can they not print it for you in the ticket office? I've had the same problem at Taplow but the legendary Ted has always managed to do it for me in the office!

If it's a manned station, they could ... alas I have a case coming up where they station's unstaffed and the TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine)'s not working.

yes, if there is one and it is open.

Otherwise I understand you can travel with card & print-out/email & collect at change station/destination. not your fault you can't collect....

That seems reasonable - perhaps I should ask @FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to confirm and take a printout of the conversation?

[ChrisB]

oh yes....they should know when a TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) is out of action....

[NickB]

What happens if the TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) (possibly plural) is out of order and there is a 15 person queue that you know will make you miss the train even though you allowed 30mins to collect your prepaid ticket?

[ChrisB]

speak to the guard before boarding and check.....

[rogerpatenall]

This happened to me a couple of months ago on a trip from Pinhoe to Salisbury. The TM^‡(resolve) told me to jump off at Honiton and pick up the tickets there. Fortunately, he was keeping his eye on me and there wasn't a queue, so it didn't hold the train up - might have been tricky if the TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) had not been on the platform we arrived at.

That's interesting, Phil. Are you saying that, although you have to specify which station you are going to collect the tickets at, you can, in fact, get them from any station TVM?

[TaplowGreen]

This happened to me a couple of months ago on a trip from Pinhoe to Salisbury. The TM^‡(resolve) told me to jump off at Honiton and pick up the tickets there. Fortunately, he was keeping his eye on me and there wasn't a queue, so it didn't hold the train up - might have been tricky if the TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) had not been on the platform we arrived at.

That's interesting, Phil. Are you saying that, although you have to specify which station you are going to collect the tickets at, you can, in fact, get them from any station TVM?

In my experience yes any station - mine normally default to Reading (my departure station) but I've never had any problem picking them from machines at Taplow/Maidenhead.

[ChrisB]

Any machine....you learn everyday - I thought that was a very well known fact these days.

Done to ensure you know where (by having to specify at least one you can get to) you can pick them up.

[grahame]

Any machine....you learn everyday - I thought that was a very well known fact these days.

At one time, there was a note that you had to wait two hours from ordering to picking up, because at least one TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s machines weren't continually online - and I suspect that with those machines, pick up [was / is] limited to the machine(s) at the station chosen - otherwise a bit of quick footwork could have got multiple tickets.

More recently in FGW^▸ (First Great Western) land, I have sat in a waiting area, ordered from my laptops tickets that weren't available via the front panel of a TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine), and collected them within a few minutes.   That after the local booking office refused to serve me because it was too late at night to sell anything except "tickets for today" ...

Once someone confirms (if they can) that all machines are now online / interchangeable, my advise to people    may sometimes become "sit at your own device, work out what you need from the more extensive menu it offers and without creating a queue, then walk over to a machine just to collect" - in fact, wouldn't that make sense as an official recommendation to get more throughput at the TVMs 

[ChrisB]

At one time, there was a note that you had to wait two hours from ordering to picking up, because at least one TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s machines weren't continually online - and I suspect that with those machines, pick up [was / is] limited to the machine(s) at the station chosen - otherwise a bit of quick footwork could have got multiple tickets.

My understanding was that this was a fraud prevention measure, nothing to do with not being permanently online. Thus the two hours were deemed long enough for the card companies fraud mechanisms to work, prevent charge & notify the TOC to remove the ticket (non) purchase from their systems.

This has been tightened up by the card companies (in that they simply refuse any card transaction they don't like the look of straight away), and thus tickets are available sooner. Well, that's the explanation I got from two different TOCs.

[chrisr_75]

This happened to me a couple of months ago on a trip from Pinhoe to Salisbury. The TM^‡(resolve) told me to jump off at Honiton and pick up the tickets there. Fortunately, he was keeping his eye on me and there wasn't a queue, so it didn't hold the train up - might have been tricky if the TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) had not been on the platform we arrived at.

That's interesting, Phil. Are you saying that, although you have to specify which station you are going to collect the tickets at, you can, in fact, get them from any station TVM?

In my experience yes any station - mine normally default to Reading (my departure station) but I've never had any problem picking them from machines at Taplow/Maidenhead.

Same in my experience too - have collected tickets literally 100's of miles from the collection point specified at the time of booking and from a different TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s TVM's.

Going back to the original post, I've also seen on quite a few occasions people being let through the ticket barriers at Paddington with just a printout of the booking details (I'm sure the email displayed on a suitable device would also suffice), so I think there is a degree of flexibility as long as you pass the attitude test with platform & on-train staff and there is a genuine reason for not being able to convert your booking into paper tickets.

[paul7575]

That's interesting, Phil. Are you saying that, although you have to specify which station you are going to collect the tickets at, you can, in fact, get them from any station TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine)?

I heard the real purpose of the drop down list is just to prevent you arbitrarily deciding to pick up your tickets from a station not listed at all, i.e. one having no machine.  In other words it forces you to be aware that there is a list, reinforcing that there might be places you cannot do it.

Paul