All Northern self-service ticket machines off line 13/7/2021

[Elecman]

Both machines at Leyland are showing an "out of service" message, rather than being totally blank.

And Chelford

Is this a back end service denial blackmail virus issue

 

[Djgr]

Looks like Paytrains weren't such a bad idea!

 

[TUC]

Passengers having to go to the ticket office...all of a sudden they are buying the correct ticket for their journey and being given good travel and fares advice. Perhaps they should be left off for good?

Who wants to waste their life in ticket queues?

 

[py_megapixel]

Who wants to waste their life in ticket queues?

To be fair, once you get to the front of the queue I find the staff do a much more efficient job of issuing me a ticket than the machine does - so unless the queue is unusually long, the time saving by using a machine is probably minimal.

Especially now, when the wait to use a machine is indefinite!

 

[Accura]

The 4 Northern trains I've used between Wednesday and Friday (between Westhoughton and Manchester) have all had staff doing frequent walks through the carriages selling/checking tickets, so there has still be plenty of opportunities to buy before getting to your destination. Both ticket machines at Westhoughton were showing the error message other posters have described.

I've personally taken the opportunity to start using the Northern app to buy my tickets. It's my first time using a ticket app and it works quite well, so I probably won't go back to using the machines when they're up and running.

 

[mark-h]

The machine is unlikely to be able to tell whether or not other machines are affected - and in most cases they won't be; it'll be an issue with that particular machine's network connection.

If all the machines at a station share a network connection then there will be times when they all go down together.

 

[Lancs]

I've personally taken the opportunity to start using the Northern app to buy my tickets. It's my first time using a ticket app and it works quite well, so I probably won't go back to using the machines when they're up and running.

Given the whole back-end has supposed to have collapsed, it's interesting to see that the app can still interface with it!?!

 

[skyhigh]

Given the whole back-end has supposed to have collapsed, it's interesting to see that the app can still interface with it!?!

It's a completely separate system. Ticket offices, app and on-train are as normal.

 

[Vespa]

Popped down to my local station, the Northern Fail TVM is showing a blank screen and power switched off.

So still not fixed.

 

[DanBlanchflowe]

Only machine at Dunston off on Wed & still off this morning. Staff coming along train selling tickets.

 

[skyhigh]

Popped down to my local station, the Northern Fail TVM is showing a blank screen and power switched off.

So still not fixed.

There's not really any need to resort to juvenile nicknames. The issue is on the side of the supplier, and until they sort it out there's nothing Northern can do, really.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Fail = Unsuccessful, a mistake, neglectful of something, an instance of poor performance.

'Northern Fail' seems quite appropriate / descriptive of their TVMs just now.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Had a word with the ticket office guy at my local station this morning and he said they’d been told there wasn’t a timescale for a resolution and they’d get an update early next week

 

[Vespa]

There's not really any need to resort to juvenile nicknames. The issue is on the side of the supplier, and until they sort it out there's nothing Northern can do, really.

Northern Fail sounds about right.

They failed to prepare, so they must prepare to fail.

 

[Djgr]

To be fair, as far as this forum is concerned Northern can do no wrong.

I mean if you choose to outsource your ticket purchase infrastructure does that absolve you of ultimate responsibility?

 

[DanNCL]

Of the two TVMs at Metrocentre, the one on the Newcastle bound platform had a completely blank screen, whilst the one on the Carlisle bound platform had an error message.

 

[py_megapixel]

Interesting that we're seeing a mixture of blank ones and on but out of use ones. It would interest me if anyone who travels on a regular basis can say whether it's usually the same machines in each of these two predicaments, or whether they change (e.g. a machine off today might be displaying the error tomorrow).

Also on the machines with the screens switched off, what colour is the bar at the top?

Northern Fail sounds about right.

They failed to prepare, so they must prepare to fail.

No good preparing for it now; they've already done a pretty comprehensive job of the failing part!

It is Northern that will pay the price though, through people simply not paying because they have no opportunity to do so on their journey.

At least in the short term - I imagine a lot of the cost will ultimately be passed onto Flowbird in the form of penalties built into the contract.

 

[Killingworth]

9mm

Interesting that we're seeing a mixture of blank ones and on but out of use ones. It would interest me if anyone who travels on a regular basis can say whether it's usually the same machines in each of these two predicaments, or whether they change (e.g. a machine off today might be displaying the error tomorrow).

Also on the machines with the screens switched off, what colour is the bar at the top?

 

[py_megapixel]

9mm

Pardon?

 

[Geeves]

The staffed stations were told to power off the entire machine, presuming someone will have to go out to every unstaffed station for those machines and turn them off.

Part of the deal with the machines was that they (Parkeon of carpark machine fame) would deal with everything including the OS and back office. To be fair they have a good support service when ever I have rang they have been nothing but helpful

 

[Killingworth]

Pardon?

Oops, written on train and sent without realising

Meant to say Dore & Totley machine has been live giving humming sound, showing blank screen, and red light from Tuesday until yesterday. Can't speak for today.

 

[py_megapixel]

The staffed stations were told to power off the entire machine, presuming someone will have to go out to every unstaffed station for those machines and turn them off.

Seen a few staffed stations with them still on...

If they're sending someone to every unstaffed station to indefinitely power down the machines I'd assume that can be taken as a sign that a fix is not immediately forthcoming and we could be without the machines for a while longer?

Part of the deal with the machines was that they (Parkeon of carpark machine fame) would deal with everything including the OS and back office. To be fair they have a good support service when ever I have rang they have been nothing but helpful

Is Parkeon the same company as Flowbird, or did they split their railway and car park divisions or something resulting in two different names? I must admit I thought Flowbird was just a rebranding of Parkeon with the Parkeon brand hanging around on some things simply because they hadn't been updated to match the new brand, but I'm happy to be corrected

 

[Tracked]

Interesting that we're seeing a mixture of blank ones and on but out of use ones. It would interest me if anyone who travels on a regular basis can say whether it's usually the same machines in each of these two predicaments, or whether they change (e.g. a machine off today might be displaying the error tomorrow).

The one at Doncaster has been on with the error message since at least Wednesday morning (possibly earlier, Wednesday was the first time I'd gone to use it), the two at Bentley have both been switched off at least since Thursday (still off this morning)

 

[bengley]

I can confirm, from an official source, that it is related to a malware attack. I cannot provide the source, but be assured it's not a simple 'software update' which has caused this issue.

 

[syorksdeano]

I can confirm, from an official source, that it is related to a malware attack. I cannot provide the source, but be assured it's not a simple 'software update' which has caused this issue.

Wonder if any customer detail have been stolen.

 

[mmh]

I can confirm, from an official source, that it is related to a malware attack. I cannot provide the source, but be assured it's not a simple 'software update' which has caused this issue.

And this, folks, is one reason why both cash and genuinely private networks are good things, and debit cards and the Internet aren't the be-all and end-all!

 

[scrapy]

To be fair, as far as this forum is concerned Northern can do no wrong.

I mean if you choose to outsource your ticket purchase infrastructure does that absolve you of ultimate responsibility?

To be fair Northern Trains didn't choose to outsource or the provider, but took over a contract from the previous failed franchise and have to make the best of it.

 

[skyhigh]

I can confirm, from an official source, that it is related to a malware attack. I cannot provide the source, but be assured it's not a simple 'software update' which has caused this issue.

As I said, the ticket machines themselves are fine, it's the management system that's the issue here...

 

[Bletchleyite]

Has it affected other TOCs with the same machines e.g. Chiltern? If not, what is different?

 

[Carlisle]

To be fair Northern Trains didn't choose to outsource or the provider, but took over a contract from the previous failed franchise and have to make the best of it.

Could an individual TOC have such specialist activities entirely in house, ?