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New SWT ticket machines

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wintonian

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Spotted this at Southampton Central today

1f4dbc0a-5c1d-3007.jpg



They are for the collection of tickets bought online only. I looks like they might be praying their idea of people only booking online or using the TVM's making ticket offices as redundent as travel centers.

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sheff1

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Is this a Stagecoach thing ? 7 or 8 have appeared at Sheffield in the last couple of weeks.

They certainly print tickets much faster than the other machines, but seem to be suffering from teething problems - many disgruntled passengers on Saturday who had been redirected from the main queue only to find the new machines woudln't accept their cards.
 

142094

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Wonder how many people will queue at a ticket office/other TVM when these are standing around doing nothing. Bi-mode machines are much more flexible.
 

sheff1

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Wonder how many people will queue at a ticket office/other TVM when these are standing around doing nothing. Bi-mode machines are much more flexible.

Lots.

Today there was a queue of about 10 for the other TVMs but half of the new machines had no customers. Suits me fine :D.

Interesting to see what happens on Friday which is usually bedlam.
 

WillPS

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Do they insist you put your Booking Reference in (even if you only have one set waiting to print)? That slowed the other's down somewhat!
 

district

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I was really impressed to see the new(ish) TVM's at Lewes with the 'Key' readers on them!
 

142094

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Do they insist you put your Booking Reference in (even if you only have one set waiting to print)? That slowed the other's down somewhat!

Any cynic would say that the machines are programmed to do so, as there could be someone who forgets their booking reference and has to buy a new ticket on the day (= £££ for the TOC).
 

swt_passenger

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Do they insist you put your Booking Reference in (even if you only have one set waiting to print)? That slowed the other's down somewhat!

That wasn't just an SWT thing though, there are a number of TOCs that always require the booking reference as well as the card.
 

wintonian

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Is this a Stagecoach thing ? 7 or 8 have appeared at Sheffield in the last couple of weeks.

They certainly print tickets much faster than the other machines, but seem to be suffering from teething problems - many disgruntled passengers on Saturday who had been redirected from the main queue only to find the new machines woudln't accept their cards.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was a Stagecoach thing (or even a Tim Shoveller idea?) in order to encourage people to save money by booking online in advance and absolutely nothing to do with the cost of providing well trained competent staff who can book long distance/ complicated/ unusual itinerary’s.
 

WillPS

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I don't understand why they didn't keep the old MML fastticket as "collection only" machines, they vended twice as quickly (2 printers) and didn't require a silly code (unless there were multiple bookings).
 

All Line Rover

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Any cynic would say that the machines are programmed to do so, as there could be someone who forgets their booking reference and has to buy a new ticket on the day (= £££ for the TOC).

Yes, but at least most people can now access their e-mail account on their mobile. ;)
 

button_boxer

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Wonder how many people will queue at a ticket office/other TVM when these are standing around doing nothing. Bi-mode machines are much more flexible.

In the Sheffield case it doesn't help that as you enter the station the normal TVMs are directly in front of you, but the new collection-only machines are behind you (against the wall containing the door you just came in through while your attention was directed ahead and up at the departure boards) and if you don't know they are there you wouldn't notice them until you had already joined the queue for the more obvious ones. Maybe it would make sense to swap them over?

(There's another couple of regular TVMs at the far left hand end of the ticket office windows, but again they're not obvious if you don't already know they are there.)
 

swt_passenger

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In the Sheffield case it doesn't help that as you enter the station the normal TVMs are directly in front of you, but the new collection-only machines are behind you...

Good point.

Wintonian's picture has captured the down side machine at Southampton, which is in a temporary site as that whole side of the station is being remodelled, but at the up side entrance the TVM set up has a much better lay out, because the new red TOD machine is placed both where you can't miss it as you enter, and so you'd pass it on the way to the bank of normal TVMs.
 

142094

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Yes, but at least most people can now access their e-mail account on their mobile. ;)

Most, but not all! I don't see the problem with a TVM machine automatically printing tickets for one journey when the card is presented, as there isn't that much of a security risk (of course I understand when there may be more than one journey made).
 

wintonian

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At Southampton Central now and just stuck one of my cards into the new machine and yes it does ask for a booking reference.

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--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Oh and there is another one on platform 1.
 
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