Arriva MK new ticket machines

I could have sworn there was a thread on this but I can't find it so here's a new one.

Used an Arriva MK bus today and noted the new ticket machines have now been rolled out, with barcode scanners (which seem to work very quickly indeed, from observation of other passengers on weeklies) and contactless.

The contactless setup seems not to work so well:
- The card can't be placed on the machine before the fare is rung up. If you do, the machine rejects it and the driver can't ring up the fare. This might be so people aren't charged wrongly, but it really does slow things down.
- The card has to be placed very carefully to actually read - with mine, it didn't read until the chip end was placed almost all the way in, facing the driver. This will make things very cack-handed with phones where the NFC chip may be in a variety of locations.
- The ticket was issued, then a pointless little separate credit card receipt which was awkward to get out of the machine and caused further delay.

Overall much slower than cash payment - yet it really doesn't need to be. However it does appear it still was operating in "transit mode" in some form as the authorisation, which appeared about 5 minutes after boarding (I use Monzo so these update in real time), was for £0.10 rather than the fare amount. Do they bill the full amount used in that day in one go?

I do wonder why bus companies haven't just considered having touch on and touch off, which would improve passenger flow far more effectively than this. Though I suppose an advantage is that unlike on TfL you can pay for fares for a group or family with one card provided it doesn't hit £30.

Sounds like it's probably the same ticketed loads of other companies have. I thought basically the same. It gets a bit quicker as drivers and passengers get used to it, but basically yeah really could be better.

Would love touch in out but for some reason companies seem to have it. I guess because it does require the occasional ticket inspection.

It is Ticketer, yes, I'd forgotten the name but you have reminded me of it.

I guess it might be possible to update the software not to cut between the ticket and card receipt, and fit an improved contactless module with a better aerial?

I could have sworn there was a thread on this but I can't find it so here's a new one.

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/bus-operators-that-have-an-exact-fare-policy.175344/

Post 77

These machines have also been introduced in Derby.

Sprinter153 said:

These machines have also been introduced in Derby.

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I think Arriva are installing them nationally. Contactless payment is a very good idea indeed (I have taken taxis instead of buses a number of times in the past simply due to having insufficient change - and the app isn't applicable as it doesn't offer single tickets, which are my main bus use case at the moment), but I do fear it will slow things down too much by requiring a counterintuitive approach to using them.

Stagecoach in Cambridge's Contactless setup works well in my view. Again, the driver has to bring up the fare first before placing the card, but card placement doesn't seem to have to be particularly precise (though you have to hold it in place for a couple of seconds). It was a bit cumbersome when first introduced about a year and a half ago as everyone got used to it.

Bletchleyite said:

I think Arriva are installing them nationally. Contactless payment is a very good idea indeed (I have taken taxis instead of buses a number of times in the past simply due to having insufficient change - and the app isn't applicable as it doesn't offer single tickets, which are my main bus use case at the moment), but I do fear it will slow things down too much by requiring a counterintuitive approach to using them.

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It's odd that something that, hopefully!, has had a lot of testing before being introduced has issues like this (the ones First use have the same issues which suggests it's not a configuration issue).
Being able to pay contactless is such a step forward yet making the process more difficult than it could be just loses vital seconds.
The 'receipt' bit isn't even a useful receipt as (given the First example) it dosent even include the price paid (which could change if the costs were being consolidated across the whole day like Oyster but, even then, it would be better to know the total possible claim).

First have the same set up in that you have select the fare customer puts card on then the driver has to press pay by card, it is very slow and laborious to say the least. This is specified by the companies concerned as I asked the ticketer team the bus show last year and the said it had been requested but isn’t needed it could simply be fare selected card placed and transaction done in true contactless style

carlberry said:

The 'receipt' bit isn't even a useful receipt as (given the First example) it dosent even include the price paid (which could change if the costs were being consolidated across the whole day like Oyster but, even then, it would be better to know the total possible claim).

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Having used contacless in Derby I can say that the arriva receipt has no price on as well.

Bletchleyite said:

I think Arriva are installing them nationally. Contactless payment is a very good idea indeed (I have taken taxis instead of buses a number of times in the past simply due to having insufficient change - and the app isn't applicable as it doesn't offer single tickets, which are my main bus use case at the moment), but I do fear it will slow things down too much by requiring a counterintuitive approach to using them.

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There's no reason why apps can't offer single tickets, whether including interchange or not. Just put in origin and destination and the app could offer valid fares for that journey.

I can only suppose that the receipt that isn't really a receipt was specified as an audit requirement, and Arriva (or its auditors) does have form for slightly odd procedures for that reason.

When ENCTS first came in, a holder just showed it to the driver and that was that. Then Arriva introduced readers, although for some reason they couldn't initially read ENCTS cards issued by Medway Council, and the issuing of zero fare tickets. Those zero fare tickets, which went straight in the used tickets bin, were claimed as an audit requirement - but that seems not to have been correct, because the new ticketing system no longer issues them.

I've never seen an on-bus ticket inspection on an Arriva service. Do they actually happen anywhere in the country? And if so, do the inspectors have readers which can tell whether or not a given contactless card, ENCTS pass, or QR-coded paper ticket has in fact been zapped on that bus?

LivingBelowYM said:

There's no reason why apps can't offer single tickets, whether including interchange or not. Just put in origin and destination and the app could offer valid fares for that journey.

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Indeed, they could, they just don't. But this is about what is the case, not what could be.

MedwayValiant said:

I can only suppose that the receipt that isn't really a receipt was specified as an audit requirement, and Arriva (or its auditors) does have form for slightly odd procedures for that reason.

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But why not print them attached to the ticket?