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Dorking Deepdene - TVM (Help needed)

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Chris Butler

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I need to give an overseas visitor directions from Dorking to Oxford. I have just three questions if anyone can help.
  1. At Dorking Deepdene, Google Street View shows a TVM at the bottom of the steps up to the westbound platform just underneath the bridge over the A24. I assume it is still there ?
  2. Does anyone know the TVM menu path to get an off Peak Day Single to Oxford ?
  3. I should know this, but I don't. Can you pay with cash or only with a card ?
 
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E759

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You could tell them to buy their ticket from the booking office at Dorking since it’s only five minutes walk from Deepdene.
 

paddington

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Google Street View shows two TVMs, one on either side of the bridge. The map is dated April 2018. They are both the new upright style with a huge screen. I don't see any cash-accepting facility on these, which is not surprising as the previous TVM was prevented from accepting cash (due to, IIRC some vandalism or attempted vandalism). If they replaced the old TVM and put a new one in, they must intend for these ones to remain there.

If they want to pay with cash and can't, they can buy on board. Not been that way for over a year (as evidenced by my memory of the old S&B?? TVM which is what still appears on the NRE website), but lots of people were buying on board even when they weren't meant to. If the visitor speaks English well enough there should be no problem, otherwise as recommended they could just go to Dorking Main ticket office.
 

yorkie

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Agreed; if paying by cash then you can buy on board at the same price, if the ticket machine does not accept cash.
 

Capvermell

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You could tell them to buy their ticket from the booking office at Dorking since it’s only five minutes walk from Deepdene.

For any moderately fit and healthy person its more like only three minutes from Dorking Main station entrance to the TVMs at the bottom of the steps at Dorking Deepdene. However for anyone with significant luggage it might take them up to another 2 minutes to get to the platform up the tall flights of steps. But if there are now two TVMs (there are only used to be one covering both platforms) then why on earth haven't they located them at the platform level so that anyone running slightly late can still buy a ticket on the platform if the train itself is running behind time (which is often the case with the delay then being shown on the platform train describers) and if not they can buy them on the train instead (as its a non barriered station and the trains always have guards due to the antiquated nature of certain stations like Gomshall with a foot crossing of the line where a passenger was killed only a few years ago).

The reverse side of this coin is nearby Holmwood where the TVM has been located only on the Northbound platform with only an old Permit To Travel on the soutbound side (although admittedly far less passengers travel south than north at this station). But surely Network Rail or Southern (GoVia Thameslink) could have got an agreement with the local council to put the ticket machine on the pavement on the road bridge above the platforms. One possible argument against this is that the southbound platform has secondary disabled friendly road access but then that is rather scuppered by the proper TVM being on the other platform. So the ticket machine definitely should have been on the road bridge with the permit to travel left on the southbound platform as backup for those unable to manage stairs in my opinion. Unlike at Dorking Deepdene you can easily see the trains coming in to the station platforms from the road bridge above.

You could also talk your friend through how to buy them online on the Great Western website with a credit or debit card in advance if they have one. Then all they have to do is to put that card in the machine at the station to get those tickets printed out and collect them.
 

W-on-Sea

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Can confirm the ticket machines were there when I was last in the area, maybe three or four months ago.
 
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