Case in point, today at Thirsk, there was a queue at the ticket office. Used the TVM. Excruciatingly slow, sometimes it times out on itself while fetching the fares list and goes back to the start. This time it didn't, but after pressing 'confirm', the card reader came on, but the screen didn't update to the payment one. By the time the payment screen had loaded, the card reader timed out. The message then said there was an error processing the transaction.
Of course, next time it will probably work fine, but how the hell are normal people meant to deal with this. Also when the ticket office is closed and there are five people who have to go through this farce, are we really to be told this is an adequate purchasing opportunity?
If I'd gone to the ticket office I'd have been served faster despite the queue. Luckily the train I was waiting for was a Grand Central service. Otherwise I'd have risked a penalty fare or been late for work!
What I'd like to know is whether anyone will be charged a penalty fare in line with the situation outlined in the 'common sense' revenue protection policy in TPE's franchise agreement, many of which are standard penalty fare situations. I'm interested to know whether anyone will consider this a franchise breach.
