Best TVM

[cactustwirly]

Today I had the opportunity to use a Shere fastTicket machine at Reading. (also used by Southern & Virgin trains). And thought it was better than the Scheidt & Bachmann machine used at most FGW/GWR stations (also used by SWT Scotrail and Southeastern) which I'm used to using.

Which machine you you think is the best?
What are your opinions/experiences?

 

[Starmill]

Definitely the ones you describe. The S&B and Parkeon ones produce tickets that are barely readable or look awful. They also have much worse user interfaces and touch screens that don't work properly.

 

[causton]

I would have to agree as well, they look the best, perform the best, have more options (Tickets from other stations etc) and are the easiest to use for a first time user IMO.

 

[cactustwirly]

Definitely the ones you describe. The S&B and Parkeon ones produce tickets that are barely readable or look awful. They also have much worse user interfaces and touch screens that don't work properly.

I find the S&B ones good, but the tickets are too flimsy. The Shere fastTicket had a really bad touchscreen, where I had to push really hard.

S&B tickets aren't that bad, especially when compared to Avantix(or the horrible new design)

 

[Starmill]

I dislike tickets that come out curly too. Avantix tickets look fine and fit into a wallet properly.

 

[All Line Rover]

The 'original' Virgin West Coast machines are the best, although they have been replaced at certain stations (e.g. Crewe) by inferior machines. I'm hoping this is only temporary.

The best station for TVMs is Euston. Incredibly well designed on Virgin's part, although London Midland could do with providing more machines for their own passengers. There is plenty of space to put some TVMs in the subway connecting the Underground with platforms 8 to 11.
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...they look the best...

Which is true in a variety of respects: the speed of the printing process, the quality of the 'finish' of the printed tickets, the reliability of the touchscreen, and the fact that they are almost infallible at reading one's debit/credit card without error when collecting tickets.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The layout at Euston is quite good, it guides you to the TVMs first and the queue for a person second.

 

[Mordac]

They have recently (well, a few months ago) installed new ticket machines at Edinburgh Waverly that print the reservations in the same piece of paper as the ticket. It comes out really neat, they're a massive improvement on what was there before. The only annoyance is that when collecting tickets bought online, the virtual keyboard to write the code in is in alphabetical order rather than QWERTY.

 

[talldave]

I think "least crap" would be more appropriate than "best" in that they're all pretty rubbish. I find the Sh*t & Broken ones the worst (slowest printing ever).

The problem with TVMs is that the people specifying them swan around the network on free passes, so never have to use the rubbish they inflict on their customers.