Collecting Tickets at Northern Machines

[stew]

Just purchased some tickets online on Northern’s site, and selected “collection at machine”. Ideally Lytham would be selected but wasn’t showing on the drop down - is this a lag of the Northern machines downtime? Anyhow, selected Oxford Road as work near there but thought you could collect at any station (Avanti doesn’t even given you a list to select now)

Thought I’d check with Northern’s chat team and they said you must pick up at station selected. They had no solution if I travelled from Lytham!

any ideas?

 

[roversfan2001]

You can collect them from any station that has the required facilities (either a TVM or ticket office*).

*Merseyrail stations excepted.

 

[ainsworth74]

You can collect from any ticket machine. Sadly social media teams across all TOCs sometimes do not give out correct information (which is often a training issue rather than a personal failing!!) so cannot always be relied on to give accurate advice. If there is a working ticket machine at Lytham then you would be able to collect it from there. The reason it may be omitted from the collection list is that it may not have yet been updated to include Lytham. There are several stations near me which it has been possible to collect tickets from for a number years now but are still not on the list of stations.

 

[Joe Paxton]

You can collect them from any station that has the required facilities (either a TVM or ticket office*).

*Merseyrail stations excepted.

You can collect from any ticket machine. [...]

Any TVM that has the TOD (pre-purchased ticket collection) facility - I was under the impression that, Merseyrail aside, some / a few TVMs in remote places aren't connected up for TOD. But maybe they more or less all are these days?

 

[plugwash]

IIRC there was also one operator trialing TVMs that don't have CCST printers and so can't do ToD.

 

[skyhigh]

Any TVM that has the TOD (pre-purchased ticket collection) facility - I was under the impression that, Merseyrail aside, some / a few TVMs in remote places aren't connected up for TOD. But maybe they more or less all are these days?

All Northern machines should issue ToD

 

[Bungle965]

IIRC there was also one operator trialing TVMs that don't have CCST printers and so can't do ToD.

EMR, they’ve got new TVM’s made by Cammax using SilverRail software. They print on normal paper.

 

[Joe Paxton]

EMR, they’ve got new TVM’s made by Cammax using SilverRail software. They print on normal paper.

Interesting - that's basically an e-ticket, complete with an Aztec code. The way of the future.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Just purchased some tickets online on Northern’s site, and selected “collection at machine”. Ideally Lytham would be selected but wasn’t showing on the drop down - is this a lag of the Northern machines downtime? Anyhow, selected Oxford Road as work near there but thought you could collect at any station (Avanti doesn’t even given you a list to select now)

Thought I’d check with Northern’s chat team and they said you must pick up at station selected. They had no solution if I travelled from Lytham!

any ideas?

You may want to collect them early, there seem to be some problems issuing them

 

[janb]

There are problems with collecting Northern Flash Sale tickets today and tomorrow, but normal collections should be OK.

 

[XAM2175]

Interesting - that's basically an e-ticket, complete with an Aztec code. The way of the future.

It is an e-ticket, inasmuch as the paper is simply a representation of an electronic ticket record.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Interesting - that's basically an e-ticket, complete with an Aztec code. The way of the future.

i doubt very much that the future is any kind of printed ticket.

 

[plugwash]

I sure as hell am not relying on a fallible mobile device as the only thing keeping me out of legal trouble when I use the railway.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Interesting - that's basically an e-ticket, complete with an Aztec code. The way of the future.

i doubt very much that the future is any kind of printed ticket.

I meant in terms of what TVMs will spit out.

 

[Killingworth]

There are problems with collecting Northern Flash Sale tickets today and tomorrow, but normal collections should be OK.

It has been reported and is being looked into. Prints only one receipt but no tickets!

 

[skyhigh]

It has been reported and is being looked into. Prints only one receipt but no tickets!

It'll be fixed as of Thursday this week.

 

[Wallsendmag]

It has been reported and is being looked into. Prints only one receipt but no tickets!

Exactly what we’ve seen

 

[CaptainHaddock]

It has been reported and is being looked into. Prints only one receipt but no tickets!

I had the same problem trying to collect at Leeds station this morning, which was a bit of a concern as I had 15 different seat sale bookings to pick up!

The booking office have advised it's a known fault and to try again in a couple of days.

 

[JBuchananGB]

Having ordered in the seat sale tickets which will require 16 coupons, I am glad that I selected First Class Post as the means of fulfilment. Anyway Meols Cop also does not appear in Northern's drop down list of suitable stations at which to collect TOD, and I wouldn't trust it anyway.

 

[Killingworth]

Having ordered in the seat sale tickets which will require 16 coupons, I am glad that I selected First Class Post as the means of fulfilment. Anyway Meols Cop also does not appear in Northern's drop down list of suitable stations at which to collect TOD, and I wouldn't trust it anyway.

Apparently the standard ticket machine roll is 500 tickets and it will load with 2 rolls. If there are many wanting 15 and 16 tickets I hope the people from Carlisle now sub-contracted to keep them loaded are poised and ready for refilling.

 

[wrinkley]

More problems with Northern ticket machines today, I bought some of their £1 journey offers last night but the machines at Bolton can't print them, neither can the ticket office staff.
Tried later at Lostock, but got the same result, the machines print out the collection receipt but can't print the tickets. The ticket office staff have now received an email acknowledging the problem.

 

[py_megapixel]

Just a quick question (I think @Wallsendmag or @skyhigh might know the answer).
If someone tries to collect tickets but fails because of this issue, are they still treated as uncollected in the backend so the same CTR can be used to try again when the issue is fixed?

 

[Wallsendmag]

The tickets seemed to be locked for issue from what I could see. We can override that but only in a Travel Centre

 

[skyhigh]

Just a quick question (I think @Wallsendmag or @skyhigh might know the answer).
If someone tries to collect tickets but fails because of this issue, are they still treated as uncollected in the backend so the same CTR can be used to try again when the issue is fixed?

I've been told that when the issue is fixed the original reference should work to collect the tickets (the status is shown as 'ticket print failed - failed to find ticket format' on any bookings that I've seen that customers have attempted to collect).

 

[D.K.TAYLOR]

Anyone had any luck collecting flash tickets yet tried this morning no luck

 

[saunterlong]

Anyone had any luck collecting flash tickets yet tried this morning no luck

Yesterday took the opportunity to buy four tickets online at £1 each, part of Northern Rail's flash sale.
I tried to collect them this morning from one of the machines at Victoria Station, Manchester.
The machine I used (the other was out of action) would only provide me with receipts, but no tickets.
I enquired with one of the ticket sellers and she told there is a 48 hour delay between buying the tickets and them being available to collect from the machines.
I will try again in the morning, when 48 hours will have elapsed, and if I am once again unsuccessful, will be on the phone to Northern Rail.

 

[Killingworth]

Yesterday took the opportunity to buy four tickets online at £1 each, part of Northern Rail's flash sale.
I tried to collect them this morning from one of the machines at Victoria Station, Manchester.
The machine I used (the other was out of action) would only provide me with receipts, but no tickets.
I enquired with one of the ticket sellers and she told there is a 48 hour delay between buying the tickets and them being available to collect from the machines.
I will try again in the morning, when 48 hours will have elapsed, and if I am once again unsuccessful, will be on the phone to Northern Rail.

I suspect the front line station staff aren't being told and make up an answer as they go along. It's being raised on Twitter and the latest answer 45 minutes ago says;

"Hi Patrick. Our ticket vending machines will be back up and running for ticket collection from next week, I would advise trying again then. Sorry for any hassle caused here. ^ELT"

In other words, nobody knows, yet!

 

[XAM2175]

I enquired with one of the ticket sellers and she told there is a 48 hour delay between buying the tickets and them being available to collect from the machines.

This is incorrect. The standard waiting time is 15 minutes. At the moment though there is an issue specifically affecting Northern's Flash Sale tickets. Until this is resolved you will not be able to collect them.

 

[saunterlong]

This is incorrect. The standard waiting time is 15 minutes. At the moment though there is an issue specifically affecting Northern's Flash Sale tickets. Until this is resolved you will not be able to collect them.

Thank you XAM2175 and Killingworth for your answers, you've saved me a wasted journey! I rang Northern Rail to complain. She agreed it was unlikely to be before next week before the problem is resolved, at the earliest. She asked me to ring back on Monday or Tuesday to clarify matters. She said updated advice would be issued to stations.
I asked her what she though might happen in a worst case scenario, and she said if the machines were not fixed soon, then so long as the customer could provide proof of purchase, such as printing off the email booking confirmation sent after purchase, then this would be acceptable to rail staff on the rail journey(s) undertaken.
Fingers crossed.

 

[Skymonster]

I suspect the front line station staff aren't being told and make up an answer as they go along. It's being raised on Twitter and the latest answer 45 minutes ago says;

"Hi Patrick. Our ticket vending machines will be back up and running for ticket collection from next week, I would advise trying again then. Sorry for any hassle caused here. ^ELT"

In other words, nobody knows, yet!

On Tuesday Northern Twitter was saying the issue would be resolved by Thursday this week…. Now it seems it’s next week… Northern seems to be having a torrid time of it from IT point of view recently - headless chickens??