GTR Southern Shere TVMs being replaced by Scheidt & Bachmann TVMs.

[JonathanH]

There are three S&B ticket machines at Reigate - one has been out of action all week, another most of the week. A totally unacceptable position when the machines that they replaced were generally quite reliable (and had more functionality).

I assume that any improvement in functionality will be after they are installed everywhere.

 

[trevmonk]

Watch out if you are buying tickets at weekends or bank holidays from the new machines. The home screen on new machines at St Albans only displays the normal off peak ticket for some destinations (Bedford, Brighton etc) instead of the much cheaper super off peak tickets. You have to search for a destination using the A-Z button to find most super off peak fares.

The home screen also confusingly displays both versions of off-peak ticket for a one day Travelcard. The old machines sensibly used to suppress the normal off peak option on days when super off peak versions were available.

 

[Wallsendmag]

The profile manager on the Worldline (Shere) machine is very finely tuneable not all other machines have the same level of control.


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[jon0844]

There are three S&B ticket machines at Reigate - one has been out of action all week, another most of the week. A totally unacceptable position when the machines that they replaced were generally quite reliable (and had more functionality).

I assume that any improvement in functionality will be after they are installed everywhere.

The rollout has been halted due to the problems with the machine design (namely the ease at which they can be opened). I assume there is a modification planned by S&B to make them more secure, so they can take cash again.

I have no idea how this is progressing, but all the new machines I've seen are cash only. The upside is that they take contactless payment cards and have very fast software, so are otherwise a massive improvement. The time to get ready for the next customer is also extremely quick.

 

[Silver Cobra]

Has anyone noticed these new machines being out of order with quite alarming frequency? At WGC, one of the new machines was already covered up to take cards only, while at Hatfield I think I can honestly say that in all my visits, the card only machine says 'out of service' more than half the time.

I've noticed that the only S&B machine of the two installed at Arlesey that accepts cash, that this function hasn't worked from day one. Not a day has gone by where I haven't seen the notice on it informing that it cannot accept cash, so all cash purchases must be done at the ticket office. Both the original Shere machines accepted cash, so I find it strange why they reduced that down to one with the S&B machines.

Interestingly enough, within a week of the new machines being installed at Arlesey, some delightful toe-rags decided to put superglue into the card reader slots (I was told this was what happened to them by a member of station staff at Biggleswade), so the machines were rendered almost completely unusable. The only method of purchase that still worked was contactless, so any ticket purchases over £30 or ToD were not possible. It took about a week for the machines to be fixed. As Arlesey's ticket office is only open from 06:45 to 12:05 on weekdays and 07:45 to 13:10 on Saturdays, this meant that for a large part of the day throughout that week you couldn't purchase tickets at Arlesey.

 

[Lad Brookes]

When it comes to S&B, my experience is that the S rhymes with '****e' for a reason.

 

[Wallsendmag]

When it comes to S&B, my experience is that the S rhymes with '****e' for a reason.

It doesn't rhyme it is Scheidt .


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[JaJaWa]

I've noticed that the only S&B machine of the two installed at Arlesey that accepts cash, that this function hasn't worked from day one. Not a day has gone by where I haven't seen the notice on it informing that it cannot accept cash, so all cash purchases must be done at the ticket office. Both the original Shere machines accepted cash, so I find it strange why they reduced that down to one with the S&B machines.

Interestingly enough, within a week of the new machines being installed at Arlesey, some delightful toe-rags decided to put superglue into the card reader slots (I was told this was what happened to them by a member of station staff at Biggleswade), so the machines were rendered almost completely unusable. The only method of purchase that still worked was contactless, so any ticket purchases over £30 or ToD were not possible. It took about a week for the machines to be fixed. As Arlesey's ticket office is only open from 06:45 to 12:05 on weekdays and 07:45 to 13:10 on Saturdays, this meant that for a large part of the day throughout that week you couldn't purchase tickets at Arlesey.

The Northern Parkeon machines let you use contactless for ToD. An oversight if that's been missed on the S&B machines as it's clearly possible.

 

[Silver Cobra]

The Northern Parkeon machines let you use contactless for ToD. An oversight if that's been missed on the S&B machines as it's clearly possible.

To be honest, I didn't know you could do ToD with contactless. I just got my first contactless bank card a week ago, so the next time I purchase any tickets online, I'll try out collecting the tickets via contactless at Arlesey and see if it works.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It doesn't rhyme it is Scheidt

The D is basically silent.

But I don't have an issue with their product, it does the job on LM perfectly well.

 

[jon0844]

To be honest, I didn't know you could do ToD with contactless. I just got my first contactless bank card a week ago, so the next time I purchase any tickets online, I'll try out collecting the tickets via contactless at Arlesey and see if it works.

I use Android Pay and have multiple phones (and now a watch) that all have virtual cards, so I wonder how that would work. I assume you'd need the physical card.

I wish we could ditch the need for a card altogether and go with a PIN or something (ideally a PIN the user could preset when ordering, so they wouldn't forget and could even use for all ticket purchases from the same account).

 

[tsr]

Watch out if you are buying tickets at weekends or bank holidays from the new machines. The home screen on new machines at St Albans only displays the normal off peak ticket for some destinations (Bedford, Brighton etc) instead of the much cheaper super off peak tickets. You have to search for a destination using the A-Z button to find most super off peak fares.

The home screen also confusingly displays both versions of off-peak ticket for a one day Travelcard. The old machines sensibly used to suppress the normal off peak option on days when super off peak versions were available.

TL Super Off Peak and Off Peak fares have just had changes applied, so it could be that the tickets are not displaying as they should due to unintended consequences which have applied to the user interfaces of the machines. Just a wild guess though!

 

[JaJaWa]

I use Android Pay and have multiple phones (and now a watch) that all have virtual cards, so I wonder how that would work. I assume you'd need the physical card.

I wish we could ditch the need for a card altogether and go with a PIN or something (ideally a PIN the user could preset when ordering, so they wouldn't forget and could even use for all ticket purchases from the same account).

Yes doesn't like my phone / watch as the card number doesn't match their virtual number. I presume 'any card collection' (or paying with their virtual number - think Trainline accepts Apple Pay but presume it would set to 'any card collection' to allow you to pick up with the physical card) would work.

 

[James H]

TL Super Off Peak and Off Peak fares have just had changes applied

What sort of changes?

 

[MikeWh]

Yes doesn't like my phone / watch as the card number doesn't match their virtual number. I presume 'any card collection' (or paying with their virtual number - think Trainline accepts Apple Pay but presume it would set to 'any card collection' to allow you to pick up with the physical card) would work.

Can you discover the virtual number and use that to pay? My Barclaycard app on my Android phone allows you to see all the details (card number, cvv, expiry date) and explains that I need them to register with TfL if using the phone for CPay.

 

[JaJaWa]

Can you discover the virtual number and use that to pay? My Barclaycard app on my Android phone allows you to see all the details (card number, cvv, expiry date) and explains that I need them to register with TfL if using the phone for CPay.

No, you can just see the last 4 digits of the virtual number.

If you add an Apple Pay device to TfL you just use your original card number and TfL adds the card and associated devices (from what I can see online - never tried).

 

[infobleep]

No, you can just see the last 4 digits of the virtual number.

If you add an Apple Pay device to TfL you just use your original card number and TfL adds the card and associated devices (from what I can see online - never tried).

It's the same with Android Pay. It just gives the last four digits. I've not tried registering my card with TfL but as one is just entering numbers, it wouldn't matter if it was physical or virtual, so long as you know the full card number that is.

 

[jon0844]

It's the same with Android Pay. It just gives the last four digits. I've not tried registering my card with TfL but as one is just entering numbers, it wouldn't matter if it was physical or virtual, so long as you know the full card number that is.

Could it be the first 12 digits of your current card plus the four unique digits? Just as the last four are usually the only changes when you get a replacement card?

For security, I'd expect that a virtual card for Android/Apple Pay would be set not to work with some transactions however.

 

[Silver Cobra]

To be honest, I didn't know you could do ToD with contactless. I just got my first contactless bank card a week ago, so the next time I purchase any tickets online, I'll try out collecting the tickets via contactless at Arlesey and see if it works.

OK, so I visited Arlesey station just now and tried collecting some tickets bought on GWR's website via contactless (a basic Arlesey-Stevenage return). Unfortunately this didn't work and I had to use the card reader as normal. Contactless works no problem with my card, so I don't think it's an issue with the card. I can only guess that GTR's S&B machines aren't set up to allow ToD via contactless.

 

[swt class 450]

So another four months on and nothing has improved at all. These are still always broken. Every day when i am out and about on the GTR network i see more broken machines than working machines. They are usually just displaying the "Windows XP" logo and name (i have no idea why such new modern TVMs are still using Windows XP) or an "Out Of Use" message. The old Atos Worldline Shere ones (only a tiny amount now remain) were never this bad. You still cant buy tickets from another station (which is one of the most useful and important features) or Boundary Zone tickets or Car Park tickets or Tram tickets or one day Bus & Tram passes like you could with the old Atos Worldline Shere ones. They clearly have no interest in making things easier for us passengers. As usual they haven't listened to any of my feedback that i emailed them. Govia are just a complete and utter joke.

 

[radamfi]

At Three Bridges the installation of new machines is complete with just one cash/card machine. The other 4 are card only. The card only machines are narrower meaning that an extra machine has been squeezed in.

 

[skyhigh]

At Harpenden they've all still got a bit of paper stuck over the cash slot saying they're card only until they can be fixed... it's also fairly often that one has a handwritten sign that says either "Working very slowly" or "Might not print all tickets". If it's not printing all the tickets surely it should be taken out of use until it's fixed?

 

[JaJaWa]

At Harpenden they've all still got a bit of paper stuck over the cash slot saying they're card only until they can be fixed... it's also fairly often that one has a handwritten sign that says either "Working very slowly" or "Might not print all tickets". If it's not printing all the tickets surely it should be taken out of use until it's fixed?

I was actually saved by one of these when I forgot my wallet and was able to use Apple Pay on the contactless reader on the ticket machine... now if only I could actually use it on the ticket barriers like if we were a few miles closer to London.

 

[jon0844]

I've never seen one showing XP, and they do sell car park tickets. In fact, while they can't do tickets from another station, they can now do some things that the standby animation still says can't be done.

They're getting software updates at the moment too.

 

[tsr]

I can't confirm it, but these TVMs may well be using XP Embedded, which I remember posting about on here in another context quite recently. This is not the same thing as XP which you might once have used (or, if you're unlucky, still use) on a home computer. However, confusingly, sometimes it seems the two have shared a logo on startup screens.

XP Embedded is designed for terminals with fixed use-cases - a TVM, ATM or other type of ticket machine being examples. It is designed to be modular and only load certain functions. In addition, partly due to the likelihood of such uses resulting in the terminal having a fairly long life doing only one or two main tasks, XP Embedded has also enjoyed considerably longer official support by Microsoft.

As for tickets from another station, this is certainly not one of the most important features of a TVM, though it is definitely useful if you know it exists. I've never found a passenger outside these forums who's ever known it to exist without staff showing them.

 

[Joe Paxton]

...
As for tickets from another station, this is certainly not one of the most important features of a TVM, though it is definitely useful if you know it exists. I've never found a passenger outside these forums who's ever known it to exist without staff showing them.

Unless I'm much mistaken, the only place on the rail network that this facility is actually promoted in any way is on stickers on London Overground TVMs (though annoyingly I can't find on the web a photo to serve as an example of this).

 

[tsr]

Unless I'm much mistaken, the only place on the rail network that this facility is actually promoted in any way is on stickers on London Overground TVMs (though annoyingly I can't find on the web a photo to serve as an example of this).

Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I've seen it. I'm not sure anyone actually reads most of the stickers on TVMs, though!

 

[Joe Paxton]

I've never seen one showing XP, and they do sell car park tickets. In fact, while they can't do tickets from another station, they can now do some things that the standby animation still says can't be done.

I think they do GroupSave too, which is quite a mind-numbing omission from a great many rail TVMs.

 

[jon0844]

Yes, despite the machine saying they can't. When you select multiple tickets it asks if you want group save (it doesn't do automatically for obvious reasons).

There are still quirks but the software is getting better. It's a shame the QR codes aren't more dynamic, and thus far the barcode reader on the big machines doesn't do anything.

 

[JB_B]

This afternoon I found three of the four S&B machines at Three Bridges were dead as doughnuts - leaving 2/5 available. This is not uncommon - why are they so hopelessly unreliable? (Ticket office was closed although GTR hadn't bothered to tell the gateline.)

The Shere machines were horribly slow but once you learnt to be very, very patient they would eventually do the job.

Last weekend I discovered that if you ask for tickets for tomorrow (on a GTR S&B) on a Saturday, they'll only offer full price Any Time tickets (as if tomorrow was a Monday) -
I wonder how many passengers have been ripped off by this?

The no-access-to-tickets-from-another-station means I can't buy perfectly valid cheaper tickets southbound from Gatwick ( which I could with the ticket office and also using the old machines.) On this last point - how what's the least painful way of getting my money back?