Kings Cross ticket machines - Cash?!

[johntea]

For future reference how many of the East Coast ticket machines at London Kings cross have a cash payment facility (i.e. coins and notes).

I managed to find...1! All the others were card only which for someone like me who likes to deal in pounds and pence rather than plastic and chips wasn't great! I later found the FCC ticket machines near their platforms but it seemed annoying East Coast have so many ticket machines dotted around without the full range of payment options available...

 

[Deerfold]

For future reference how many of the East Coast ticket machines at London Kings cross have a cash payment facility (i.e. coins and notes).

I managed to find...1! All the others were card only which for someone like me who likes to deal in pounds and pence rather than plastic and chips wasn't great! I later found the FCC ticket machines near their platforms but it seemed annoying East Coast have so many ticket machines dotted around without the full range of payment options available...

At Leeds I believe none of the EC machines accept cash. And the Northern ones don't take anything larger than £10. At least the manual windows are open just about all the time (if a little busy at times).

 

[Searle]

This is standard across most EC stations now, it's recently happened in York as well. To deter theft I think

 

[Starmill]

I think quite a number of the new machines at Wakefield Westgate take cash?

 

[gordonthemoron]

I thought the York machines were in the travel centre?

 

[Haywain]

For future reference how many of the East Coast ticket machines at London Kings cross have a cash payment facility (i.e. coins and notes).

I managed to find...1! All the others were card only which for someone like me who likes to deal in pounds and pence rather than plastic and chips wasn't great! I later found the FCC ticket machines near their platforms but it seemed annoying East Coast have so many ticket machines dotted around without the full range of payment options available...

Two of the machines take cash, one on the concourse and one in the Travel Centre. Another 4 could take cash, and did when they were first installed, but I believe that topping them up with change was very labour intensive so they were made card only. There are also some FCC operated machines that take cash on the concourse towards platforms 9 - 11.

 

[Searle]

I thought the York machines were in the travel centre?

They are, but still only take card only now.

 

[island]

I don't think it's too unreasonable to be honest. The cheapest East Coast priced walk-up ticket out of Kings Cross is £31.90 (£21.05 Railcard) and I expect most people will be accustomed to using a card for transactions of that size. Cash TVMs are labour intensive, need a bigger footprint, and can present a security risk. Passengers requiring to pay by cash have the choice of the ticket office or the FCC machines, as well as the FCC ticket office when the barriers are open, which is usually the case.

 

[Deerfold]

Further to my comment about Northern TVMs, I've just picked up a ticket from the machine at Ilkley.

The young lad in front of me was trying to get it to take a pristine twenty. There was nothing on the machine to advise it didn't take twenties, but when I mentioned I didn't think it took twenties, it took his scrunched up tenner first time.

 

[fireftrm]

They are, but still only take card only now.

No, there is one on platform 1, card only, for car park entrants to the station, two more are on the concourse.

 

[yorkie]

No, there is one on platform 1, card only, for car park entrants to the station, two more are on the concourse.

....and another by the north (NRM) entrance.

There's 4 TVMs at York that are not in the Travel Centre (and therefore available 24/7) that I can think of.

 

[Crossover]

I think quite a number of the new machines at Wakefield Westgate take cash?

Not sure about how many there are, but yeah, some take cash as I used one the other week. I have also seen a few that say "card only" on them that should take cash

EDIT: Actually, yes, I think all the "pods" may be cash/card