New Avanti planner based TVMs

[Starmill]

Re the Avanti app, it's worth noting that even the most basic things it still cannot get right. For example if you ask it for Gorton to Manchester Piccadilly you will get no results because it still cannot sell tickets to Manchester Central Zone.

The TransPennine Express app handles this fine...

 

[Mainline421]

I don't know why no TVMs in the UK give the option for both, all that's needed is two buttons on the first screen 'quick tickets' or 'plan a journey.' DB's machines can do this (although the 'Express ticket purchase' button should probably be more visible), they can also do rovers, reservations, international journeys, accept vouchers, and all in English on a faster interface as well! Really disappointing no TOC here has ever gone in this direction with TVMs.

 

[py_megapixel]

The TransPennine Express app handles this fine...

For what it's worth, the GWR app - which is AFAIK in all other respects is the same as the TPE one, just in a different colour - doesn't. It appears they've had to patch a bug specifically in the TPE app to make it sell CTLZ tickets (as TPE serve that area) but for whatever reason that patch hasn't made it over to GWR.

Or at least, this was the case until the last time I used it a few months ago, after which I removed it from my phone for this precise reason and switched to the TPE one.

 

[Starmill]

as TPE serve that area

As, of course, do Avanti West Coast!

 

[Paul Kelly]

It appears they've had to patch a bug specifically in the TPE app to make it sell CTLZ tickets

I don't think it's fair to call it a "patch a bug" seeing the CTLZ fares aren't represented cleanly in the fares data and don't work automatically. "Put in a special hack" is probably a better way of describing it.

 

[py_megapixel]

I don't think it's fair to call it a "patch a bug" seeing the CTLZ fares aren't represented cleanly in the fares data and don't work automatically. "Put in a special hack" is probably a better way of describing it.

I don't imagine an average passenger really cares how the railway fares database represents the ticket they want to buy. They just need it to work, and they will be rightly annoyed if it doesn't.

I think it's reasonable to define a software bug as a flaw in computer software which causes it to behave in a way the programmer does not desire. Considering surely no-one at GWR (or their contractors) wants the app to be incapable of selling tickets within one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country, I view it as entirely fair to call it a bug.

 

[Bungle965]

That's the trainline app with a different skin.

Hasn’t been Trainline for a long time now, I can’t remember who does the UI (same people as GWR,SWR etc) but underneath it’s now IBM under the umbrella of PICO.

Re the Avanti app, it's worth noting that even the most basic things it still cannot get right. For example if you ask it for Gorton to Manchester Piccadilly you will get no results because it still cannot sell tickets to Manchester Central Zone.

The TransPennine Express app handles this fine...

Kind of, it can sell you a ticket from Gorton to MCZ if you specify it, however you’re absolutely correct that if you put Manchester Piccadilly it’ll show as no fares.

 

[Starmill]

Kind of, it can sell you a ticket from Gorton to MCZ if you specify it, however you’re absolutely correct that if

Indeed, but of course the interface is for planning a journey, so people will invariably think that Manchester Piccadilly is what needs to be input.

 

[Wallsendmag]

I don't think it's fair to call it a "patch a bug" seeing the CTLZ fares aren't represented cleanly in the fares data and don't work automatically. "Put in a special hack" is probably a better way of describing it.

I know we had problems wih CTLZ tickets as well

 

[alistairlees]

I don't imagine an average passenger really cares how the railway fares database represents the ticket they want to buy. They just need it to work, and they will be rightly annoyed if it doesn't.

I think it's reasonable to define a software bug as a flaw in computer software which causes it to behave in a way the programmer does not desire. Considering surely no-one at GWR (or their contractors) wants the app to be incapable of selling tickets within one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country, I view it as entirely fair to call it a bug.

No, it's not a bug. The software behaves in the way that the programmer desires, and in the way that is required for accreditation. However, TOCs have ignored (or perhaps do not understand) how the data works, and have created many products that cannot be accommodated by the data structure / technical documentation. It is then everyone else's fault (and, often, cost to fix) when the inevitable happens.

It is essential to understand correctly the root cause, in order to be able to diagnose the problem correctly and fix it.

I do, however, agree with you that, from a customer point of view, this is all irrelevent.

 

[py_megapixel]

I've just attempted to use one of these and eventually gave up and purchased on my phone instead.

Does anyone know what sort of underlying hardware they have? Judging by the responsiveness (or lack thereof) of the interface, it makes it feel like I'm using budget netbook parts from the mid 2000s.

There is meant to be some kind of quick tickets option, but I couldn't get the touchscreen to recognise that I was trying to click on it, so I had to go through the journey planner. I gave up when I discovered that I couldn't enter my destination because it was ignoring some of the letters on the keyboard.

Pathetic.

 

[Merseysider]

Had my first use of one of these at Liverpool yesterday. Two words. Bloody shocking.

 

[robbeech]

Another backwards step. Passenger’s requirements ignored it seems. I haven’t used one with the latest update (I’m assuming there has been one recently as they claimed) yet but the software version on the machines they had just before Christmas was frankly unacceptable. My wife said someone at Lime Street on Tuesday of last week was having a heated argument with a member of staff about a ticket they’d just bought at the machine (but it could have been any issue, and I guess it could have been any machine, I think there are some Northern ones there too, though they’re not great)

 

[Bletchleyite]

Another backwards step. Passenger’s requirements ignored it seems. I haven’t used one with the latest update (I’m assuming there has been one recently as they claimed) yet but the software version on the machines they had just before Christmas was frankly unacceptable. My wife said someone at Lime Street on Tuesday of last week was having a heated argument with a member of staff about a ticket they’d just bought at the machine (but it could have been any issue, and I guess it could have been any machine, I think there are some Northern ones there too, though they’re not great)

They make the ones used by the Arriva TOCs (which are pretty dire) look good.

 

[py_megapixel]

There are now notices affixed to all the TVMs at Stockport telling people that they are incapable of selling tickets to Manchester Piccadilly and advising that one must explicitly select "Manchester Central Zone"

Having to provide instructions to work around shortcomings in the system is always a pretty clear sign that the UI is extremely poor.

 

[Bungle965]

There are now notices affixed to all the TVMs at Stockport telling people that they are incapable of selling tickets to Manchester Piccadilly and advising that one must explicitly select "Manchester Central Zone"

Having to provide instructions to work around shortcomings in the system is always a pretty clear sign that the UI is extremely poor.

There is a fix in the works for this, apparently close to being released which should get rid of the notice.