Capvermell
On Moderation
- Joined
- 5 Jan 2014
- Messages
- 348
Can anyone here please explain to me why it is that at a manned ticket window of apparently any train operating company (not in any case available at my local unmanned station of Holmwood) I can happily buy a Network Card discounted ticket to Ryde Hoverport but I cannot do the same thing at any of the automated ticket vending machines run by any of the train operating companies including South West Trains (who are presumably responsible for any station destinations on the Isle of Wight including Ryde Hoverport, even though it isn't actually a physical station but merely a through train and hovercraft ticket destination) as Ryde Hoverport is not shown in the alphabetical list of stations.
The automatic ticket machines all know about Ryde Pierhead, Ryde Esplanade and Ryde St John's Road but they act like Ryde Hoverport does not exist as a valid destination even though it does exist and I have lots of tickets here issues from manned ticket windows to that very destination from manned ticketing windows.
Clearly there is one database, probably run by Network Rail, that is feeding these automated ticket machines that is different to the database feeding the manned ticket issuing windows and for whatever reason Ryde Hoverport got left out, probably due to some anomaly with the fact it isn't an actual physical rail station (but then nor are West Cowes or East Cowes).
You would think this would be a simple issue to get fixed but it isn't because everyone tries to pass the buck so South West trains try to throw me back to Southern (as my journey starts on their network) and Southern tries to throw me to South West trains. Network Rail also seem to think this issue isn't their problem and Hovertravel (who you would think had the most to lose if it is far easier to travel to the Isle of Wight with Wightlink, Redjet or Red Funnel) know of the problem but don't seem to know why it exists.
All I can say is that if I go to Horsham Station to get the first train of the day available on a Network card fare to Ryde Hoverport it is very inconvenient as there are often huge queues of people such as elderly groups of walkers etc all buying fares at the manned ticket window at that time of day and the queues can be so long that you end up missing your train and connection at Portsmouth over to the Isle of Wight.
The automatic ticket machines all know about Ryde Pierhead, Ryde Esplanade and Ryde St John's Road but they act like Ryde Hoverport does not exist as a valid destination even though it does exist and I have lots of tickets here issues from manned ticket windows to that very destination from manned ticketing windows.
Clearly there is one database, probably run by Network Rail, that is feeding these automated ticket machines that is different to the database feeding the manned ticket issuing windows and for whatever reason Ryde Hoverport got left out, probably due to some anomaly with the fact it isn't an actual physical rail station (but then nor are West Cowes or East Cowes).
You would think this would be a simple issue to get fixed but it isn't because everyone tries to pass the buck so South West trains try to throw me back to Southern (as my journey starts on their network) and Southern tries to throw me to South West trains. Network Rail also seem to think this issue isn't their problem and Hovertravel (who you would think had the most to lose if it is far easier to travel to the Isle of Wight with Wightlink, Redjet or Red Funnel) know of the problem but don't seem to know why it exists.
All I can say is that if I go to Horsham Station to get the first train of the day available on a Network card fare to Ryde Hoverport it is very inconvenient as there are often huge queues of people such as elderly groups of walkers etc all buying fares at the manned ticket window at that time of day and the queues can be so long that you end up missing your train and connection at Portsmouth over to the Isle of Wight.