Station Ticket Machines

[NeroWolfe]

I occasionally travel on GN from Huntingdon to Kings X departing on the 09.00 enabling me to purchase an off-peak return ticket and tend to use the ticket machine in the car park.

It appears the time on the machines dictate what tickets are available to buy so to get this particular ticket I have to queue up in the Ticket Office (who agree this is the case) along with everyone else that is travelling at this time!

Have they deliberately been programmed this way or is there a workaround (apart from getting up earlier !) - as there have been some close shaves in missing the train

Apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere.

 

[swt_passenger]

It is fairly standard practice to limit TVM ticket type sales by time, especially if the service is quite regular. The usual suggested solution is ordering online and pick the tickets up from the TVM at your preferred time.

 

[marshmallow]

It is very frustrating and essentially futile since the tickets can be purchased online. An interesting example is that if you purchase a Super-Off-Peak Travelcard from Chichester, the restriction is that you cannot board a train which arrives at a London Terminal before 10:55. However, it is perfectly valid to use this ticket to travel to Brighton (say) as early as you like and break your journey there (although I would expect various arguments with staff!). For this reason I would argue that this ticket should be available to purchase at any time.

I actually had the opposite problem once; I was buying a ticket at Kentish Town to travel to St Albans (using an Underground machine) at 9:30 and it only offered me off-peak tickets, however the next train to depart was a delayed service which should have departed earlier so technically the ticket was not valid on this service!