Ticket Vending Machine (TVM) ideas

[Watershed]

We do that - if your ticket isn't on the popular tickets screen the next screen is popular destinations.

Does the list of popular tickets change by time of day? Otherwise you risk selling Anytime tickets when Off-Peak would be valid, or vice versa. Personally I think popular destinations makes a lot more sense.

 

[Ken H]

As I posted on other thread the ideal TVM for me would be pretty much exactly what DB have. It's simple for those who don't know how to use it and equally importantly fast for those who do, as well as being able to offer much closer to the full range of products a ticket office can such as rovers, reservations etc. It has a journey planner if you want one, but it isn't needed if you don't.

Would probably also be helpful for many to have Plusbus more prominently displayed at the end of the process, perhaps a visible logo rather than a tiny "add +bus or admission" button.

Plusbus should be an option in the destinations. When I tried to buy a skipton - leeds return with plusbus I was worried I would not ask me at the end. 'Leeds' and 'Leeds Plusbus' should be destinations.

 

[Ken H]

The problem is that the rail industry has taken advantage of the advent of TVMs to introduce Penalty Fares and scrap "buy on board" policies in more and more places. Whilst you could do all of the above, it would increase the number of scenarios where a passenger could legitimately say "I couldn't get the ticket I needed", which then creates more confusion about "inconsistent" rules again.

And that is apart from the fact that TVMs have been used as justification (quite rightfully in some cases) for the closure of ticket offices. The online provision of ticket selling needs to drastically improve - with excesses, refunds and reservations made much more easy to obtain - before that can be considered an acceptable alternative to a ticket office for most people.

So make it clear. You buy a single to a nearby station and excess on the train with the guard.

 

[Haywain]

Does the list of popular tickets change by time of day?

Yes. We have at least 3 lists for each station - peak, off-peak and weekend. The peak/off-peak change time is set appropriately for each station.

 

[Bletchleyite]

You do our best to not offer tickets when a cheaper one should be OK, although where afternoon restrictions apply (such as West Yorkshire) it's not so easy. However, having separate sets of popular tickets displayed at different times helps.

I'd just keep it simple - popular destinations in alphabetical order, automatically generated by the TVM based on what people are buying. No list to manage then.

Maybe do a curated list for the first few weeks of deployment, but then let the system work it out for each station by itself. You might be surprised by what comes up.

 

[Haywain]

popular destinations in alphabetical order, automatically generated by the TVM

Popular destinations are automatically generated and don't change by time, popular tickets are manually created and do (need to) change across the day/week.

 

[py_megapixel]

Thought I'd just mention that Northern's Flowbird TVMs now have a "quick buy" option which bypasses the journey planner and works more like a conventional TVM interface - enter origin and destination, add railcards, select ticket type and pay.

The origin field is sensibly pre-populated with the station you are currently at, but you can change it - though you have to do so before entering your destination, as it progresses to the next screen as soon as a destination is entered. This is quite annoying if you accidentally select the wrong destination.

As far as I can tell It will only sell tickets for the current date and won't issue tickets if it thinks there are no services that day which they would be valid on.

On the payment screen, it tells you what the next suitable departure time is, though it understandably does not appear to show itinerary that it wouldn't sell a ticket against in the planner.

There are still a few issues, but it's nice to see common sense prevailing!

 

[Ken H]

Thought I'd just mention that Northern's Flowbird TVMs now have a "quick buy" option which bypasses the journey planner and works more like a conventional TVM interface - enter origin and destination, add railcards, select ticket type and pay.

The origin field is sensibly pre-populated with the station you are currently at, but you can change it - though you have to do so before entering your destination, as it progresses to the next screen as soon as a destination is entered. This is quite annoying if you accidentally select the wrong destination.

As far as I can tell It will only sell tickets for the current date and won't issue tickets if it thinks there are no services that day which they would be valid on.

On the payment screen, it tells you what the next suitable departure time is, though it understandably does not appear to show itinerary that it wouldn't sell a ticket against in the planner.

There are still a few issues, but it's nice to see common sense prevailing!

I quite liked LT's 'tenfare' machines back in the day. Quick and easy to use.