What functions cannot be performed by Ticket Vending Machines, and why?

[Haywain]

I presume that’s only if purchasing a ticket to destinations? I’ve only been able to purchase a stand alone PlusBus as an add on to an existing ticket via the conductor or booking office.

That's the same as buying online as it is an add-on, not a standalone product.

 

[dk1]

That's the same as buying online as it is an add-on, not a standalone product.

Yes thanks, as I thought.

 

[Msq71423]

They can't have a human conversation with you..

 

[Dr Hoo]

They can't have a human conversation with you..

In the context of the thread title, i.e. “and why?”, the answer is probably that the TVMs aren’t human.

 

[tarq]

If only someone at GBRTT was working on that very thing

Is there any information about this work and progress to date, available in the public domain?

I’m convinced if a single GB National Rail TVM UI were to be designed and rolled out nationally we would have a more much up to date, consistent, and feature rich TVM experience. It’s a no brainer and should have been done years ago.

 

[Roast Veg]

• sell Railcards
• sell tickets from another station (*)
• sell Car Park tickets (*)
• sell Rover tickets (*)
• sell Ranger tickets (*)
• sell Boundary Zone tickets (*)
• sell Weekly season tickets (*)
• sell Monthly season tickets
...
• sell CIV (Eurostar connection) tickets
• sell Sail Rail tickets to any station in Ireland
• sell Sail Rail tickets to any station in Northern Ireland
• sell Sail Rail tickets to the Island Of Man
• sell Sail Rail tickets to various Scottish Islands
• sell Sail Rail tickets to the Orkney Islands
• sell Sail Rail tickets to the Shetland Islands
• sell Sail Rail tickets to the Outer Hebrides
• sell Sail Rail tickets to Calais
• sell Sail Rail tickets to the Isles Of Scilly
• sell Helicopter Rail tickets to the Isles Of Scilly
...
• sell Croydon Tramlink single tickets (*)
• sell London Bus And Tram Passes (*)
• sell Plus Bus tickets (*)

The quoted issues are the ones I am most aggrieved by when it comes to the replacement of ticket offices by TVMs, as it represents a material degeneration in fares integration and end user experience. Many of these tickets are hard or impossible to buy online as well.

 

[satisnek]

I'm not sure any TVM has Belfast available as a destination

Alright, "every station in Britain" then. There's always one

 

[penguin8967]

GWR machines don’t let you buy an off peak ticket until it’s actually valid - tried to buy a ticket for the 0902 yesterday but the ticket wasn’t valid until 0859 so didn’t appear on the screen. Had to use the ticket office instead.

 

[philthetube]

The TVM at Kidsgrove (operated by EMR) doesn't sell rovers. It also states it sells super off peak tickets but doesn't offer the 'LNWR only' super off peak to London or other destinations en-route, only the 'LNWR only' off peak version or the much more expensive 'any operator' version, so you pay more that what you need to unless the (limited hours) ticket office is open or you buy ahead on line. The TVM is frequently out of order or malfunctions in some other way and no amount of regularly reporting it to EMR seems to resolve it for very long. Not good if you opt to buy on line and collect on same day departure. Having said that, you can buy tickets ahead or (I believe) for travel from other stations.

Photo the relevant screen and board the train

Here are all of the things that i can think of that Ticket Offices can do that the TVMs can not do:

• accept cash (*)
• accept 1p coins
• accept 2p coins
• accept £50 banknotes
• accept £100 banknotes
• accept Scottish banknotes
• accept Northern Ireland banknotes
• accept Isle Of Man banknotes
• accept Guernsey banknotes
• accept Jersey banknotes
• accept Gibraltar banknotes
• accept cheques
• accept travellers cheques
• accept postal orders
• accept money orders
• accept Rail Travel Vouchers
• exchange Rail Travel Vouchers for cash
• replace lost or stolen season tickets
• replace lost or stolen Railcards
• sell Railcards
• sell tickets from another station (*)
• sell Car Park tickets (*)
• sell Rover tickets (*)
• sell Ranger tickets (*)
• sell Boundary Zone tickets (*)
• sell Weekly season tickets (*)
• sell Monthly season tickets
• sell Annual season tickets
• sell Custom Length season tickets
• sell point A to point B via Travelcard season tickets
• issue Photocards for season tickets
• issue Ticket Wallets to keep your tickets in
• sell CIV (Eurostar connection) tickets
• sell Sail Rail tickets to any station in Ireland
• sell Sail Rail tickets to any station in Northern Ireland
• sell Sail Rail tickets to the Island Of Man
• sell Sail Rail tickets to various Scottish Islands
• sell Sail Rail tickets to the Orkney Islands
• sell Sail Rail tickets to the Shetland Islands
• sell Sail Rail tickets to the Outer Hebrides
• sell Sail Rail tickets to Calais
• sell Sail Rail tickets to the Isles Of Scilly
• sell Helicopter Rail tickets to the Isles Of Scilly
• sell tickets that include various Heritage Railways
• sell Croydon Tramlink single tickets (*)
• sell London Bus And Tram Passes (*)
• sell Plus Bus tickets (*)
• sell Carnet tickets
• sell PRIV (Staff Discount) discount tickets
• sell blind person (No Railcard) discount tickets
• sell wheelchair user (No Railcard) discount tickets
• sell Hertfordshire County Council ENCTS tickets
• sell Central Bedfordshire Council ENCTS tickets
• sell Bedford Borough Council ENCTS tickets
• sell Luton Borough Council ENCTS tickets
• sell West Yorkshire Combined Authority ENCTS tickets
• sell Scottish concession tickets
• sell large group tickets
• sell group discount tickets
• issue Seat Reservations
• issue Sleeper Reservations
• issue Bicycle Reservations
• issue Wheelchair Space Reservations
• issue Excess tickets
• issue Refunds for tickets
• issue Welsh Bus Pass free tickets for railway lines
• issue Railcard discount tickets for Local Railcards
• print TOD tickets when the bank card is not held
• print TOD tickets when the TVMs do not work
• sort out issues with TVMs not printing tickets
• sort out issues with TVMs not giving change
• print out travel itinerarys
• print out train timetables
• exchange PERTIS (Permit To Travel) tickets
• exchange Promise To Pay tickets

Note: Anything marked with an (*) indicates that some TOCs offer this on their TVMs but that many TOCs and many TVMs do not offer this.

Isle of Man bank notes are not valid in the UK, suspect that also applies to many of the others listed

 

[Haywain]

Isle of Man bank notes are not valid in the UK, suspect that also applies to many of the others listed

Sterling bank notes issued by Isle of Man Bank are an accepted method of payment for goods and services provided by National Rail train companies, as are those issued by Jersey and Guernsey.

 

[occone]

Echoing others here, but ticket vending machines can't respond to an enquiry when someone doesn't have the right terminology to hand.

If you don't know what you want, and don't know what things mean, they're as helpful as a box of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

You also don't get greeted by them with a friendly "good afternoon" either, which is a touch I find very welcome, and transforms the experience from being "self loading cargo" to "customer". Also nice to give a friendly hello back and acknowledge them too, which vending machines neither warrant nor respond to (I assume).

 

[Wallsendmag]

Echoing others here, but ticket vending machines can't respond to an enquiry when someone doesn't have the right terminology to hand.

If you don't know what you want, and don't know what things mean, they're as helpful as a box of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

You also don't get greeted by them with a friendly "good afternoon" either, which is a touch I find very welcome, and transforms the experience from being "self loading cargo" to "customer". Also nice to give a friendly hello back and acknowledge them too, which vending machines neither warrant nor respond to (I assume).

Northern and GA have TVMs that you can contact a Helpdesk through to assist with your ticket purchase so some can say Good Afternoon

 

[MrJeeves]

They still can, as long as you know the origin you are looking for is "London Boundary of Zone...". I expect a lot of people are caught out by that.

I'm pretty sure that GTR TVMs (at least the ones in London?) have an option labelled "Extend your Travelcard" so you don't need to search for the Boundary Zone fare, but I think that's still hidden under "Tickets from other stations".

 

[philthetube]

Sterling bank notes issued by Isle of Man Bank are an accepted method of payment for goods and services provided by National Rail train companies, as are those issued by Jersey and Guernsey.

Isle of Man bank notes are not sterling and do not have sterling written on them anywhere, they have parity with sterling but are not valid in the uk. The same for notes from Jersey

 

[dk1]

Northern and GA have TVMs that you can contact a Helpdesk through to assist with your ticket purchase so some can say Good Afternoon

And a very helpful friendly bunch they are too at the Norwich Contact Centre 24/7.

 

[Haywain]

Isle of Man bank notes are not sterling and do not have sterling written on them anywhere, they have parity with sterling but are not valid in the uk. The same for notes from Jersey

I'm just telling you what the internal Knowledgabase says. Whether sterling or not, they are accepted.

 

[Watershed]

Isle of Man bank notes are not sterling and do not have sterling written on them anywhere, they have parity with sterling but are not valid in the uk. The same for notes from Jersey

The train companies are free to set their own rules about what forms of payment and indeed currencies they'll accept. They've chosen to accept bank notes issued by the Isle of Man, amongst other non-BoE issuers, and passengers are entitled to rely on that.

 

[riceuten]

There's no booking office at Nantes station in western France, all ticket sales being by machine. But they're the most user-unfriendly ticket machines you can imagine. You'd have to go on a training course before tackling them with confidence! There appeared to be no facility for buying a reduced-rate ticket with my railway-staff FIP Card, so on my recent visit I had to pay full-fare.

That’s strange - I went there a couple of years ago and there was a long *and* short distance office (albeit the former was in a portakabin). I don’t have a great deal of difficulty with SNCF machines but I certainly get the impression they are pushing the SNCF Connect app to buy tickets with.

GWR machines don’t let you buy an off peak ticket until it’s actually valid - tried to buy a ticket for the 0902 yesterday but the ticket wasn’t valid until 0859 so didn’t appear on the screen. Had to use the ticket office instead.

The ticket office in Stevenage wouldn’t sell you an off peak ticket until the last train before 9.30 had departed, which previously was 9.10. However, the rules have changed and it seems you can’t buy a ticket for 9.32 until 09.30 (you can however collect it from the ticket machine). The same for KeyGo smart cards - if you tap on before 0930, you get charged full fare. It’s even worse with the Network Card discounted tickets, you need to tap in at 10.00am and one second and hurtle downstairs for the 10.01 train.

 

[The exile]

Accepting that there are people who are hard of sight or may need assistance generally, if you can't find the loo then the signage needs improving.

It certainly does in lots of places. Added to that (and I’m aware that this is off topic) many stations are quite good at signing things “on (or above) the door” but are less good at telling you when you’re on platform 1 that the loo / ticket machine / whatever is on platform 8.

 

[trainJam]

Avanti TVMs at BHM can issue PlusBus for both origin and destination so they are the best PlusBus TVMs I've seen.

The local rover (wrong term, isn't a rover for multiple days?) ticket gives 4 options: Network 1 Day, Network Day Tripper (yes two words), Network Family Daytrip and West Midlands Family Day Ranger.
Does anyone know how to issue just a normal 1 adult WMDR? I tried using the normal origin/destination input mode but of course it's not in it. Seems strange that the family one is offered only.

Likewise I tried the Bloxwich to Dytripper add-on and Dytripper add-on to Plus and they're not listed.

"Local Rover Ticket" should just be replaced with all rangers, rovers and PTE area tickets (I think Northern has this).

When trying to do a Zones 1-6 travelcard on LNR via the origin/destination input mode, there is a via button (unlike Chiltern) which only gives a "Travel via [station]" textfield, so not TOC restrictions. Good for via High Wycombe (and a step better than Chiltern TVMs), not so much for LNR. The trick, with some knowledge, is to enter via Northampton (but then probably change at Rugby and not go via NMP).

 

[Kite159]

Does anyone know how to issue just a normal 1 adult WMDR? I tried using the normal origin/destination input mode but of course it's not in it. Seems strange that the family one is offered only.

Same with the Avanti TVMs at Crewe. They offer the Cheshire day ranger and only the Family version of the West Midlands day ranger.

The Avanti TVMs at Stockport had a reasonable selection of local rover (all the various combos of the Greater Manchester rangers) but I didn't list as I was in a hurry.

 

[frodshamfella]

I feel quite sure that the touchscreen devices at least could be programmed to display a map with key features, and perhaps routes, indicated. Like the Store Finder function you sometimes see in shopping centres.

But yeah... that's not what a ticket machine is for.

Ironically, if you believe the narrative about ticket office closures, it should mean there are more people available on the concourse / platforms to help you find the loo.

Yep, i dont think i do believe the narative.

That's because they are ticket vending machines and it's not what they, or ticket offices, are there for.

Thats what im saying, you can ask a real person such a question, doesnt matter whether they are there for that reason, its what humans do.

 

[Haywain]

Thats what im saying, you can ask a real person such a question, doesnt matter whether they are there for that reason, its what humans do.

Fine, but have you noticed what this thread is about?