Bantamzen
Established Member
This morning I have tried to load another monthly pass onto my (West Yorkshire Zones 1,2,3) MCard at Guiseley, and although the transaction went through and loaded my card, the ticket machine failed to print any counterpart ticket for inspection by guards. Having already asked both ticket offices at Guiseley and Leeds, and tweeted both Northern and Metro I seem to be rapidly entering a zone between a rock and a hard place.
Northern have advised to go to one of the Metro Travel Centres (I'll be doing this later today as they are not open yet), but their (Metro) Twitter response was that Northern are responsible for producing the actual ticket. I even tried using one of the machines at Leeds to see if the system would recognise that no counterpart ticket had been produced, and would have to option to print it there. Needless to say it didn't. Clearly there is a gap in the system that isn't plugged, and I'm not the only one to fall through it. As I returned to the Leeds-bound platform at Guiseley another passenger was staring blankly at the screen as it refused to produce a ticket for their MCard. I suspect many more will have the same problem.
I hoping that a trip to the Travel Centre at Leeds Bus Station might resolve it, but judging by their reaction on Twitter am expecting a battle. None of this would matter so much if Metro had considered this possibility and allowed for the re-printing of tickets where they have failed to produce, and that both they and Northern had sorted out the availability of card reading ticket machines to all Northern guards / RPs.
So in the meantime, and in hope rather than expectation, has anybody any more advice? I don't fancy having to argue with guards and risk fines being issued for an entire month of communting!
Northern have advised to go to one of the Metro Travel Centres (I'll be doing this later today as they are not open yet), but their (Metro) Twitter response was that Northern are responsible for producing the actual ticket. I even tried using one of the machines at Leeds to see if the system would recognise that no counterpart ticket had been produced, and would have to option to print it there. Needless to say it didn't. Clearly there is a gap in the system that isn't plugged, and I'm not the only one to fall through it. As I returned to the Leeds-bound platform at Guiseley another passenger was staring blankly at the screen as it refused to produce a ticket for their MCard. I suspect many more will have the same problem.
I hoping that a trip to the Travel Centre at Leeds Bus Station might resolve it, but judging by their reaction on Twitter am expecting a battle. None of this would matter so much if Metro had considered this possibility and allowed for the re-printing of tickets where they have failed to produce, and that both they and Northern had sorted out the availability of card reading ticket machines to all Northern guards / RPs.
So in the meantime, and in hope rather than expectation, has anybody any more advice? I don't fancy having to argue with guards and risk fines being issued for an entire month of communting!