Permit to Travel Machines

[swt class 450]

For nostalgia/posterity I bought one at Balcombe in the summer when I beheld the rare sight of a Permit to Travel machine (years since I'd seen one). I used to buy these a lot at Herne Hill when the ticket office was shut and they only had those old Swiss red ticket machines with a very limited selection of destinations (one button for each).

PS I believe the machine was a bit screwy and I only put something like 20p in but it said £0.60 on it ...

This PERTIS at Balcombe (AS88 02930) has had this problem for a long time where it doesnt read the coins correctly. A few months ago i put 5p in it and it printed out as £1.00 on the ticket! So i got 95p of free money!

For anyone interested here is the current list of all 132 of the remaining PERTIS machines in the UK.

Acocks Green
Acton Bridge
Adderley Park
Albrighton
Aldrington
Alvechurch
Angel Road
Ashwell & Morden
Aston
Balcombe
Barrow Upon Soar
Beaulieu Road
Berkswell
Bescot Stadium
Bilbrook
Bishopstone
Blake Street
Burnham
Canley
Cheam
Codsall
Colwall
Cooksbridge
Coseley
Cosford
Cressing
Denham Golf Club
Didcot Parkway
Duddeston
Dudley Port
East Worthing
Elsenham
Faversham
Faygate
Fishbourne
Fishersgate
Ford
Foxton
Glynde
Gravelly Hill
Hall Green
Hampton In Arden
Hanwell
Hartford
Harwich International
Hatton
Haydons Road
Hendon
Holmwood
Holton Heath
Iver
Jewellery Quarter
Kings Sutton
Kirby Cross
Knockholt
Langley
Langley Green
Lapworth
Ledbury
Little Kimble
Longcross
Loughborough Junction
Lye
Manningtree
Meldreth
Millbrook
Mistley
Monks Risborough
Morden South
Newhaven Harbour
Newhaven Harbour
Newhaven Town
North Dulwich
Northolt Park
Nutbourne
Oakengates
Old Hill
Olton
Oxford
Penkridge
Perry Barr
Plumpton
Portslade
Redbridge
Romford
Rugeley Town
Salfords
Sandwell & Dudley
Saunderton
Shenstone
Shifnal
Shirley
Small Heath
Smethwick Galton Bridge
Smethwick Rolfe Street
South Merton
South Ruislip
Southall
Southease
Southease
Spondon
Spring Road
St Helier
Stechford
Stoke Mandeville
Stone (Staffordshire)
Stourbridge Town
Sudbury & Harrow Road
Sudbury Hill Harrow
Sutton Common
Taplow
The Hawthorns
Tipton
Twyford
Tyseley
Walton On The Naze
Warblington
Warnham
Watton At Stone
West Ealing
West Sutton
White Notley
Whitstable
Widney Manor
Wimbledon Chase
Windsor & Eton Central
Winsford
Witton
Witton
Wrabness
Wythall
Yardley Wood

Unfortunately at least a quarter of them are broken.

 

[centraltrains]

Unfortunately at least a quarter of them are broken.

I don't think it's quite that high... Sure a lot of them will be faulty at a particular point in time but most of them can be fixed fairly quickly... There aren't that many fully broken ones which aren't being fixed...

 

[swt class 450]

I don't think it's quite that high... Sure a lot of them will be faulty at a particular point in time but most of them can be fixed fairly quickly... There aren't that many fully broken ones which aren't being fixed...

Yes you are probably right. I was just estimating. I can think of roughly 15 or 20 ones that have been broken for a long time. So its probably more like one tenth are broken.

 

[Ardr021]

Within Greater London, the only stations that I have found so far that have a PERTIS machine are on the Wimbledon Loop of the Thameslink Service. The following stations have operating machines (as at November 2016):

Haydons Road, Wimbledon Chase, St Helier, Sutton Common and West Sutton

South Merton and Morden South have PERTIS machines on site, but these were not working when visited in November. On the same route, Loughborough Junction has a PERTIS machine but this has been de-commissioned, as the station now has Oyster Card gates (whereas the above listed stations do not).

Just outside the Greater London boundary, the Chiltern Line station Denham Golf Club does have an operating PERTIS machine (November 2016), whereas nearly Denham does not.

Back within Greater London, I have a PERTIS ticket for Seven Kings (December 2014) but the PERTIS machine has now gone: from what I have seen, many of the stations on this route (now TfL Rail) are being rebuilt or upgraded as part of the crossrail project and I suspect that as part of that, the operator has removed the PERTIS machines.

Also, if it helps, I think that all TfL London Overground routes can be eliminated from the list of possible stations with PERTIS machines, as the majority of these (following station upgrade and rebranding) now have Oytser card readers and Overground ticket machines.

Other stations which DO NOT have PERTIS machines within Greater London are: Belmont, Sutton, Wallington, Hackbridge, Carshalton (Southern); West Drayton and Hayes and Harlington (GWR), Drayton Park, Finsbury Park, Hornsey, Harringay, Alexandria Palace, New Southgate, Oakleigh Park, New Barnet (Great Northern).

Hope that this helps. On the day that I visited South Merton, the ticket machine as well as the PERTIS was not working. And this is a route where penalty fares apply.

Within West Yorkshire, where Northern have a "buy before you board" policy, I visited four stations: Glasshougton, Castleford, Pontefract Baghill and Pontefract Monkhill. At only one of these stations was there a ticket machine (just one machine). This was at Castleford. Given the operators ticketing policy, a cash based PERTIS machine might come in useful at these stations: certainly to accommodate walk on passengers; or those that make spontaneous decisions to travel.

Of the recent timetables I have looked at (since the timetable change in December) only East Midlands makes explicit reference to PERTIS machines, so maybe the midlands is the place to go!

 

[OwlMan]

With LM installing ticket machines in the West Midlands some of that list (in red below) will be disappearing soon

new and refurbished self-service ticket machines at stations in the West Midlands where we currently do not have any facilities, plus upgrades to existing machines including contactless and a greater ticket range. Stations that will receive new ticket machines are Adderley Park, Albrighton, Bedworth, Berkswell, Bilbrook, Blakedown, Bricket Wood, Codsall, Colwall, Cosford, Duddeston, Dudley Port, Garston, Gravelly Hill, Hampton in Arden, Hartlebury, How Wood, Lye, Oakengates, Park Street, Perry Barr, Shenstone, Shifnal, Small Heath, Stechford, Stone, Tyseley, Witton

 

[centraltrains]

With LM installing ticket machines in the West Midlands some of that list (in red below) will be disappearing soon

I have been to: Stone, Tyseley & Witton recently. All had card only TVMs installed and have retained their PERTIS Machine(s)

 

[centraltrains]

Haydons Road, Wimbledon Chase, St Helier, Sutton Common and West Sutton

South Merton and Morden South have PERTIS machines on site, but these were not working when visited in November. On the same route, Loughborough Junction has a PERTIS machine but this has been de-commissioned, as the station now has Oyster Card gates (whereas the above listed stations do not).
Of the recent timetables I have looked at (since the timetable change in December) only East Midlands makes explicit reference to PERTIS machines, so maybe the midlands is the place to go!

I maintain a website listing PERTIS Machines here: http://www.pert.is/Search/ALL

East Midlands Trains have said on Twitter that all of theirs have now been removed and replaced with by full TVMs..

 

[island]

It's worth remembering that operators charging Penalty Fares are meant to have two methods of ticket purchase at their Penalty Fares stations.

 

[infobleep]

Here's the machine at Balcombe. It's on the platform to Brighton. The Ticket Vending Machine is on the platform to London. I paid 5p so I could get a ticket to photograph and post here.

 

[swt class 450]

Here's the machine at Balcombe. It's on the platform to Brighton. The Ticket Vending Machine is on the platform to London. I paid 5p so I could get a ticket to photograph and post here.

Good to see it is still working. To be honest Balcombe seems to be one of the better maintained PERTIS machines on the Southern network. It normally seems to be working every time that i visit. There are some that are always broken or out of use.