mattdickinson
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Virgin have installed new ticket machines at Kings Cross which also offer advance tickets and seat reservations. I think they are the first to offer these options.
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New VTEC ticket machines at Kings Cross
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Bletchleyite
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The "Trainline machines" that lots of people on here said were impossible?
Good.
I suggest GTR install a couple at City Thameslink as a substitute for their wilfully incompetent ticket office staff.
Silver Cobra
Member
Good to see they are spreading across the VTEC network. I've used their new machines at Peterborough and Newcastle, and I have to say I do like them a lot. Far better than the S&B machines GTR are putting up across their network :P
Hopefully they'll install one in place of their existing machine at Stevenage in the near future.
Hopefully they'll install one in place of their existing machine at Stevenage in the near future.
Haywain
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It's already there, but not in service for a couple of days, I understand.
Wallsendmag
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They're at all VTEC stations now.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
What's the UI like - a journey planner grid of some kind?
Does it print journey plans so you can avoid arguments about validity?
Does it print journey plans so you can avoid arguments about validity?
Haywain
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Yes to the first, no to the second.
Bletchleyite
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That's a shame. The similar DB machines have had that feature for something like 15 years.
They have been offering these for several months. The grid is not capable of displaying the full range of fares without pressing left and right, and seems to display every tier of Advance that's available even if none of the three it can show at once are available on the train you want. It's a little difficult to understand but once you've got your head around it it's good that such a range of fares is available. Other things such as local zonal tickets seem not to be available yet but hopefully are on their way. South West Trains also offer this on their new machines.
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Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Sounds like the UI needs a bit of work, but it's a good start.
Attached is a picture of the Virgin Trains East Coast UI from 11th December 2016:
And another of the South West Trains interface from 9th January 2017:
Yes.
And another of the South West Trains interface from 9th January 2017:
Yes.
And here's an image of the confirmation:
Several issues have been reported that it doesn't tell you what the route of the ticket is either if you don't specifically ask. I have not checked this personally but it doesn't exactly tell you that that's an AP TPE ONLY ticket.
Final caveat some changes may have been made since 11th December last year. Certainly a few bugs I noticed then have now been fixed.
Several issues have been reported that it doesn't tell you what the route of the ticket is either if you don't specifically ask. I have not checked this personally but it doesn't exactly tell you that that's an AP TPE ONLY ticket.
Final caveat some changes may have been made since 11th December last year. Certainly a few bugs I noticed then have now been fixed.
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Haywain
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Yes, as long as they are origins from which a journey plan would be available. This means, at present, no 'Boundary Zone' tickets or tickets to many zonal destinations like the Tyne & Wear Metro. Hopefully that functionality will be added in the future.
Thanks both.
Joe Paxton
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The "Trainline machines" that lots of people on here said were impossible?
Good.
Though look at how badly they seem to handle the situation where there are multiple competing fares - see the "Price War between York and Newcastle involving VTEC/TPE/XC" thread, and in particular gimmea50anyday's post.
swt class 450
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The new TVMs that are appearing all over the VTEC network are Parkeon Astreo (cash and card) and the Parkeon Galexio (card only) types. These machines are also used by Edinburgh Trams / Heathrow Express / Northern Rail / South West Trains as well. I haven't had a chance to have a proper look at the VTEC ones yet but the SWT ones certainly don't seem very reliable and have had lots of problems. The ones on SWT sometimes print the tickets very badly with the text not aligned very well so I'm not sure if this is the case on VTEC as well? Do the VTEC ones have a "tickets from another station" feature?
Wallsendmag
Established Member
You missed out the ToDlers
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swt class 450
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Ah i didnt realise that VTEC use the Parkeon ToDler ones as well. I know i have seen them at many EMT and SWT stations but i hadnt noticed any at VTEC stations yet (although i dont travel on the VTEC network that much). Which stations currently have them? Am i correct in thinking they are for collection only?
Northern also have a new looking one at Birchwood which is the first new ToD machine I have seen for ages from Northern.
Sam
Joe Paxton
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The ToDler machines are for collection only, yes.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
I think it'd be better if they just had a column for Advance with the cheapest Advance fare for that train and then columns for the various walk-ups where you may want to choose.
There is a ToDler at Warrington Central as well. You can use it to buy tickets but only for card payment. This is a particular problem because there used to be two TVMs at Warrington Central and one of them accepted cash.
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Even though it lets you select these origins and destinations, it won't actually sell tickets for them. Same if you ask for a first class fare and the set of connections it finds doesn't include a service advertising first class during the time interval it happens to be searching. And unfortunately when it fails to find an itinerary it errors out completely, empties your basket, and makes you go right back to the home screen and start all over again!
And there aren't even any notices on the machines advising you of their shortcomings and saying what to do if there are problems - some limited information is in an awkward-to-use FAQ hidden within the interface where few people are likely ever to read it. There's a half-hearted attempt at translation into other languages that still leaves lots of essential information displayed in English! Sometimes pressing 'up' gives earlier trains, sometimes it gives 'later' trains, and out and return can work in opposite ways to each other!
So while there are some nice features, the implementation is let down by numerous poor user-interface decisions and a continued lack of attention to various aspects of the conditions of travel, consumer regulations and impartial retailing.
185143
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There's history behind that (to an extent). We had a card and cash TVM a few years ago-however the staff (and us commuters) arrived at the station one morning to find the machine had been broken into and all the cash was stolen. TPE replaced it with a card only TVM-which Northern replaced about 4 months ago (I think?). IIRC the card only TVM provided by TPE had their interface on it until it was removed! (It certainly did in November 2016, which was the last time I used it)
Interesting, thanks for the info.
Sam
Silver Cobra
Member
That's good to know. The original machine was still there when I was last at Stevenage station on Thursday, so it must have been installed on Friday or over the weekend.
They most certainly do. On March 23rd I purchased a Newcastle to Metrocentre day return from the machine on platform 1 at Peterborough while waiting for my onward connection to Newcastle.
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I'm pretty sure it was running the de-branded TransPennine interface, with all of the TransPennine stickets covered over. The ones at Warrington Central were too. Gone now anyway. A nonsense that a station like Warrington Central doesn't have a proper TVM. They have managed it just fine down the road at Warrington Bank Quay.
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