This whole "Oh, a TVM will solve your problem!" argument does not carry much more water than asking everyone to board through the guards door or whatever nonsense they were expecting.
I don't think Northern have a single cash TVM left, for example. What are you supposed to do if you require a ticket that the TVM can't sell, or if you have a warrant or RTV? Or if Northern have put the TVM inside the booking office, so when that's closed... Sure, you could say well let's phase out RTVs and warrants and find a way to accept cash (because apparently this is too difficult for Northern - even at staffed stations such as Wilmslow and Stockport they no longer take cash) and make a TVM that can sell every conceivable type of ticket. So the question becomes why has this not been done already? And would it not, actually, be more cost effective and more beneficial to have some more RPIs instead?
Metrolink's stops are all quite secure. None lack for CCTV and most are new, or refurbished, with security in mind. Even so their TVMs have been subject to attacks and have had to be updated with enhanced security. It's very rare that you would find a small Northern or EMT station that could be made as secure as a newly constructed Metrolink stop.
