Northern Ticket Machines

[Puffing Devil]

There's a very small number that take cash. If the ticket office is open or there's a TVM that takes cash, the option to print a promise to pay will be disabled.

Or at Goostrey - no ticket office, no cash on the TVM and no option to get a Promise to Pay.

@northernman - I have complained to Customer Services and received an acknowledgement that the machine will not produce a PTP. Any chance you could investigate why?

Need to retract this - been to collect some tickets tonight and..... we have a fully functioning (on the surface) TVM which now sports the Promise to Pay Icon/Button. Better 2 years late than never!

 

[northernman]

Or at Goostrey - no ticket office, no cash on the TVM and no option to get a Promise to Pay.

@northernman - I have complained to Customer Services and received an acknowledgement that the machine will not produce a PTP. Any chance you could investigate why?

Need to retract this - been to collect some tickets tonight and..... we have a fully functioning (on the surface) TVM which now sports the Promise to Pay Icon/Button. Better 2 years late than never!

Hi, glad it worked, it had dropped off for some reason, but we put it back on.

 

[MisterSheeps]

Because the machine will be a card only machine, so if paying by card you should be completing the transaction fully and getting tickets. For cash payments, the machine can't finish the transaction, and hence the PTP

that assumes the TVM issues the ticket you want ... they don't do rovers or rangers, so in theory you invent some fictitious place you are going to on the journey, and grab the guard. Last 2 times I tried this, needing a Cumbria Round Robin (Ranger day ticket) the Kendal TVM got as far as displaying the promise to pay 'print' button, but it was greyed out, and didn't respond, despite repeated restarts (there was a green stripe at top of the TVM.. I don't understand why the machine can't sell what the always obliging guard sells?

 

[Watershed]

that assumes the TVM issues the ticket you want ... they don't do rovers or rangers, so in theory you invent some fictitious place you are going to on the journey, and grab the guard. Last 2 times I tried this, needing a Cumbria Round Robin (Ranger day ticket) the Kendal TVM got as far as displaying the promise to pay 'print' button, but it was greyed out, and didn't respond, despite repeated restarts (there was a green stripe at top of the TVM.. I don't understand why the machine can't sell what the always obliging guard sells?

It's ultimately a question of cost. Adding rover and ranger functionality to TVMs costs money, and most TOCs evidently do not see the point of spending this money when so few people buy them. However, they need the ability to sell them in ticket offices and onboard - because otherwise they couldn't be bought at all.

That doesn't really excuse the failure to provide an adequate option for those wishing to buy a rover/ranger etc. at a station without an open ticket office. But it does explain how and why the situation has arisen.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Hi, glad it worked, it had dropped off for some reason, but we put it back on.

Thank you! The power of Rail Forums!

 

[MisterSheeps]

so few people buy them

yes, agreed, are not well promoted, I find out about them from the excellent GB Rail Rover Guide site ( http://www.railrover.org/ ) but that's unofficial. Seems a good way of travelling about. I hope they don't get rationalised out of existence

 

[WAB]

yes, agreed, are not well promoted, I find out about them from the excellent GB Rail Rover Guide site ( http://www.railrover.org/ ) but that's unofficial. Seems a good way of travelling about. I hope they don't get rationalised out of existence

These days, if you can’t book online (or increasingly, fulfil as an e-ticket), then it doesn’t exist for the purposes of the public. As part of GBR, we need special ticketing sites for rovers and rangers, sail rail, and through bus tickets.

 

[gray1404]

In the circumstances described you were quite entitled to board the train and purchase at the next available opportunity

 

[TUC]

Because the machine will be a card only machine, so if paying by card you should be completing the transaction fully and getting tickets. For cash payments, the machine can't finish the transaction, and hence the PTP

But what if the reason you can't pay at the TVM is because the card reader isn't working or, because of a programming fault, fails to offer a fare that is available? Why shouldn't you then be freely able to pay by card later?

 

[BurtonM]

I've not had to use the new Northern TVMs much, but when I do (usually at Manchester Victoria) it's never fun. Last time I went there I had to try three different TVMs - the first one had frozen, the screen was miscalibrated on the second one and was impossible to use as it kept misclicking, the third finally worked. I don't like how hard you have to press on them either. The only saving grace is that they dispense proper tickets - unlike TPE's new machines that dispense those white paper barcode tickets. Barriers can't read those... these TVMs are so unreliable and overcomplicated that I've switched to using the trainline app.

What was wrong with the Shere machines...

 

[robbeech]

There's a very small number that take cash. If the ticket office is open or there's a TVM that takes cash, the option to print a promise to pay will be disabled.

This should read “if the ticket office SHOULD be open”

Unless it’s changed very very recently (last couple of months), TVM at a station with a ticket office that SHOULD be open but currently isn’t due to staffing issues do not seem to offer promise to pay. So it seems that the system designed to prevent you obtaining the promise to pay does work but is flawed when things go wrong.

 

[wilbers]

This should read “if the ticket office SHOULD be open”

Unless it’s changed very very recently (last couple of months), TVM at a station with a ticket office that SHOULD be open but currently isn’t due to staffing issues do not seem to offer promise to pay. So it seems that the system designed to prevent you obtaining the promise to pay does work but is flawed when things go wrong.

The easy way to solve that is to match that option on the ticket machine with staff logging-on/off in the ticket office; or alternatively (in cases with 1 or 2 ticket machines) could be done manually at each machine. Does that happen at some stations?