Most ticket machines being removed from Luton Airport Parkway

ClivePage · 27 Jul 2026

For the last couple of weeks I noticed that 3 of the 4 ticket machines in the main ticket hall at Luton Airport Parkway were not working. This morning these three are showing a sticker saying that they are being taken out of service so it is obviously deliberate action not simply lack of maintenance. This leaves just one machine (of the old wardrobe-sized variant).

I find this unacceptable and have already complained to GTR. I often order tickets in advance and collect tham at that station when going to stations in the London area which only accept the regular orange mag-stripe tickets not the newer barcoded ones, for example London One-day Travelcards. Since their ticket machines are very unreliable this means if this is faulty that the only option to collect a ticket will be to use the staffed ticket counter (if you are there when it is open).

Is there a general trend to remove ticket machines at stations? This may be feasible in some parts of the country but really doesn't work in the London area.

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zwk500 · 27 Jul 2026

Is it possible that they're being replaced with newer models and GTR have specifically left 1 machine to continue to provide the service during the replacement?

ClivePage · 27 Jul 2026

That is possible but the notice stuck on them doesn't say anything about that. It is odd that it is the oldest wardrobe size machine that is left while the three newer ones, about ATM-sized (sorry don't know the actual names of these machines are the ones being taken out.

Watershed · 27 Jul 2026

zwk500 said:
Is it possible that they're being replaced with newer models and GTR have specifically left 1 machine to continue to provide the service during the replacement?

You would expect more than 1 machine at a station with nearly 5 million passengers a year...

Admittedly many people will be using eTickets, smartcards or contactless - but for those who do want to buy a ticket at the station, they shouldn't have to face huge queues.

If this is a transition period they should be keeping enough TVMs around in the meantime, replacing one at a time if need be.

ClivePage · 27 Jul 2026

You are writing as if it is only those out-of-date folk who *want* to buy a ticket at the station who will be affected. But as I pointed out, a whole range of tickets to stations in the London area, including London One-day Travelcards, are not issued as eTickets and for those of us with Railcards then contactless is out (except for stations that take Oyster, which Luton Airport Parkway does not of course). So we have to get a paper ticket, there is no choice.

signed · 27 Jul 2026

ClivePage said:
So we have to get a paper ticket, there is no choice.

FFI (For future information), you can load Day TCs on most London operators smartcards. Of course tourists would be massively more affected by the lack of TVM.

ClivePage · 27 Jul 2026

As I understand it, these operator smartcards are not really portable. When I last checked the Govia-Thameslink smart card was not valid on the trains of EMR, which I often use. And if East Midlands Rail has their own smartcard (I haven't checked) no doubt it won't be accepted by a Thameslink ticket inspector. Perhaps Great British Railways will eventually get all this sorted out, if we wait another decade or two.

Watershed · 27 Jul 2026

Indeed and that's a fair point. But I completely agree with your point about the number of ticket machines.

I think the uncertainty over not knowing how far in advance to arrive if you are using a machine, because the queue could vary from nothing to 10 or 15 minutes, is one of the 'pain points' the industry could very easily fix but chooses not to.

It is more convenient to tell those customers that they should simply arrive "in plenty of time" - without defining what that means, or at which point you are entitled to just get on the train so you don't miss it (I suspect the industry's view is that you should have to wait, no matter how long it takes).

Trains to Corby are only every half an hour for example, or you may have an Advance on a specific train to London (perhaps in connection with a wider journey). So this does strike me as unreasonable.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Jul 2026 ==

ClivePage said:
As I understand it, these operator smartcards are not really portable. When I last checked the Govia-Thameslink smart card was not valid on the trains of EMR, which I often use. And if East Midlands Rail has their own smartcard (I haven't checked) no doubt it won't be accepted by a Thameslink ticket inspector. Perhaps Great British Railways will eventually get all this sorted out, if we wait another decade or two.

They are interavailable; if you have bought and loaded a ticket to your smartcard, it is valid on all of the same National Rail operators it would be valid on if it were a paper ticket. The logo on your smartcard doesn't make any difference in that respect.

Perhaps it is KeyGo you are thinking of, which is a PAYG scheme you can enable on a GTR Key smartcard. You can use KeyGo on GTR services, but not EMR. In a number of cases, KeyGo is cheaper than paper or eTickets, as (for eligible journeys) you are charged based on a Railcard-discounted contactless fare.

However there are still issues, for example smartcards are generally excluded from ticket acceptance on the Underground in the event of disruption or planned engineering works. And you can't load most Super Off-Peak fares onto smartcards, because the logic for ticket barriers is too basic to distinguish between them and Off-Peak tickets (no, really!).

milooo · 27 Jul 2026

ClivePage said:
For the last couple of weeks I noticed that 3 of the 4 ticket machines in the main ticket hall at Luton Airport Parkway were not working. This morning these three are showing a sticker saying that they are being taken out of service so it is obviously deliberate action not simply lack of maintenance. This leaves just one machine (of the old wardrobe-sized variant).

I find this unacceptable and have already complained to GTR. I often order tickets in advance and collect tham at that station when going to stations in the London area which only accept the regular orange mag-stripe tickets not the newer barcoded ones, for example London One-day Travelcards. Since their ticket machines are very unreliable this means if this is faulty that the only option to collect a ticket will be to use the staffed ticket counter (if you are there when it is open).

Is there a general trend to remove ticket machines at stations? This may be feasible in some parts of the country but really doesn't work in the London area.

I have also noticed this at Stevenage where the ex-FCC ticket machines have also been covered up with the same sticker.

ClivePage · 27 Jul 2026

Thanks, those are two rather severe barriers to use of smartcards in London, as we often use super-off peak tickets (I have one in my pocket right now). We'll stick to paper tickets plus Oyster where appropriate, or e-tickets if we know we are going to stations where they work. What a mess - how is a member of the general public who doesn't use the railway system supposed to cope?

signed · 27 Jul 2026

Watershed said:
They are interavailable; if you have bought and loaded a ticket to your smartcard, it is valid on all of the same National Rail operators it would be valid on if it were a paper ticket. The logo on your smartcard doesn't make any difference in that respect.

With the caveat that you can only buy a ticket for an operator's smartcard with it's own website/app

Watershed · 27 Jul 2026

ClivePage said:
Thanks, those are two rather severe barriers to use of smartcards in London, as we often use super-off peak tickets (I have one in my pocket right now). We'll stick to paper tickets plus Oyster where appropriate, or e-tickets if we know we are going to stations where they work. What a mess - how is a member of the general public who doesn't use the railway system supposed to cope?

Casual users of the railway are less likely to have a Railcard so some of the issues you have don't arise. The industry's view is probably that they can use contactless, which is very simple. The fact that this may result in paying more than they need to is just a convenient side effect.

Contactless and paper fares being different is deemed too complex by many; the railway's solution is seen in the fares changes enacted at Project Oval changes. Abolish the Super Off-Peak fares and increase the restrictions on Off-Peak fares - easy!

Yes, the current situation is complex, but any changes are highly unlikely to benefit informed users such as readers of this forum...

ClivePage · 27 Jul 2026

It would be nice if there were a SmartCard guide somewhere, as the multiplicity of options bemuses me, and I don't have time to investigate them all in detail.

I'd be happy to use them, as I've been fairly happy using Oyster for many years. But I'd want one that I could load with any ticket from Luton/Parkway to any station in the London area, including Super Off-peak, via Thameslink or EMR, London Underground, Overground, Tram, or DLR. It should also take a Senior Railcard giving the appropriate discount in every case, and should be easy to load value or tickets on it. If this can only be done at a ticket machine at a station then we are back to the original problem - they are taking ticket machines out of service.

jon0844 · 27 Jul 2026

ClivePage said:
Is there a general trend to remove ticket machines at stations? This may be feasible in some parts of the country but really doesn't work in the London area.

At least one machine at Hatfield and two at Welwyn Garden City are now labelled as being no longer in use, so I suspect the DfT is going to reduce the number of TVMs - unless they're planning to replace them with a different type. However, one of the machines at WGC is a smaller, newer, card-only machine, in case anyone was thinking they might focus on the larger machines that handle cash as well as card and no doubt have very old, slow, PCs inside.

gembercannelle · 27 Jul 2026

How does a passenger who bought an advance Maltese cross ticket from Luton Airport Parkway while being abroad is supposed to collect it? Is there a staffed ticket office?

edwin_m · 27 Jul 2026

I think I saw a machine at the airport, probably about 10 years ago. If so is it still there?

CyrusWuff · 27 Jul 2026

On a related note ten of the thirteen LNER TVMs at Leeds are switched off. That still leaves ten TVMs (three LNER and seven Northern) available.

When I passed through on a Saturday lunchtime earlier this month none of them were being used. Admittedly that was only a snapshot of around a minute, however.

sh24 · 27 Jul 2026

Broadly across the country TVM's seem wildly over provisioned but the issues with tickets valid on the Underground are an issue closer to London. The only staton I've recently seen a (small) TVM queue is Manchester Piccadilly.

81A · 27 Jul 2026

My guess is the older machine has been kept as it takes cash, and if there is only going to be one machine, it accepting both cash and card is important for when the office is shut (assuming cash acceptance continues, which given the privacy and budgeting benefits-the latter of which is often useful to me-I hope will).

Edvid · 27 Jul 2026

ClivePage said:
For the last couple of weeks I noticed that 3 of the 4 ticket machines in the main ticket hall at Luton Airport Parkway were not working. This morning these three are showing a sticker saying that they are being taken out of service so it is obviously deliberate action not simply lack of maintenance. This leaves just one machine (of the old wardrobe-sized variant).

Do you mean the original (Parkway Road / car park) concourse, or the newer (Kimpton Road / DART) concourse? They're both equipped with TVMs.

Watershed said:
You would expect more than 1 machine at a station with nearly 5 million passengers a year...

There still is, unless they've removed TVMs from both sides of the station complex.

gembercannelle said:
How does a passenger who bought an advance Maltese cross ticket from Luton Airport Parkway while being abroad is supposed to collect it? Is there a staffed ticket office?

edwin_m said:
I think I saw a machine at the airport, probably about 10 years ago. If so is it still there?

As of two months ago Parkway had three or four TVMs on each side - the usual GTR-wide Scheidt & Bachmann stock, plus some Evoke Creative machines with Worldline's ticket issuing system (the latter are all in the upper-level Kimpton Road concourse) and a ticket office in the original concourse. Last I checked the airport itself had a desk and three TVMs plus three TVMs at the adjacent DART station (all Evoke / Worldline).

Evoke / Worldline is Luton Rising's choice, presumably with GTR's agreement. This is why Parkway (technically two connected stations, staffed by GTR and DART employees) has TVMs from multiple suppliers.

Chriso · 27 Jul 2026

Yes the numptys at TLGN or should I say Daft have done the same thing at Kings Cross taking 5 of the 6 TLGN S & B machines out of action leaving the rest LNER parkeon and there horrible interface.

Trying to force everyone including railcard holders on to vastly over priced contactless

Mawkie · 27 Jul 2026

The two outside Elstree have disappeared, leaving two inside.

There were four at Blackfriars North side (including that rather unused one upstairs), now..... just one. There were two on Blackfriars South side, now one.

Haven't been out much further on the network lately, so probably loads more. Is it just cost-cutting?

Mikey C · 27 Jul 2026

West Hampstead TL lost one of its two ticket machines last year I think.

Paddington seems significantly under provisioned by ticket machines now, whereas St Pancras still has a decent number
(including 4 downstairs in the passageway to the Underground, while Marylebone is well provisioned too.

Mawkie · 27 Jul 2026

Mikey C said:
West Hampstead TL lost one of its two ticket machines last year I think.

One outside the main entrance, but still one on the other side.

James H · 27 Jul 2026

Elephant & Castle also lost one of its two tvms

Bald Rick · 27 Jul 2026

Back to Luton Airport Parkway, presumably these are in the old ‘main entrance’.

Since the DART opened, the number of people using that entrance has dropped significantly, albeit I don’t know by how much. Certainly the last few times I have used the station, I have been the only person using that entrance in the few minutes I was there (aside from a very lonely gate line attendant). Presumably there are some newer machines on the DART side new concourse?

On the broader point, ticket sales from TVMs has been falling - rapidly - for years now. Well under 10% of sales now, although obviously that varies station to station.

81A · 27 Jul 2026

I wonder if these cuts are based on machine specific usage figures or just "less people are using TVMs so let's save some money by randomly cutting some"?

If the former, fair enough-use it or lose it to some degree, and as long as there is still a way to buy paper tickets (including with cash), it doesn't seem too much of an issue (especially since removing seldom used machines shouldn't lead to queues).

If the latter, it will potentially inconvenience people (who don't necessarily have a choice, given paper is the only option for a fair number of tickets-not to mention those who need to use cash and/or paper for other reasons) through long queues, which is obviously not brilliant...

punxsutawny · 29 Jul 2026

Similarly, one of two ticket machines has been taken out of service at Biggleswade station; definitely seems to be some sort of network-wide scheme from TSGN to shut down ticket machines! Hopefully to be replaced, however I'm not optimistic...

deecee16 · 2 Aug 2026

punxsutawny said:
Similarly, one of two ticket machines has been taken out of service at Biggleswade station; definitely seems to be some sort of network-wide scheme from TSGN to shut down ticket machines! Hopefully to be replaced, however I'm not optimistic...

Is it the slimline card only machine that is out of service? One of these at Balham and Battersea Park have been covered up.

Farang · 2 Aug 2026

Statutory listing for all remaining TVM's now! They are an essential element of our built environment.

Most ticket machines being removed from Luton Airport Parkway

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