Broken Ticket Machines - Tickets bought on line

[Altfish]

In recent weeks I have gone to a local station and at two different stations I have found that the ticket machine(s) was/were broken and I was unable to collect my pre-booked tickets.
Luckily on both occasions I was collecting tickets at least 18-hours before I was due to travel and I was able to go to another station to collect my tickets. (One involved a 20-mile round trip in the car)

So the question is....

If I had been collecting my tickets immediately before travelling and the machines were broken, what am I supposed to do?

 

[causton]

Get on the train, show your booking email/code and pick them up at the first available opportunity (at a machine/ticket office where you change trains, for example). Most places will have a log of which machines are broken so you will not be penalised unless somebody is not doing their job correctly...

 

[clagmonster]

If there is a booking office, collect the tickets there.

If there isn't a booking office, then speak to the guard on the train. It is likely they will have been made aware of the lack of facilities and will pass you to collect at your destination or interchange as appropriate.

Legally, as I see it in this position no byelaw 18 offence is broken as you have started your journey at a station without fare paying facilities. You can't be prosecuted under the RoRA for avoiding payment of a fare as you have already paid a fare valid for travel on that train. In reality, I would give details if requested, provide the ToD reference and also show the payment card.

 

[gray1404]

Which stations did you go to and were all of the TVMs at the station not working? When you discovered that the TVM was not working did you ask the booking office (if there was one) to print your ticket?

 

[Starmill]

It probably is a good idea to stick with the train you planned on catching, especially of it's an Advance ticket.

For example I once had to collect an Advance ticket from a station that's unstaffed on Saturdays. There was a fault with the machine which meant I spent a good 10 minutes with it trying to collect. I wasn't successful so I thought rather than boarding the train without a ticket, I'll walk to the next stop (only 20 minutes) which I knew was staffed at that time. They provided me with my tickets but weren't at all happy that I was starting at the wrong station and not on the booked train. This was a while ago now before I was so experienced. It's like you can't win. I thought I might be penalised for boarding where I couldn't collect because the machine was issuing tickets to people who paid for them right then.

 

[Altfish]

Thanks for the replies.

The two stations were Manchester Oxford Road - both machines out of use; Deansgate - the only machine out of use.
I didn't realise that you can go to the Ticket Office, if they are open - that would work at Oxford Road but they are not always open at Deansgate.

If I had been arriving shortly before my train. I think I'd have got one of the station staff to sign my e-receipt with a comment saying machines were OOO.

 

[skyward]

Thanks for the replies.

The two stations were Manchester Oxford Road - both machines out of use; Deansgate - the only machine out of use.
I didn't realise that you can go to the Ticket Office, if they are open - that would work at Oxford Road but they are not always open at Deansgate.

If I had been arriving shortly before my train. I think I'd have got one of the station staff to sign my e-receipt with a comment saying machines were OOO.

Don't count on ticket clerks who will perform TOD collections. Had the misfortune to deal with a ticket clerk at Manchester Oxford Road who refused to do so claiming he was, in his exact words, "too busy" for that, despite all machines were cash only; card slots all covered up by notices.

You'd think Northern staff should be responsible for their machines. Not so much.

 

[embers25]

Don't count on ticket clerks who will perform TOD collections. Had the misfortune to deal with a ticket clerk at Manchester Oxford Road who refused to do so claiming he was, in his exact words, "too busy" for that, despite all machines were cash only; card slots all covered up by notices.

You'd think Northern staff should be responsible for their machines. Not so much.

Pinhoe was down all weekend and so i had to buy where I changed trains. Guard had no issue and SWT did add it to their Journey Check (along with 3 other stations) so that helps. Their twitter also responded very quickly to say see the guard and the journey check update was online within about 10 minutes. I was impressed.

 

[TheManOnThe172]

Faced with this problem at Matlock (on the way to London), my daughter was told that she must go to the ticket office to collect her ticket when she changed at Derby. An obedient passenger following this instruction would have had a very real risk of missing their 7-minute connection to London.

This wasn't just a mistake by an errant staff member - when I called EMT from the station's Information panel (to make sure that they knew the machine was out of action), the same instruction was given.

My daughter ignored the instruction, explained all when on the London train, and all was fine. But why should less experienced passengers face delay as a result of equipment failure?

 

[Sacro]

Surely if by collecting the ticket you incur a delay you'd be able to claim delay repay?

 

[embers25]

Faced with this problem at Matlock (on the way to London), my daughter was told that she must go to the ticket office to collect her ticket when she changed at Derby. An obedient passenger following this instruction would have had a very real risk of missing their 7-minute connection to London.

This wasn't just a mistake by an errant staff member - when I called EMT from the station's Information panel (to make sure that they knew the machine was out of action), the same instruction was given.

My daughter ignored the instruction, explained all when on the London train, and all was fine. But why should less experienced passengers face delay as a result of equipment failure?

I was told the same as my ticket was to Petersfield and I was advised to get it when changing at Woking with a 6 minute connection (or actually 90% of the time less than 3 minutes as the 0949 rarely arrives on time. However they did use the word "recommend" not "you have to" and so I thought that was a sensible approach as you should if you can but I certainly wouldn't have missed my 0955 connection just to get the ticket that the machine couldn't issue.

 

[Andrewlong]

If you can take a picture of the broken machine as well - it wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

[AlterEgo]

Surely if by collecting the ticket you incur a delay you'd be able to claim delay repay?

Strictly speaking, no. But you may get a gesture of goodwill.

 

[MikeWh]

Surely if by collecting the ticket you incur a delay you'd be able to claim delay repay?

Strictly speaking, no. But you may get a gesture of goodwill.

Well surely the delay has been caused by a fault with the railway infrastructure coupled with ill-thought-through instructions from railway employees. If that isn't deemed sufficient to trigger delay repay compensation then my immediate resposnse would be to let a magistrate decide in the small claims court.

 

[rs101]

If you can take a picture of the broken machine as well - it wouldn't be a bad idea.

And tweet it to the TOC... That's what I did when the ticket office at my local station decided to close 5 hours early one Saturday. A right pain when I needed to renew my Network Railcard for travel the next day before the office opened.
Had to drive 8 miles to the next nearest station to do it.

 

[northwichcat]

If you can take a picture of the broken machine as well - it wouldn't be a bad idea.

Recently a lot of Northern TVMs have appeared to be working but after you've entered your TOD reference they tell you they can't complete the request and go back to the start screen but do work when you try to buy a ticket for immediate travel and pay by card. I don't know if that's the problem Altfish has experienced or not though.
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I didn't realise that you can go to the Ticket Office, if they are open - that would work at Oxford Road but they are not always open at Deansgate.

You do need to tell them you've tried to use the TVMs and it wouldn't let you collect them as if they are working to rule they'll refuse to do it unless the TVMs are faulty.