Hitherto unfamiliar TVM error

[Kilopylae]

When (attempting) to use the TVM at Exeter St Thomas earlier today, it failed in a manner I have never seen before.

Normally, when the TVM is 'broken', you are greeted with an error message as soon as you reach the screen. In this case, the screen looked normal when I started, the interface worked as usual when I selected a destination and applied a Railcard, and then appeared to react correctly when I hit 'confirm'. However, a second or so later, an error box appeared on the screen and it claimed to be "unable to process this transaction at the moment." I tried again without a Railcard and had the same problem; I spoke to a fellow passenger on the platform and she had the same issue.

Could there be a link between this and the problems with the Trainline app? I wouldn't have thought a fixed TVM in a station would have anything to do with an m-ticket phone app but it does seem an odd coincidence for a new error (which relates to processing a transaction, which is presumably what the Trainline backend would be called upon to be doing if it was involved) to appear at the same moment as a nationwide issue with ticket retailing.

Edit: Here is a photo of the error message

 

[alistairlees]

When (attempting) to use the TVM at Exeter St Thomas earlier today, it failed in a manner I have never seen before.

Normally, when the TVM is 'broken', you are greeted with an error message as soon as you reach the screen. In this case, the screen looked normal when I started, the interface worked as usual when I selected a destination and applied a Railcard, and then appeared to react correctly when I hit 'confirm'. However, a second or so later, an error box appeared on the screen and it claimed to be "unable to process this transaction at the moment." I tried again without a Railcard and had the same problem; I spoke to a fellow passenger on the platform and she had the same issue.

Could there be a link between this and the problems with the Trainline app? I wouldn't have thought a fixed TVM in a station would have anything to do with an m-ticket phone app but it does seem an odd coincidence for a new error (which relates to processing a transaction, which is presumably what the Trainline backend would be called upon to be doing if it was involved) to appear at the same moment as a nationwide issue with ticket retailing.

Edit: Here is a photo of the error message

Just coincidence.

 

[Wallsendmag]

There Are a lot of unusual things happening with fares currently causing problems like this

 

[saxsux]

I've travelled to/from St Thomas a few times this summer and have never found the machines (on either platform) to be usable. The one on the up platform crashed halfway through payment and never gave my coin back!

Avoid with a bargepole. They'll happily sell you a ticket on the train.