Paddington ticket machines

[pingle99]

Paddington has "improved" the ticket machines by having half of them only for collection of pre-ordered tickets. So you now have to go onto the Web, order your ticket at least some time (an hour?) in advance, then go to the station and queue again to collect it. And don't forget the code! It's true that there are advance fares, which can be a big saving, but also very restricted. For most tickets, buying in advance doesn't offer any savings or other advantages, it's just another thing to have to do.
So, you turn up to Paddington at 09:00 to catch the 09:21 to Worcester which is the earliest you can take on off-peak fares to Slough, Reading and points beyond. The machine won't sell you an off-peak period return. You can buy an off-peak day return (which obviously is cheaper, but not if you want to come back another day!). You can buy an off-peak single. Why no off-peak period (monthly) return? Perhaps it's to force us to use the advance-only machines?
It's great that they have found a new way to keep the ticket office staff busy, but not great to have to queue and risk missing the train.
This morning I was able to use my smartphone and GWR app to buy an online ticket, but not at the machine. It then didn't let me through the ticket barrier, but I think that's because it was still before 09:15. Luckily, the staff were able to let me through.
Obviously, London stations don't get a lot of visitors. I mean, no tourists ever go to Windsor (change at Slough) or to Oxford. So it really doesn't matter that you need to have train-spotter inside knowledge to work out how to buy a ticket, and the rules keep changing, and things that used to work no longer do. It's just a bit inconvenient, and if it was easy to use the trains, lots of people would do it, so in a way it solves a lot of problems.

 

[JonathanH]

Paddington has "improved" the ticket machines by having half of them only for collection of pre-ordered tickets. So you now have to go onto the Web, order your ticket at least some time (an hour?) in advance, then go to the station and queue again to collect it. And don't forget the code! It's true that there are advance fares, which can be a big saving, but also very restricted. For most tickets, buying in advance doesn't offer any savings or other advantages, it's just another thing to have to do.

There is no delay between buying a ticket online and being able to collect it from a self-service machine. In some instances the interface may be more flexible.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There is no delay between buying a ticket online and being able to collect it from a self-service machine. In some instances the interface may be more flexible.

Depends where you buy it. The Trainline derived sites do have a short delay of up to an hour because putting the booking into the ToD database is a batch process, while all the other systems put it straight in and use the ToD CTR reference as your booking reference.

 

[swt class 450]

Just another typical example of our railways making things more difficult for passengers. Most people just turn up at the station just before their train and purchase a ticket then so these machines will now be completely useless to them. I highly doubt that there is that many people buying tickets online in advance to justify making half of them in to collection only machines. What a ridiculous decision.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Just another typical example of our railways making things more difficult for passengers. Most people just turn up at the station just before their train and purchase a ticket then so these machines will now be completely useless to them. I highly doubt that there is that many people buying tickets online in advance to justify making half of them in to collection only machines. What a ridiculous decision.

It depends on the station, I suppose, but I'm content with having lots of machines for picking up tickets. There's always a balance to be struck, between providing far more machines than necessary during the least busy times, and having long queues. I think the large Virgin Trains stations get it about right - e.g. Euston and New Street.

 

[Clip]

Most people just turn up at the station just before their train and purchase a ticket then so these machines will now be completely useless to them.

I would think someone who access to Lennon would deem this statement untrue - nowadays with all the adverts for buying in advance from various companies i would think most people would be buying before hand and either picking them up just before travel or indeed print at home/mobile app tickets.

Yes theres still a lot of people going to the station and buying on the day but i doubt its 'most'

 

[swt class 450]

Perhaps a much better option would have been to install additional ticket machines. That would have been better. But i guess GWR don't want to spend the money on that.

 

[JonathanH]

Perhaps a much better option would have been to install additional ticket machines. That would have been better. But i guess GWR don't want to spend the money on that.

The cost of installing ticket machines is one of the justifications given for trying to move away from paper tickets.

 

[Haywain]

To me, this seems a reasonable thing to do. At Kings Cross (a couple of years ago) around 80% of TVM transactions were collection of pre-booked tickets so the installation of a number* of ToDler collection only machines had minimal impact on customers. I would expect the figures to be broadly similar for Paddington. In any event, the number of paper tickets issued is falling year-on-year.


* Around a third of the new machines.

 

[Wallsendmag]

To me, this seems a reasonable thing to do. At Kings Cross (a couple of years ago) around 80% of TVM transactions were collection of pre-booked tickets so the installation of a number* of ToDler collection only machines had minimal impact on customers. I would expect the figures to be broadly similar for Paddington. In any event, the number of paper tickets issued is falling year-on-year.


* Around a third of the new machines.

Having said that we’re upgrading all the ToDlers to sell tickets as well coming to a LNER station near you very soon

 

[JamesT]

Just another typical example of our railways making things more difficult for passengers. Most people just turn up at the station just before their train and purchase a ticket then so these machines will now be completely useless to them. I highly doubt that there is that many people buying tickets online in advance to justify making half of them in to collection only machines. What a ridiculous decision.

According to page 45 of https://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/11748/rail-passenger-experience-report.pdf only 36% of passengers buy tickets on the day. So nowhere near 'most'.
Page 62 says 33% of those buying tickets on the day use TVMs. So that's 12% of the total are passengers buying tickets on the day from a TVM. 23% buy in advance (page 45 again), of which half do so online. So you're getting on for as many people buying online as do so on the day from a TVM.
But it doesn't seem to talk about collection methods, so there's nothing to say whether the online sales are mostly being posted out or being collected from a TVM. Working that out would give a better indication of the proportion of collection-only machines that are required.
It's also a 5-year-old report. I would hazard a guess that over time the proportion of people buying online will have only increased, so the tide will be turning towards collecting.

 

[talldave]

Surely a better approach would be to add the ability to dynamically switch a machine's mode so that availability could be changed based on demand?

 

[pingle99]

Now that I know that it's better to book online first, I will do so, but it certainly is not easier:
old method - walk up to machine, choose destination and ticket, pay with cash or card, done
new method - login to laptop, navigate to GWR website, sign in (or sign up for the first time), register card, navigate through several options, pay using card only, wait for confirmation, take careful note of code, go to station, queue for machine, enter code, put card in reader, make sure it prints the right tickets, done
So this morning, I could have connected to the WiFi and ordered a ticket online - WHILE I'M IN THE STATION STOOD NEXT TO THE MACHINE!! Why is that easier?

 

[cjp]

Now that I know that it's better to book online first, I will do so, but it certainly is not easier:

So this morning, I could have connected to the WiFi and ordered a ticket online - WHILE I'M IN THE STATION STOOD NEXT TO THE MACHINE!! Why is that easier?

It is not but if instead you logged in at home whilst waiting for the kettle to boil you could have bought your ticket and the system would even have sent you an email with your collection reference.

That said I do like to use a ticket office unless buying advances as I prefer to use cash rather than card..

 

[Belperpete]

Buying in advance has the big advantage that you are entitled to compensation if the train is cancelled or delayed. If you don't buy your ticket until after the train has been cancelled, you may not get compensation.
Another advantage is that you can buy a ticket for an off-peak train whenever you like, whereas a TVM may not sell it until the off-peak period has begun.
Also, TVMs do not always sell the full range of tickets, and don't always point you at the cheapest ticket. On a journey I made recently, I didn't book on-line as I wasn't sure which day I would be travelling. When I turned up at the TVM my destination was on the list of common destinations on the opening screen, however, when I selected it and entered my railcard discount, it was more expensive than I remembered from looking it up on the internet. I had to manually enter the station name in order to get the cheaper ticket.