South Eastern Ticket Machines

[youngpete]

Should South Eastern ticket machines be fairer to customers. For example at Sittingbourne on the "home screen" the first ticket offered is an "Off Peak Day Return" to St Pancras (including High Speed) at a cost of £32.60. However this fare is only necessary for two off peak services every weekday and not at all on weekends or Bank Holidays. After these two trains have departed the following services (after 10:00am) to St Pancras only require the "Super Off Peak Day Return" at a cost of £29.70. There are no return restrictions on either ticket. The casual turn-up and go passenger is very likely to chose this ticket as it is right in his face when he gets to the ticket machine even if its after 10:00am. Even if you know about the existence of the cheaper ticket its not straightforward to find it on the machine. If you search for St Pancras as a destination you are not offered anything at all. Its only if you use a destination of London or London Terminals that you are offered the "Super Off Peak Ticket" among others. Would it not be possible to programme the machines to display the cheaper ticket instead of the other one once it was not possible to catch one of the earlier trains.

 

[brad465]

The main problem Southeastern has with their ticket machines seems to be getting them to work in the first place

 

[BluePenguin]

Yes, I would agree with you that the machines are terrible. They do not have a “tickets from another station” button nor do many cards and the screens are rarely calibrated properly. I never bother with any of the options on the home screen because they are rarely the cheapest available although the one below is:

My favourite option is the price buster to Charing Cross. Not that I’ve ever seen that name on a ticket before!

 

[43066]

Should South Eastern ticket machines be fairer to customers. For example at Sittingbourne on the "home screen" the first ticket offered is an "Off Peak Day Return" to St Pancras (including High Speed) at a cost of £32.60. However this fare is only necessary for two off peak services every weekday and not at all on weekends or Bank Holidays. After these two trains have departed the following services (after 10:00am) to St Pancras only require the "Super Off Peak Day Return" at a cost of £29.70. There are no return restrictions on either ticket. The casual turn-up and go passenger is very likely to chose this ticket as it is right in his face when he gets to the ticket machine even if its after 10:00am. Even if you know about the existence of the cheaper ticket its not straightforward to find it on the machine. If you search for St Pancras as a destination you are not offered anything at all. Its only if you use a destination of London or London Terminals that you are offered the "Super Off Peak Ticket" among others. Would it not be possible to programme the machines to display the cheaper ticket instead of the other one once it was not possible to catch one of the earlier trains.

It’s most likely a deliberate policy to extract “low hanging fruit” revenue which, to be fair, would be adopted by most businesses. Expect more of the same once ticket offices have all gone! (I have often found that good ticket office staff will actively look for cheaper tickets).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Apr 2023 ==

The main problem Southeastern has with their ticket machines seems to be getting them to work in the first place

I don’t suppose any of us would work too well after we’d been smashed around with a beer bottle by someone on their way back to Medway after a skinful “up town”.

(In all seriousness, vandalism of the machines seems to be quite the problem on the SE network).

 

[Wallsendmag]

There are a lot of changes to TVMs in the pipeline

 

[kkong]

There are a lot of changes to TVMs in the pipeline

Hopefully for the better.

Because the S&B ones in particular have - almost universally - an awful user interface and incredibly slow ticket printing.

Having used railway TVMs in several other countries, it's hard to understand how many UK TOCs have managed to make them as bad as they are.

 

[Wallsendmag]

And Mcdonalds TVMs are great but they also deal with a totally different product set. A GB rail ticket is a really hard thing to sell especially when someone not overly familiar with the system is purchaesing it without any help.

 

[kkong]

And Mcdonalds TVMs are great but they also deal with a totally different product set. A GB rail ticket is a really hard thing to sell especially when someone not overly familiar with the system is purchaesing it without any help.

A lot of the problems on the S&B ones (e.g. ScotRail is particularly bad) seems to be user interface issues, which can be improved regardless of the product set.

It's all a big "legacy" and looks about 10-15 years out of date.

 

[Wallsendmag]

A lot of the problems on the S&B ones (e.g. ScotRail is particularly bad) seems to be user interface issues, which can be improved regardless of the product set.

It's all a big "legacy" and looks about 10-15 years out of date.

I don't disagree, stay tuned though.