Southern TVM response times

[A1]

Does anyone know if Southern is planning to replace their TVMs any time soon? They are slow, the touch screen doesn't register correctly, and generally they are not fit for purpose.

 

[Mojo]

l think the TVMs used by Southern are excellent. Much better than Tocs such as Southeastern that use rubbish S&B machines.

 

[MrB]

Miles better than the ones we have with Southeastern!

 

[Carlisle]

l think the TVMs used by Southern are excellent. Much better than Tocs such as Southeastern that use rubbish S&B machines.

Same goes for some on SWT Stations whose touch screens are virtually useless

 

[Mojo]

Same goes for some on SWT Stations whose touch screens are virtually useless

SWT also use rubbish S&B machines, although a new contract means that Parkeon machines are now being rolled out which you can already see at some locations.

 

[causton]

Does anyone know if Southern is planning to replace their TVMs any time soon? They are slow, the touch screen doesn't register correctly, and generally they are not fit for purpose.

We have similar ones and I know what you mean, despite the various answers above, sometimes it will just lock up with no rhyme or reason. The Operating System and software was recently upgraded and I think some components were replaced, which has made the unit a bit more reliable. Hopefully the same is happening to all of them!

 

[FOH]

Tried to topup my Oyster at London Bridge on Monday, tried 3 Southeastern machines, failed at all for various different reasons, mostly Auth timeout and frozen screens. Gave up and used the London Overground machine at Forest Hill, worked first time and much more quick in general too.

 

[A1]

I'm surprised at all the glowing reports!

The machines at East Croydon and London Victoria are a pain to use. I love the user interface (easy to use, and like the option for 'from other station'), but they do seem to lock up a lot, and they are slow to respond to presses. Also, I generally have to use the joint of my finger rather than my tip as it registers more reliably and accurately.

It is especially slow when doing station searches.

 

[talldave]

Having moved from Southern land to Southeastern land, I have to say I don't find the Sh*t & Broken machines anywhere near as bad as the Southern crap. Some S&B machines are slow and some are very slow - if they're Windows based, they could do with a regular reboot.

But the pathetic touchscreens on Southern machines mean they come top in the crap stakes, even though the "buy tickets from somewhere else" feature is useful.

 

[azz7008]

I am currently doing a usability study on the machines at Chiltern stations. One of my major annoyances is the fact that there is no progress bar which means that if you are using a slow TVM (which is always the case at certain stations) you can become uncertain on your progress. This coupled with the fact that very little people have knowledge of off-peak and on-peak (I am talking outside of the railway community), the machines could really be improved much more to display information on the errors etc.

 

[A1]

Tried one of the far machines at Vic today (the separate bank that doesn't have the queuing control near the Southern Office). Very fast and responsive.

So it appears that the upgrades will resolve this issue over time.

 

[maniacmartin]

For me, there's two separate problems with some Southern TVMs:

First, some of them have have slow and glitchy interfaces, where keypresses take ages to show on screen even after you see the button you press light up, and the list of stations that matches the currently entered prefix updates.

Second, those machines that are exposed to the elements due to their location outdoors seem to have impossible touchscreens to use. You have to press some of them so hard you think you're going to smash the glass before they will register a press.

 

[bicbasher]

The card only TVM at East Dulwich is next to useless.