Great Western Coffee Shop

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/tvmtiny01.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/tvmtiny02.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/tvmtiny03.jpg)

These are what I would describe as "wayside" stations in The North ... and in "GWR land" I very much doubt they would garner a TVM in "our parts". 

Indeed - Melksham (with 75,000 passengers) has been described as an exception to the GWR rule having a machine installed for such a low number - and yet passenger numbers at the three stations shown above added together fall short of Melksham.   Passenger numbers per train is perhaps a better way to evaluate the need for a TVM - a station with a train each way every 30 minutes and 75,000 passengers has 3 people joining each train and the train manager can easily sell tickets before the next station.  A station with a train every 2.5 hours each way and the same annual count has 15 people joining each train and - especially on busy trains - an impractical task for the train manager.

I also note the lack of shelter on these Northern TVMs ... do they work in the wet?   Can the screen be seen with sun shining on it?   Is it healthy to finger the screen that others have fingered?   Discussion of the day!

Fingering the machine - on the screens on phones and tablets you can use a special pointer thing (it probably has a name) is that an option. I have heard talk that in Hong Kong people have been operating the buttons of lifts with toothpicks.

When out and about last week, I took to pressing open door buttons with my coat cuff; not sure about touch sensitive screens though - do they need some sort of contact?

Disposable gloves work.

Concerning 'TVMs At Very Small Stations' I regard the Coronavirus outbreak as a side issue - even if it never disappears entirely it will eventually reduce/be reduced to a level at which Joe Public cease to worry about it (and only have sensible stocks of bog roll, pasta & baked beans at home).

In my view the most important factor in this is revenue protection; if station usage is such that the guard / conductor / TM (if such exists) can be sure that an appropriate on-train ticket check will always be possible then a TVM would seem like an unnecessary drain on business finances. In that scenario, given the way our train services are presently run, you would have to say that there should be a TVM at the vast majority of these stations. I have always believed that every train should carry a 'guard' and that in addition to their essential safety critical tasks, in which list BTW I do not include opening of the doors, the checking & selling of tickets should be a mandatory responsibility. To that list I would however add a requirement to check that any TVM is working.

Not sure how on-train staff can check the TVM is working?

Hope they weren't using them for their prime purpose afterwards  :D.    I have been using the end of a key................(mechanical buttons only !)

Stylus?

I was staggered to find the other day that there is no ticket machine at Pershore - not sure what annual usage is.

A Ticket machine is being installed at Pershore it must be the last thing on the list of commitments for the current franchise. The groundwork was being done the last time I used the station a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/smr/PSH.html - 95,000 in most recent year.  At 37 train calls per day, that is (or has been) about 7 or 8 people joining each train which I suspect the train manager has been able to cope with ...


Noted, thanks, TonyN.   

I wonder if there's any expectation (or evidence) of Pershore users moving their railhead to Worcestershire Parkway?

Well, it depends where they’re going. Bristol, Birmingham, or anywhere accessible from the Midland route yes. London, clearly not.

I have heard that the Worcestershire Parkway affect works both ways.
Local young people are now able to get to Birmingham from Pershore for 9am without having to leave Pershore at 6am.
But People who used to rely on lifts to Pershore are now driving themselves to parkway. Car parking at Pershore is normally full by 6.15am.

As for the usage figures they are very unreliable from a point of view of numbers as revenue collection on trains to Worcester is very poor. However this is unlikley to represent much financial loss due to the low fares involved compared to the much better revenue collection towards London.

One of the things I discovered today is that TVMs can issue a 'Promise to Pay' ticket that you show to the train conductor to allow him to issue a valid ticket from the relevant station, if required.  I assume this is for destinations or ticket types not issued by the TVM.  Anybody aware of that?

There is prominent encouragement on Northern services / at Northern stations to passengers to obtain such a ticket if joining at a smaller station, and as you see from my pictures, machines are even at places with tiny footfalls such as Danby, Lealholm and Glaisdale.

I thought it was also for people who wanted to pay in cash? (Theoretically even cheque; would a conductor accept a cheque? If so, I imagine it would be with reluctance)

Just been for a walk and called in at Pershore station.

As can be seen from the attched photo there has not been any more progress with the TVM since the 26th February when the base was cast.

The car park was almost empty only 2 cars normally at 10am on a Saturday I would expect at least 15.

I did not see any trains as the next one was not due until 10:28 so no Idea of loadings.

The TVM at Tilehurst (and perhaps other stations up to Didcot) has only accepted cards for some years after a series of raids. Dunno what younger people do - queue up at the excess fairs windows at Reading?

The Tilehurst one is out in the open and becomes a bit erratic when it's raining; and it went through a phase of not recognising my credit card that was perfectly "readable" by other terminals. The worse thing is not so much tapping in one's pin code - and I'm always able to use "contactless" - but scrabbling around in the drawer for three tickets (out, return and receipt). Moisture gathers there and twice I've ended up with the three tickets stuck together.

(And there's minor subsidence where one stands to operate the machine.)

Now there's an accidental usage that never had a likely meaning until a couple of weeks ago!

The few that don't have a card will presumably do the same as anyone else; which I imagine is as you say, pay at their destination station if they can't pay in cash on the train. You can get a debit card of some sort from at least age 6, I doubt kids younger than that will be travelling unaccompanied.

I would expect this will be the perfect excuse opertunity to remove ALL cash acepting machines, and not just on the railways, car parks in my BCP area are going that way anyway.

My selective quoting.   It's likely that there will be changes when things come back - things will be different.  The balance between opportunities - where the changes are for the good of the customer, and excuses - where changes may not be in the customer's interest, but are operationally or business convenient, is a concern.

We should look to Sir Keir Starmer, to Transport Focus, to TravelWatch SouthWest, to our MPs, and to our local Community Rail Networks who have "critical friend" in their job descriptions to help as many opportunities as practical be fast tracked, with as few excuses as possible offered, and even fewer accepted.   

The Coffee Shop, too, may have a minor role in helping people differentiate between opportunities and excuse. Should all TVMs go cashless, or not??

No. While cash remains legal tender - I suppose the banks might eventually get their way and force us to accept a completely cashless society - all goods & services providers, with some obvious exceptions such as online shopping portals, should be required to accept it as a form of payment.

The only qualification to this statement I would add is that there are / will be a number of locations where the resident ne'er-do-wells are likely to try and use cash-accepting TVM's as their own personal ATM's. In these instances alternative arrangements would be appropriate but, at least initially, I would prefer these to be in the form of better security measures rather than the complete withdrawal of a socially useful service. 

My view is that, yes, all TVMs should go cashless.  As long as people can still pay by cash at ticket offices, on trains and at barriers (and not get penalised for it), that's the key thing.

Removes the theft element and all the cost of handling the cash taken in machines.  Should (you would expect) reduce vandalism too.

The machines in Bristol libraries (for paying for printing, fines, etc) only accept cash, which strikes me as odd. Of course, they're all closed at the moment anyway.

Can I agree with both of you?

When I did my learning (self-education) tours of the North East late last spring, I was struck by the TVMs at even tiny stations (exceptions noted at Chathill and Teeside Airport) with an ability to issue a permit to travel - a no charge ticket at the press of a button, available if you wanted to pay by cash or the required ticket wasn't available for some reason. 

There's a subtle difference between a cashless TVM (which these in the North East are) and a machine that requires you to have a debit or credit card in order to travel, unless you are preticketed - which (those in the North East are not).    I am happy with the North East solution ... less happy with the GWR approach of plastering the station with plastering stations about penalty fares, with exceptions (like "I'm paying by cash") in the small print, and with the need to explain to on train crew why you have no ticket.  The "permit to travel" provides a re-assurance to the passenger - evidence to back his starting station story, and evidence to the train manager or exit gate operator of where the person really joined.

So - provided that the customer is properly looked out for (which is not always the case with GWR!), happy for TVMs to be cashless.   Now - looking at really big stations ... there IS a case still for TVMs that accept cash as a queue busting facility ...

That's a great idea.  Hope GWR adopt it.

I just wonder if Denton or Reddish South stations have TVMs.  :D

A Cashless Society, might be the aim of the banks, but in the case of War, a cashless society would likely collapse.  ???