Ticket machines - designed by experts, for experts to buy tickets from?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From the Manchester Evening News

Frustration over 'bonkers' new ticket machines at Stockport train station

Passengers have described them as ‘awful’, ‘baffling’ and ‘very difficult to figure out’

Rail users have slammed ‘bonkers’ new ticket machines at Stockport station, claiming they often make it impossible to book journeys to Manchester and beyond.

Passengers have described them as ‘awful’, ‘baffling’ and ‘very difficult to figure out’, with many needing help from station staff every time they wish to travel.

The issue has been taken up by Edgeley councillor Matt Wynne, who has said it is ‘beyond belief’ the machines were signed off - and that serious questions now need to be asked.

[jamestheredengine]

Last time I tried to use TfW^▸ (Transport for Wales)'s ticket machines at Neath, I gave up. Couldn't find the button for using a Two Together Railcard. It had clearly been designed to be user-friendly, i.e. crippled. Fortunately the booking office guy got back from his break just as I was giving up.

[Trowres]

My experience of Trowbridge booking office is that the staff there and their machines are incredibly slick - transactions complete including payment within a few seconds.

At the other end of the experience: buying tickets from a machine at an unmanned station somewhere in Europe; an ordeal that took about 15 minutes. Why?

• It was an international journey
• The age limit for child fare in each country was different
• It emerged that the correct age limit was neither- international had its own age limit
• I wanted to purchase more than one ticket
• The method for selecting more than one passenger disappeared when "return" was selected
• After experimentation, I found that return tickets had a separate way for purchasing multiples; something like a "more of the same" at the end of the selection process

I could be grateful that it took only 15 minutes and that I had tickets at the end for my international journey. This is a much better experience than I had online with Eurostar, which outfit did not in the end receive my custom.

[CyclingSid]

On Reading station you can't buy two (or more?) tickets with Senior Railcard from the machines. Obviously older people are imagined to be lone travellers.

Much like supermarket checkouts, which in general appeared to be designed by people who never use them, or go shopping.

[ChrisB]

Designed in. You are responsible for confirming your own railcard but can’t be held responsible for confirming someone else’s.

The same at a ticket office. Theyvwill want to see both railcards before sellingbtwo discounted tickets.

[eXPassenger]

Designed in. You are responsible for confirming your own railcard but can’t be held responsible for confirming someone else’s.

The same at a ticket office. Theyvwill want to see both railcards before sellingbtwo discounted tickets.

But I can buy 2 tickets together online with railcards.  The railcards will only be seen if their is a ticket check on the train

[Robin Summerhill]

Designed in. You are responsible for confirming your own railcard but can’t be held responsible for confirming someone else’s.

The same at a ticket office. Theyvwill want to see both railcards before sellingbtwo discounted tickets.

But I can buy 2 tickets together online with railcards.  The railcards will only be seen if their is a ticket check on the train

That might depend on the attitude of the staff at each station.

On a recent trip to Brighton for a funeral, they were quite happy to sell me two tickets, both with Senior Railcards, purely on my say-so that both passengers were entitled.

Besides, is the onus not on the passeger to ensure they have a valid ticket for the journey? If someone is using any discounted ticket (railcard, child rate etc) to which they are not entitled, it will be them who will get picked up for it on a ticket check. I am not quite sure how the booking office staff can be held resposibe, epecially given the amount of "dodgy" child tickets that are sold.

[Bmblbzzz]

I've made several trips in the past couple of months with my son, who has a 16-17 Saver Railcard. Tickets have been bought online, at TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) and at windows. His card has never been checked on purchase nor on the train.

But we were talking about TVMs generally not about railcards. It must be quite difficult to hit the sweet spot between offering too many choices and baffling people and offering a slimmed-down menu that omits things which the experienced and/or informed know about (and which might also be beneficial to the less experienced and/or informed, if they knew about them – and a vending machine probably isn't the best environment in which to learn).