A word on today's ticket machine story.

This from a Mr Malins...

Did I not hear the Passenger Focus man Smith berating the TOCs for their failings on Radio 4 this morning?

Consider then that the response of Bus Barons and DafT to this failing is to install ticket barriers to "recover" the money for the tickets the TOCs did not sell properly in the first place!


With stockade station - HMP Walton-on-Thames the result.

UPDATE: This from Globetrotter...

I wonder whether the latest Passenger Focus survey is investigating the symptoms rather than the cause?

Does the dissatisfaction expressed by ticket machine users really reflect concerns over the problem of using the machines themselves, or is it really a reflection of the complexity of the current fare structures?

Given that a substantial number of booking office staff seem to have problems explaining and selling all the different ticket options, it is not surprising that passengers have problems navigating the system when left to do it themselves.

Particularly now that ATOC has helpfully 'simplified' the process by giving all the different ticket types the same names.

30% dissatisfied with rail ticket purchasing

Telegrammed by Our Man at 222 Marylebone Road
Clearly the train operators are living in a parallel universe when an SWT press release can glibly say:

"Passenger Focus research, shows around seven in every 10 customers are satisfied with rail ticket purchasing facilities".

And they expect us to consider this a major achievement?

Out in the real world, for any business to have an activity which left 30% of customers dissatisfied would see a rapid change in the management responsible.

Especially since this is the operation which delivers cash flow.

Perhaps Petrol-head should invite Archie Norman or Sir Stuart Rose to run the retail side of franchises?

People on the railways I would like to meet...

Telegrammed by Bulldog Drummond
The Person who Helps Test the Fast Track Ticket Machines

Although most Railway Eye readers, being lucky recipients of concessionary travel, do not use ticket machines they may want to pause for a moment to think about the extraordinary person who helps test the Fast Track ticket machines.

The main screen is ideally designed for someone around 5 feet tall and the module where payment is made is clearly designed for someone around 3 foot six inches (this screen is also very hard to read with anyone possessing normal eyesight).

To add to the challenge the main screen and payment module are so far apart that the traditionally shaped human being does not have sufficient reach.

So where do they find a five foot high individual with a double length right arm and the matching rubber neck required to read the small screen?

UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic...

Might I add to the list of Desiderata, the ability to touch type on credit card key pays with the numbers worn away.

Alternatively, infra-red vision able to see the outline where the numbers were.

UPDATE: This from The Major...

The Major suspects that that Fast Ticket machines have been designed to be suitable for those in wheelchairs.

He's not yet in one (the day cannot be too far ahead...) so would welcome views from anyone who is and has used these machines.

Before then doing battle with barriers and all the other impediments train operators put before their passengers...

UPDATE: Bulldog Drummond responds...

I note the Major's comments but the TfL ticket machines (the big ones are very similar to Fast Ticket) are much better laid out.

I cannot believe that TfL would do anything that is not DDA compliant.