The "capitulation" of Maidstone's ticket machines

[brad465]

Today not one self service ticket machine in Maidstone, of the 3 machines for the 3 stations in the town, were working properly. I travelled from Barracks to Crayford and back today, where National Rail said on Journey Planner that the West station office was closed (the machine is inside the building). I tried to buy at the East station en route to MDB, but for everyone, you got to payment and credit cards led to "system error". As if by magic, MDB had exactly the same problem.

Fortunately for me and other Medway Valley line users the guard was selling tickets as normal without issue, but I don't know what MDE passengers had to deal with (hopefully nothing bad). Is this a really bizarre coincidence, or was there a wider problem on the Network?

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

If three separate ticket machines at three different stations had a problem, but they were of the same model and from the same TOC, then it's possible there was a problem with the payment processor, such as an outage. It absolutely wouldn't be unheard of.

I would very much hope that any guards and RPIs considering whether to penalise a ticketless passenger who had encountered this issue, would first contact their control to back up the passenger's story. If there was any doubt, I'd like to hope they would give the passenger the benefit of the doubt and sell them the ticket they wanted to get, at the price they would have paid at the TVM.

Let's hope we don't get any Disputes & Prosecutions threads soon with unfortunate passengers who have been overcharged, PFed or prosecuted for this occurrence.

 

[brad465]

If anybody has experienced what you just described they could be referred to this thread of mine when I did have an issue once from MDB, where I successfully complained and was compensated from Southeastern. In regards to the station machine models the West (closed anyway) and East are the same model to each other, and of the standard model (if that makes sense), but the MDB machine is a smaller different model, albeit capable of all the day ticket types at least. The Medway Valley Line is usually more relaxed because of many stations being rural, low use and unstaffed, but the MDE line has seen RPI use in the past and 4 out of 5 train ticket inspections, so the risk is greater there.

 

[yorksrob]

I'm dissappointed there was no booking office attendance at Maidstone East ?

 

[brad465]

I'm dissappointed there was no booking office attendance at Maidstone East ?

With all honesty I didn't check that, however the number of people queuing at the machine suggested either it was closed or a long queue at an open kiosk (a London train was imminent). Had I not had the issue in the past which I linked in my last post I probably would have walked past the East station without thinking of buying there, but as it did I saw as a possible "safeguard". The Machine is next to the car park entrance, which is also next to the stairs onto the bridge, so didn't walk past the ticket office.

 

[yorksrob]

With all honesty I didn't check that, however the number of people queuing at the machine suggested either it was closed or a long queue at an open kiosk (a London train was imminent). Had I not had the issue in the past which I linked in my last post I probably would have walked past the East station without thinking of buying there, but as it did I saw as a possible "safeguard". The Machine is next to the car park entrance, which is also next to the stairs onto the bridge, so didn't walk past the ticket office.

In my day when I lived In Kent, East was the main station, (which I suspect it still is), so its worth checking the ticket office.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Would these be S&B machines ?

 

[brad465]

Would these be S&B machines ?

The East and West station machines are this model, but the Barracks is a different model of a smaller size, but as modern in design and capability.

 

[Wallsendmag]

There have been various problems with S&B equipment around the country last week