TVM's are at once great and also poor public relations. It is easy to punch a few buttons, insert your form of payment, take your ticket (and change if any), and board. But it don't always happen that way. The machines are S....L....O....W, sometimes confusing (especially when in a rush and there's a line behind you) and don't interface with people as well as they should. Several times our Ridewithmehenry group have been rushed at the machine and the machine, especially the gap between ingesting the information and printing the ticket(s), causes frustration. And don't blame it on just us old farts, either! The kids...teens and early twenties...ahead of us were also having problems. So much so that only three of us four was able to buy our tickets nor could a young mother and her daughter because the train was already in the station. Seniors don't get penalized for buying aboard trains, but I hope that poor young lady didn't either as it was not her fault but the slow responsive machine. A real person ticket agent could have had it all done for everyone even before the train was in sight much less at the platform. I remember several years ago several people ahead of us at a ticket machine in 30th St. were so befuddled we not only lost the chance to buy our ticket but also got to the gate and were blocked from entering the platform as we watched the trainman at the foot of the stairs board the train and it took off. Lost fares, lost passengers, frustrated passengers, bad feelings toward the railroad (all railroads?).
When you buy a ticket through the internet or phone from Amtrak, you print the ticket out yourself and the conductor need only scan it to cancel. I think and hope the new ticket marketing schemes the commuter roads are pushing have the same system. I know, too, that MNRR, NJT and LIRR have or are all trying conductor's hand held ticket machines but I've not heard a kind word about them from the crews, in fact I don't think any who've had them used them. Yes, I believe that hand held devices can be used by crews but they have to be easy an fast, not cumbersome and restrictive.. And the customer must be able to swipe his card or have it easily read by the machine to be beneficial to the train crew, the passenger, and the passengers in line. More TVM's per station are far and away not the answer for so many reasons. And it is understood by today's standards, employing a real person at any given point to sell one to a handful of tickets once an hour does not make sense nor dollars. Hand held devices are a great concept but they have to be easy for both the crewman and the passenger in any given situation.
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What I don't understand is groups of people buying their tickets individually. My party of 4 has one person buy all four tickets at once and just give the money to the buyer. It is much faster that way. I have also seen people who are together waiting to use the same machine while another machine next to them is sitting idle. Machines are stupid. People are stupid. The two together is a disaster. I am glad, however that NJT has made their machines give out bills as change and no more $1 coins that no one likes. It shows that the minds of NJT may really have at least one functioning brain cell between them.
Your point is well taken, PAJRR, but it is often not easy to do that, and even groups arrive as individuals. Playing with cash between four or five people can be as cumbersome and lengthy ordeal as each buying his own ticket. And if some buy with cards and others with cash, you clash. And in the end it depends on the individuals, too. Believe me, as a so called "group leader" it is easiest to let each be on his own.
Considering that EZ-Pass transponder toll paying has become commonplace - almost to the the exclusion of having actual toll attendents at most toll roads in the country. I am surprised that the NY area commuter carriers don't have a similar system for their regular passengers thus reducing the need for individually bought tickets..
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD Considering that EZ-Pass transponder toll paying has become commonplace - almost to the the exclusion of having actual toll attendents at most toll roads in the country. I am surprised that the NY area commuter carriers don't have a similar system for their regular passengers thus reducing the need for individually bought tickets..
The answer is simple. The states of Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey combined with the City of New York and about a dozen other cities in NY and in NJ and in Ct,; plus the three or so dozen counties and the Port of Authority, and Amtrak, MNRR, MTA, NJT, LIRR, ConDOt, PATH, and...and, and. You get my drift I'm sure. Too many fiefdoms, politicians, governments, etc....to come to a consensus. And be compatible with private bus carriers, too. And then not everyone has an EZPASS. HOwever, there is a Metro Card which is good on NYC subways and buses and on PATH. Now when you get to Philad....
Did you fall asleep at the keyboard? When you get to Philadelphia you discover they have no problem with ticket vending machines because they got rid of them. Are you happy with that solution?
Patrick Boylan
Free yacht rides, 27' sailboat, zip code 19114 Delaware River, get great Delair bridge photos from the river. Send me a private message
The problem I had at Philadelphia was at least 10 years ago or longer. This time we didn't purchase SEPTA tickets so didn't need to go there...we had Amtrak tickets we all purchased on the internet two weeks before! Also like the fact that there were real fare booth people for Broad St. Subway....
TVM's are what NJT does today, Henry. I guess we both know that. They are not going back to people selling tickets for the reason you point out.
My only objection is that when the light is very bright the TVM screen is illegible and NJT won't do anything about that. They can put panels around the TVM to cut down the light so you could read it. But NJT won't do that. They just won't.
NJT does a lot of things extremely well, actually. But sometimes they have a real public be damned approach to providing transportation, both on trains and buses.
John
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