Less jargon and more clarity required at ticket machines

Three cheers for the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), which has stated that there needs to be less use of industry jargon such as ‘London Terminals’ and ‘any permitted route’ when tickets are sold from machines, as well as clearer information on ticket restrictions.

It also criticises machines that won’t show Off-Peak prices until a few minutes before the first applicable train leaves.

I can see no reason why a ticket machine should not sell OP tickets at all times - after all, you can buy them at stations or online at any time. Why can’t you arrive at a station at 0800 and buy an OP Return from a machine for a first permitted departure of perhaps 0900, rather than have to wait until 0855 and risk missing the train? The ORR should ban this altogether.

Incidentally, what arrogance the Rail Delivery Group showed, when it commented that its research showed that 19 out of 20 people did buy the correct ticket from machines. So that’s OK then - just as I assume it would be OK if 19 members of staff out of every 20 at the RDG got their correct wages paid every month, with a mere one in 20 missing out.

Has anyone any idea what use the RDG is? Of all the industry bodies - and there are too many of them - it seems to be of no use whatsoever, merely making weak excuses to the media every time part of the industry is justifiably criticised.

As for London Terminals, how many users understand which London stations they can use with their ticket? It isn’t explained properly.

From my area (Bournemouth) London Terminals tickets are valid to Waterloo, Vauxhall, Victoria, Charing Cross, London Bridge, Cannon Street, Blackfriars and City Thameslink. I expect many users give up their tickets at Waterloo and pay to go on to those stations.

And with High Speed 1 tickets, how many staff (let alone users) know that a ticket from (say) Ashford International to London Terminals routed ‘Plus High Speed’ is not just valid into St Pancras International, but also on Thameslink (only) to Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars, London Bridge or Elephant & Castle?

I’m told that St Pancras barriers retain tickets, so to use this facility you have to ask to retain your ticket. This just shouldn’t be necessary.