Are train ticket machines too hard to use?

Yes, frequently you can not get single/return tickets to smaller stations with the old style ticket machines.

Frant near Tunbridge Wells is an example of this.

The trains are nearly always full, so the TOC's must be making a fortune. It should be a no brainer therefore to invest in rolling stock, double deckers in commuter areas. If they don't do that, re-nationalise 'em.

Yep, way too complicated - there may be other issues as well, but this ticket machines is symptomatic of the malise that engulfs the railway system - what's wrong with simplicity ... for everything! And by the way get off the 'elf 'n safety horse as well.

I mainly travel on the East Coast mainline or locally around the north and my experience of the rail service is pretty good. Ticketing, however, is a nonsense. It should never be cheaper to purchase a ticket for a journey in two parts than it is outright - a simple system broken down by peak and off-peak, advance and non-advance, costing a set amount per mile would be great. I can't imagine this ever happening under the current franchise system though.

How about working towards the Deutsche Bahn model of a private company 100% owned by the state?

I've recently had cause to travel from Reading to Peterborough (via London) for a couple of weeks; National Rail website shows standard return as about £160 and off peak at half that - with restriction on time of travel from London to Peterborough. The automatic ticket machine confirmed this. On some days an off peak worked fine with ticket inspectors and guards, on other days different inspectors said it wasn't valid on various legs (eg from Reading to London). If the website and ticket machine says something different from the 'human' inspectors what is the consumer supposed to do?

It would also be nice if the machines actually worked. On Sun 11th July at 8:15 AM , six machines were not working at Clapham Junction in South London . A seventh was also not working until a staff member emptied it of coins and reset it. Also we couldn't figure out if Group Save deals were available by machine so we queued anyway.

Should the focus not be on the fare structure, rather than the ticket machines? If the fares were simplified, then the machines would be easier to use.

1. I would like to know why it costs £3 less to have a cheap day return WITH BUS from Cambridge to Bury St Edmunds (£8) compared to a cheap day return (train only) at £11? The cheaper fare is NOT on the machines. This has been going on since at least 2000, predating the present contractors. Who decides these fares?

2. Network Cards should be available on the whole Network - why stick to the arbitrary map drawn up by Chris Green of Network South East in 1988??? A loyalty card (Paid for, incidentally) is a loyalty card anywhere in the UK surely, not just between Exeter, Dover, Brighton and Huntingdon -- but excluding East Anglia (Norwich, Ipswich etc.) Crazy logic which can never end, apparently.

And the machines only let you buy tickets if you depart from that very station. Having a complex fare structure with occasions where a simple point to point is not the most economical, it's better to buy tickets from points that do not start at the purchase station. Try this at the station and you'll have to go to the office (or on some parts of some lines, onboard from the guard - pick the wrong part of a line to buy the ticket on board and you will get fined! - another complication).

Airlines manage to achieve most of the above; they even have codeshare agreements to handle inter-company revenue sharing. The processes are there already.

I use the machines regularly at Chester, but then I'm used to them. I watch many people, particularly tourists, try to use them mess about for minutes, and in the end give up and go to the ticket office.

On the other hand I have observed people having similar issues with the multi-purpose self service machines in bank, particularly trying to pay in money.

Go to France of Germany and the machines are a lot easier to use. They even offer you a choice of other languages including English.

I've tried to use a machine but it finally comes up with a "buy ticket" arrow pointing to the correct button that obliterates everything else. I'd like to check and make sure that I've bought the right ticket. The machine won't let me go back and check.

The solution is simple. Sort out your journey and buy the ticket on line in the comfort of your own home without a queue behind you urging you to get a move on.

All you need to do then is put your card that you used to pay into the ticket machine and it prints out your tickets. Quick, simple and hassle free.

The machine at Gatwick Airport tried to charge £65 for a single to Bournemouth. The whole thing is shameful.

Yes, complicated. The machines appear to have been developed generically. Unless you know or have studied the machines, they are difficult to use.

It's not just the ticket machines, it's the vast array of different fares. The wholew thing is a nightmare. I ALWAYS come away from such transactions convinced I have paid more than I need to. The system is designed to rook you....no change there, then!