The Anonymous Widower

A Farce at Whittlesford

When I picked up my ticket at Whittlesford Parkway station on Wednesday to go to Lingfield, the machine was a struggle for my limited eyesight, as it is placed in the sun. I also found the touch screen very unresponsive, unlike other machines I have used on East Coast and Virgin Trains.

As I eventually got the tickets successfully and I had a few minutes before my train, I popped into the booking office and explained what had just happened and on a Saturday a coiple of weeks ago. He said that the machine was badly placed and that it took a lot of pushing to get it to work. I also asked if the offce would be manned today, as I was going to London.  He said it would be fully staffed as it should be!

But today it wasn’t ,manned and despite twenty minutes of trying, I could not purchase the ticket I required.  I did get to the payment stage, but it rejected every credit card I had as unreadable.

I was not alone and of the dozen or so of you fought with the machine only one got a ticket.

After perhaps fifteen minutes a train for Cambridge pulled up and the driver or collector, told us all to travel and sort it out at the destination.

So this is what I did!

At Tottenham Hale, I bought my required Travelcard from a friendly ticket inspector called Youssef. And it was also with one of the unreadable cards rejected by the machine at Whittlesford.

Nothing annoys me more than technology that should be to everyone’s benefit, installed and implimented so t just makes people angry and causes extra work for others.

The sooner this machine isreplaced by something that works in a better place, the better!

September 4, 2010 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Technology, Trains