ERG Ticket Machines

just went live with them this week and my opinion is, i prefer the old wayfareers!!!!!!!!!!

Why what is wrong with them?

Slow, plus the automatic paper cutter jams if someone pulls the ticket before it cuts.

I have seen them in Manchester which is silly since in a city like Manchester people are actually in a rush to get on the bus. I think they would suit the what I call "granny hopper" routes (the optare solos that go round all the estates and go to every single morrisons enroute) since by the time the OAPs get on, you will have had plenty of time to print the ticket, and the amount of times I have seen old people struggle to rip the ticket and ending up with half, so the auto cutter would be good there.

Is it just me or is public transport becoming OAP transport, since most things seem to be made with them in mind.

Give me the Almex E any day! No electronic crap to go wrong!

Palatine 2 wrote:Slow, plus the automatic paper cutter jams if someone pulls the ticket before it cuts.

Most ticket machines do that if the numpties pull the ticket too hard. You get the idiots who sort of scrunch it up in their hands and then pull it, of course scrunching it up like this makes it stronger and they end up pulling half the bloody ticket roll out!!

LynxZF7 wrote:I have seen them in Manchester which is silly since in a city like Manchester people are actually in a rush to get on the bus. I think they would suit the what I call "granny hopper" routes (the optare solos that go round all the estates and go to every single morrisons enroute) since by the time the OAPs get on, you will have had plenty of time to print the ticket, and the amount of times I have seen old people struggle to rip the ticket and ending up with half, so the auto cutter would be good there.

Is it just me or is public transport becoming OAP transport, since most things seem to be made with them in mind.

You can't issue the concession ticket until the card is put down on the machine, choose the destination from the menu and then press issue. The main problem is that the card has to be put down vertically on the machine. If they try to slide it across then the machine reads it then tries to read it again and rejects it. It then has to be lifted off , the machine has to re-set itself and then the card can be put down again. It all takes time

Two other problems (amongst a long list) are;
the height of the machine especially if the card holder can't see the top of the machine. They tend to put their card down then shuffle it around until they think it's in the right place. This triggers problem 1 (above).

The size of the gap in a bandit screen. If it's not high enough above the machine then the card holder tends to slide it in so that they don't graze the back of their hand on the bottom of the screen. Guess what problem that triggers??

OK another problem - the lugs that hold the roll in place - some of them seem to stick in in the side of the machine so that the roll is only held in place by one lug. This makes the end of the roll come out slightly lopsided. It'll issue a few tickets and then, because one side of the roll is coming out before the corresponding other side it'll eventually jam.

Funnily enough I haven't heard of any drivers being asked if they have any problems with it.

Sounds like a nightmare for driver and passenger alike, I dred the day when they come to West Yorks, roll on ques for buses and annoyed drivers.

Stagecoach uses these in Scotland. There still better than the shite First used which start with the letter A:

Wayfare is still the best

peanutbutter wrote:Stagecoach uses these in Scotland. There still better than the shite First used which start with the letter A:

Wayfare is still the best

Oddly enough i don't have a problem with the Almex so far,but yeah the Wayfarer are the best.

I really quite like our almex machines. They just take forever to fire up when they switch themselves off.

The only good Almex is the mechanical Almex E. Idiot proof, no logging on or modules required...And make a nice hand rest

Got a Gibson’s bus to day with my mum to Braehead and her concession card wouldn't read as "the machine was to hot"

We've had the almex shit for a while here boarding grannys is now a nightmare but you get used to it but the wayfarer was much better, faster and a ticket roll change was a piece of piss.

Sounds like what is being introduced in our area at the end of the month. Concession cards take about 4 seconds to recognise and stuff. Either way, it'll slow us down even more!

Dicksons have new wayfares there are really good