Wednesday 15 August 2007

GOBLIN stations gaining ticket machines

In preparation for the handover to London Overground, ticket machines have been appearing at stations along the Gospel Oak to Barking Line. Since most stations are unstaffed halts and only a fraction of trains have conductors, it means you'll finally be able to pay for journeys on the line. Stations where the two platforms have separate street entrances are getting two machines, even where they aren't far apart.

The machines aren't switched on yet. The operator details card says Silverlink, so presumably they're not going to be left rotting until November. The circle on the right looks to be an Oyster reader for topping up, but there's no sign of separate Oyster readers for touching in and out.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hmm, I haven't noticed them at Harringay Green Lanes yet, but then again I only walk past the station without actually going there. I'll have a good look tomorrow.

Abigail Brady said...

Yesterday, spotted one at Leytonstone High Road (in addition to the 2 at HGL). Still not turned on.

The person on the train seemed very surprised by me buying a ticket from him. I wonder what % of revenue they are losing from just not having facilities to buy tickets?

Anonymous said...

The ones at Gospel Oak are now switched on, and I bought a ticket from one yesterday. (With regard to touching in and out, there are Oyster barriers already in place, covered with hoods at the moment.)

These machines are also appearing at other Silverlink stations - I've seen them at Hampstead Heath (not switched on) and Finchley Road & Frognal (switched on). The ones at FR&F claim to offer pick-up of pre-purchased tickets, meaning they're FastTicket machines I think. If that's true, it will be really useful.

cardinal_1962 said...

Validators are in place, shrouded with TfL "Oyster coming soon" shrouds (ie PAYG coming soon).

Presumably the ticket machines will sell National Rail & TfL products. There's a hint that they might print out tickets bought on line (Fasticket) at (eg) Thetrainline