Childrens fares from ticket machines ?

[zag]

Can anyone confirm whether you can buy a childrens fare from the ticket machines in DART stations ?

I went to buy an adult and child ticket today and after selecting an adult single I selected 'more tickets' or whatever the option is called. There didn't seem to be a childrens ticket option, and I couldn't find the 'back out' option, so I cancelled it and started again and rekeyed everything to get my adult single.

Then I went through the process again and tried to select a child single by itself, but again the option wasn't there. I can't remember the details, but it definitely indicated a child single in some description somewhere.

So, I gave up and had to queue for the ticket office anyway to get the child single. What a waste of time.

After all that the ticket barriers were off at Connolly and there was no sign of any ticket checking staff *at all* in the station, so I needn't have queued at all . . .

This was well before the parade had finished - I wouldn't like to have seen the scenes later in the day as hordes of people (with kids in tow) descended on the station and came across the same situation.

So, is it possible to buy a childrens ticket from those infernal machines or not ?

z

p.s. why won't they take credit cards for less than €5 transactions ? Makes them pretty useless for daily commuter tickets. I know there is a % charge for credit card transactions, but that time I was late for work, had no cash, but did have a credit card I sure wouldn't have minded paying an extra 50c just to get my ticket. As it happens, the machine didn't even tell me there was a minimum, just kept rejecting my card without an explanation. It was the guy behind the counter who told me when I eventually asked him after he sat there watching me trying it over and over and over again.

[Mark Gleeson]

Don't do child tickets

Neither the Luas or IE machines offer credit cards for below €5

Note the screen will only show valid coins, notes and cards based on the amount, €50 notes are not accepted unless the change is less than €18 (thats a legal requirement not a IE choice) Credit card is fine for weekly and monthly

Where a booking office is unstaffed there is no legal obligation on you to use the ticket vending machine, IE claim there is but they seem to make there own bye laws when it suits but the only legal ones are SI 109 1984

4. Where the Board gives notice that a station is unattended or the booking office is closed, or where any person is instructed by an authorised person to board a train at a station without purchasing a ticket at the booking office so as not to delay the departure of the train from the station, any person not in possession of a valid ticket entitling him or her to travel may enter a vehicle at that station for the purpose of travelling but that person must obtain a ticket or other authority from an authorised person on the train as soon as practicable after entering any vehicle or from an authorised person on arrival at the station to which such person is travelling by the train.

I'm not promoting fare evasion here but if the ticket you want isn't on the machine IE haven't a case against you

[James Shields]

Why not sell child tickets on the TVM? For that matter, there should be shortcuts for common combinations like adult+child, 2 adults+2children to the same destination (preferably offering a discount, but that's another issue).

The London Underground TVMs definitely offer children's tickets. As far as I remember, their automatic barriers make a different sort of beep when a child ticket is entered, so an adult using a child ticket should be spotted fairly quickly.

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by lostcarpark

The London Underground TVMs definitely offer children's tickets. As far as I remember, their automatic barriers make a different sort of beep when a child ticket is entered, so an adult using a child ticket should be spotted fairly quickly.

Ours do as well I think

[Terrontress]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Ours do as well I think

The interior of the green light also lights up yellow so an adult could be spotted instantly.

That is if anyone was looking.

[MOH]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Note the screen will only show valid coins, notes and cards based on the amount, €50 notes are not accepted unless the change is less than €18 (thats a legal requirement not a IE choice) Credit card is fine for weekly and monthly

I was rushing through Tara St before trying to make the DART for work, only had a 50 to buy a return ticket. Queued for ticket desk and the guy told me he didn't have change, go and use the ticket vending machine. Queued for one of the few working vending machines only to find it didn't take 50s. Had to go to the shop and get change. If I hadn't been in such a hurry would have had a go at the ticket guy for wasting my time.

[Mark Gleeson]

When Seapoint got its TVM I explained its quirks to one of the staff since no one told them about the change thing. Legally you can only give a max of 18 euro in coin change, well thats what I'm told.

[tigger1962]

me not a solicitor but it was CIE policy (I saw it somewhere) not to accept more than 20 coins per transaction! and unless its been changed the Economic and Monetary Union Act, 1998 said that no person, other than the Central Bank of Ireland and such persons as may be designated by the Minister by order, shall be obliged to accept more than 50 coins denominated in euro or in cent in any single transaction?????

[Mark Gleeson]

All we have from Irish Rail is promises that the software will be upgraded

Reality is many of the issues are down to management choices not software

[zag]

Thinking further about this, I am getting madder and madder.

What on earth is the point of a ticket machine that can't issue valid tickets for all passanger types ? Is there something special about childrens tickets ? No, don't answer that one, of course there isn't. It's a ticket, same shape, same size, different colour, so why can't/won't the machines issue them ?

If they were specified without consideration for the number of ticket types required then someone should be held accountable for that - why should people with children (or children by themselves for that matter) not be able to use these machines ?

If someone hasn't got around to programing the machines properly then again they should be held accountable and made do it.

z