Do the rail ticket machines record one has gone through ?

[SimonTheSailor]

So much to say, so little space in the thread title to say it......


What I want to know is do the rail ticket machines record/remember a ticket has gone through them at a certain time on a certain day ? You know, the machines that you push your orange and yellow tickets through and it throws them out the top (sometimes) or says - 'Seek Assistance' while 5 people walk into the back of you.

If a rail network wanted to go back a week or two to see if the ticket was used, can they retrieve this sort of information ? Do they know the last machine the ticket went through and the time and date ?

[Chrisgr31]

My understanding is that they cannot tell a paper ticket has gone through a barrier, so if you have a season ticket etc then the barriers cant tell when you went through.

However I am fairly sure that a paper ticket will stop you going through the same barrier twice in succession, so there must be some ability for the ticket or barrier to retain information.

There have been cases where people have fraudently claimed delay repay and been charged and the train company has had CCTV etc to help prove their case, but not sure how that is done

[SimonTheSailor]

Thanks, yes I agree there must be some sort of information retention. Might have to prove a delay case so wondering what my options are. They've only asked for the 'from and to' stations and scheduled time of departure. The first train was ok but it was later trains where things got messy !!

[TIGA84]

Chrisgr31 said:

My understanding is that they cannot tell a paper ticket has gone through a barrier, so if you have a season ticket etc then the barriers cant tell when you went through.

However I am fairly sure that a paper ticket will stop you going through the same barrier twice in succession, so there must be some ability for the ticket or barrier to retain information.

There have been cases where people have fraudently claimed delay repay and been charged and the train company has had CCTV etc to help prove their case, but not sure how that is done

I think it retains that the ticket has been used to go through that barrier for 6 or 7 minutes I remember one of the guards telling me once.

[Chrisgr31]

SimonTheSailor said:

Thanks, yes I agree there must be some sort of information retention. Might have to prove a delay case so wondering what my options are. They've only asked for the 'from and to' stations and scheduled time of departure. The first train was ok but it was later trains where things got messy !!

Real train times might help depending when it was.

Should be possible to work out where it went wrong