A Minor Problem With the New Ticket Machines

On the old machines there was a V shaped cutter. Pull the ticket and the cutter dug into the paper and tore a neat V shaped tear in the paper detaching your ticket from the rest of the roll. So generations of bus passengers have pulled the ticket as it emerged from the machine.
But the new machines have a labour saving device that Cuts the ticket for you, no need to waste hard won energy, which is so expensive these days. The makers of the machine understood that there would be a transitional problem, passengers would sill expect to have to pull the ticket out of the machine not realising that this was a) unnecessary and b) would jam the machine. So they stuck a neat little notice just below where the ticket emerges in the hope that the existence of this labour saving device would come to the notice of the travelling public. But there is a slight problem, isn't there always?

Now what did that notice say?

So today when someone bought 3 return tickets and pulled them before the cutter had done it job, it's only job, the job it came into existence for, what would a ticket cutter do if it couldn't cut tickets, I'll tell you. It jams the printer. Next lot of tickets didn't print because the cutter had so much paper stuck in it the whole thing gave up. I almost did too. I opened the printer door and unjammed the cutter re set the paper and closed the printer door and pressed a couple of buttons that should have sent a few inches of paper in to the outside world and cut it off. Did it? Starts in n, ends in o, nothing in between. Several attempts and about 2 hours later the controller wanders over and spent just 7.348 seconds fiddling with the damn thing and it works perfectly. By now 27 people had also wandered over and wanted to get on the bus. By now I should have been half a mile down the road. By the time I sold all 27 passengers their tickets (the cutter worked perfectly) I should have been 2 miles down the road. An other reason for being late. Yes I know, they seem to be increasing by the week. Please wait for the cutter to CUT.

A Save the Planet Idea.

One neat idea on the new ticket machines can be seen on this ticket which is for two concessionary pass holders. But it's only one ticket I hear you all say. Yes, but below the word concession is x02 which means every time two or more people get on the bus and ask for single tickets I can save paper, and therefor the planet, by issuing a multi ticket. So instead of getting a ticket miles long when ten people get on and ask for ten single tickets they only use a small amount of paper and reduce their carbon footprint. But they have to ask when they get on, not after I have issued the tenth ticket.

New Machine, Yet Again.

It rained all day today, Traffic wasn't too heavy but the driving conditions were bad so everyone drove slowly and it was hard work if not especially busy given that it is half term here.

I worked on Sunday when the new machines were introduced and then had Monday and Tuesday of so today I was still not 100% confident that I would remember everything. So I got on the bus and pressed the right buttons until the machine asked me to present my card. I have a small card holder with the machine smart card in it as well as 3 or 4 other cards and I presented the holder. "No, sorry that card's no good." said the machine (not exactly those words you understand but in my brief moment of panic I failed to make notes) One of the other cards in the holder was my Concessionary Bus Pass and the two cards together were confusing the poor machine. After I worked that out things went well and I was beginning to relax a little and try out other methods of issuing tickets. There are 3 or four ways of getting the same ticket out of the machine. A lady, bless her asked for a concessionary to Brixham and I pressed what I thought were the right buttons and a ticket emerged. She looked at it and said,"£4.55. I thought it was free." Which was why I said bless her. I grabbed the ticket and went back to the basic method which has worked so far and gave her the right ticket and cancelled the £4.55 one and resolved not to press any buttons unless I knew exactly what I was doing. I had a few minutes at Brixham and worked out what I had done wrong. Too complicated to explain right now as I would like to get some sleep tonight. Several people boarded the bus in Brixham and they all got their tickets fairly briskly. Then one gent said, "You seem to have mastered the machine. The driver on Sunday was at 6s and 7s with his machine." He asked for a concession to Newton and I smiled sweetly and promptly issued a return for £6.00. Bugger.

As the day went on it got easier. In Torquay I even managed to issue a multi ticket, five singles to Brixham. Instead of issuing 5 individual tickets the machine allows you to save paper and issue one ticket with single to Brixham X 5 printed on it. What a good idea. I even changed a ticket roll today, my first.

A New Ticket Machine.

Isn't it nice?

New Ticket Machines

Today was an interesting day due to the introduction of new ticket machines. I was due to start at 08:54 and needed to catch a bus at 08:25 to get to work. I had thought about getting the bus before that one so I would have plenty of time to try out the machine without the benefit of the watchful eyes of understanding and sympathetic passengers. But being Sunday the earlier bus was at 07:45. So I set the alarm for 07:45 and caught the 08:25. I may be dedicated but only within reason. Still I had plenty of time, I wasn't due of St Marychurch until 09:21. So I handed in my module which worked on the old machine and received my smart card which worked on the new machine together with complete instructions on how to use the new machine. We have had training but a piece of paper with helpful hints is always comforting. Still with plenty of time I checked with control as to which bus I should take and went up to the park to find it. It wouldn't start. Great. In ten years of collecting buses from the park this is only the second that wouldn't start. Still the bus park is, if you are going to break down, the best place to do it. Plenty of fitters handy and even a few spare buses. But there was a delay and instead of 15 minutes playing with the machine at St Marychurch so I had some confidence I knew what I was doing, I got there with only a couple of minutes before I had to use the thing for real.



Actually, once I got the routine sorted out it went pretty well. The paper feed jammed once. This was due to the fact that on the old machines the ticket had to be gently pulled of the machine. Some people never managed to master this technique and snatched the ticket with the same force a shot putt putter uses to make sure the shot doesn't land on his foot. The new machine cuts the ticket for you but if you snatch before it has cut it can jam the machine.



I went to Teighmouth first thing, on the way back it got a bit misted up so I switched the demister on. This made it worse as I was now able to ascertain that visibility was down to 20 feet (6 metres). And there were still cars out there with no headlights on? The climb up to Labrador Bay is slow anyway and I was only a couple of minutes late into Torquay.



Tree cutting. I mentioned tree cutting earlier in the week. Back in the old days half a dozen drivers would climb aboard an open top bus and drive slowly along the route and hack away at anything that got anywhere near the bus. Being the people that drove buses along the road they did a comprehensive job. Those days are gone and the council do it now. But no one seems to have mentioned to council workers that when it rains trees get wet. And when anything gets wet it tends to make them heavier. And heavier things tend, due to dear old Issac's invention, move closer to the center of the Earth. And branches that do not overhang the road when dry do so when wet. And it was wet on the road to Teignmouth.

Queuing for car parks. Torquay was a fine sunny day today, unlike the road to Teignmouth, too nice to be working as many of my passengers kept telling me. Please don't.They also kept telling me I had a new ticket machine but that is a different matter. Lots of other people also noticed it was a fine sunny day and decided to have a drive to the sea side. One of our larger car parks is on Cary Parade, just past the bus stop. Once some drivers get in that queue you can see in the photo they seem to think we are trying to pull out in front of them so we too can get in the car park. Will they let us out? Well eventually they do but it can be a bit of a pain.

A Thing of the Past (Almost)

This is what our ticket machines look like today. Tomorrow, Sunday and for ever, they will be completely different, super duper electronic monsters that we have all been trained on over the last few weeks. But sitting in a nice stationary class room with a trainer saying do this, do that without a queue of people waiting to get on is a little bit easier than actually being on Torquay Harbour with 35 people waiting to get on and you're trying to remember how to issue such and such ticket. I fully expect that in a weeks time we will have completely mastered them and will issue tickets with the same confidence a magician produces rabbits out of his hat. But that will be in a week's time so if you are using a Stagecoach bus in Torbay on Sunday and for the next few days please be a little patient. (Photo of new machine tomorrow, I know you can't wait.)


The Balloon is up and running on the sea front, it started yesterday. One thing I did report was that it went up 400 metres. I got that information from the local paper, the Herald Express, but it was wrong. It should have read 400 feet which is only 120 metres, no where near as high as I expected. You should still be able to see 20 miles or more but not the 45 miles I reported a few weeks ago. Trips cost £14.00 adults £11.50 Senior Citizens (me) and £8.00 children. Bring your own camera.

New Ticket Machines

An other change coming up, will we be able to cope? Of course we will, we're professional drivers, are new ticket machines. Should be arriving at the end of May just in time for the summer season. This on pictured here (thanks Cowdenbeath Driver) has all sorts of wonderful things to offer including a card reader so invalid cards don't get past us at busy times and a GPS system so control can track our every movement and know when we are running late, due usually to either traffic or road works, and offer us advice on what to do to improve the situation.

I'll keep you posted as soon as they arrive and or fitted to the buses.