atlantis wrote: ↑Thu Feb 02, 2023 12:19 pm
Agree with B&A on this. Also, why not have ticket vending machines at the outlying stations? Similar to Metro North Commuter railroad and also Metrolink in the Los Angeles area.
From a practical perspective, no real reason to have them at CR stations. Riders bought their tickets onboard from the conductors for the longest time and for one reason or another, no one complained about any of the negatives of that system. Since there was no interoperability between CR fare collection and subway/bus fare collection systems, why spend the $ on buying the machines and then keeping them in service if you can just have CR riders buy a charlie ticket at their destination?
From a logistics perspective, the machines needed power(obv) and also shelter from weather and temperature extremes. Most CR stations don't have one of those, and some have neither.
Outside of practicality, the relationship between the T and the manufacturer is pretty poor and has been for a long time. Even when there was a desire to do this, no one wanted to give them any more money. I'm sure the only reason that they agreed to sell the T new machines after the AFC 2.0 fiasco came to light was the T came to the manufacturer and said "name your price."