TVMs for Metropark?

Why are there no TVMs on the platform at MET?? Most stations have them - not to mention there are only 4 TVMs for the whole station. MET seems to be amongst the busiest stations on the NEC and it often requires 10-15 minute wait in line for tickets in the morning. I just buy several tickets in advance now and when I'm running out stop at night to get them.

It's also frustrating parking in the garages where there is a walkway directly to the platform, only to have to go down to the ground just to get your ticket.

4 TVM's wow thats like having 4 full time ticket sellers without coffee/potty or lunch breaks ????
betya there would be a longer line with human TVM's

Metuchen for example has 6 on the eastbound-NY side, and more on the westbound-TRE side.

TRE for example has 4 upstairs in the ticket office/waiting room and many more on both sets of platforms.

Metuchen no longer has a ticket office.

So, in my opinion if you have 2 human ticket clerks and 4 TVM's at Metropark it is the same as the 6 TVMs at metuchen.

I will agree that Metropark sees more passengers than Metuchen and perhaps 2, maybe 3 more would be helpful.

A better designed TVM would also help the situation, but that is another thread.

TVMs are much slower than human clerks. They also break a lot. The ones in Hoboken seem to have a lot of trouble with credit cards--I don't know if others are as bad or as slow as the ones in Hoboken. You would think that NJT would get faster TVMs but they show no interest. One time, my wife and I were in Hoboken with about 15 minutes till our train left. I have a monthly pass but she needed a ticket. There were lines at the TVMs but they looked shorter than the one for ticket agents. When we got to the machine it wouldn't accept a credit card or a debit card. I fished in my pocket for un-wrinkled bills, but by then we were out of time. We got on the train and I started explaining to the conductor what had happened. He said he'd seen me struggling with the machine and so he didn't charge the penalty.
The bottom line is that in many cases it takes at least 4 tvm's to equal 1 agent, and this isn't even allowing for the broken machines. I guess we shouldn't expect a railroad which is allergic to running fast trains to buy fast TVMs.

I have to say that most of the posts on this board seems like whining.....
NJT has pretty good TVM, which are most of the time reliable and working when compared to other transit systems like SEPTA's (which never seem to work)...and AMTRAK's Quik Trak machines which are down at least once a week

mannynews wrote:I have to say that most of the posts on this board seems like whining.....
NJT has pretty good TVM, which are most of the time reliable and working when compared to other transit systems like SEPTA's (which never seem to work)...and AMTRAK's Quik Trak machines which are down at least once a week

Not at all! The TVM's don't give me much trouble, but they are unacceptably slow. A full minute to print out tickets is not normal, considering if there are more than 10 people there, even getting there 10 mins early won't help you... it should take less than 30 seconds to get tickets out of one of those machines. That is the common thing that no one knows their first time taking the train -- if you do not get there at least a couple of mins early, you don't get tickets or you miss your train.