Smart Kiosks offer more ticket facilities at smaller Lincolnshire rail stations

Kiosks like this will be popping up around the county at smaller EMR stations.

The new machines, which allow customers to buy advance and walk-up tickets as a printed barcode instead of the old-fashioned orange paper tickets, will be installed at stations across Lincolnshire and the rest of EMR’s network.

The self-serve machines will issue traditional walk-up fares to customers while offering a full range of national Railcard and local discounts.

Aimed at smaller, unmanned stations where people would have to buy their tickets online in advance or from the ticket collector/guard on the train, Lincolnshire stations to benefit will include Rauceby, Metheringham and Ruskington, as well as Gainsborough Lea Road, Hykeham, Market Rasen, Saxilby, Swinderby and Wainfleet.

The new kiosks will also allow the sale of advance purchase fares for those customers who are not travelling immediately and are happy to travel with a little less flexibility.

Machines are said to be more intuitive and user-friendly making it easier to find the cheapest fares, with a touch screen and contactless card payment facilities. Customers can keep up-to-date by using the kiosk's full timetable enquiry software which provides information on their next train and any difference in cost between their chosen train and any in the next 90 minutes.

The machines are built to utilise Smart Ticketing functionality - allowing customers to buy a ticket and collect them from the machine.

Later this year the kiosks will be upgraded to allow purchased tickets to be applied directly to a Smartcard and some season ticket products.

Simon Pready, Commercial Director at East Midlands Railway, said: "We want to offer customers as much flexibility as possible when purchasing tickets and that's why the introduction of these new Smart Kiosks is great news.

"As well as other features, they offer customers a full range of eTickets and the same fare offers that they would otherwise access online.

"We hope our regional customers enjoy the benefits of using them when they are introduced across our regional network in the next few months."