Ticket machine

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A ticket machine is a vending machine that sells tickets. For instance, ticket machines dispense train tickets at railway stations and tram tickets at some tram stops and in some trams. Some places have begun using ticket machines as replacements for parking meters.

To encourage usage of ticket machines and reduce the need for human salespersons, machine prices may in some cases be lower than a purchase at a ticket counter.

In many countries where trains and tram tickets operate largely on the honor system (with enforcement by roving inspectors or conductors), there are also machines in stations just for validating tickets. This is for the situation where one buys a ticket valid for one day as yet undetermined, and then decides to use it on a particular day. For that purpose, one has the day stamped by the machine on the ticket. A common problem is forgetting to validate and then being fined as if one had no ticket at all.

Ticket machines that are out of service or accept 'exact change only' result in losses for transport providers. Ticket machines on trams in Melbourne, for example, often run out of change when passengers use a higher ratio of two dollar and fifty cent coins, depleting the ticket machine of smaller coin denominations (10c, 20c). Passengers do not need to buy tickets on trams when ticket machines run out of change.

Such machines are generally not used in the United States. Nearly all American mass transit networks operating on the honor system expect their users to buy tickets immediately before use; regular riders can avoid that inconvenience by buying monthly passes in advance (often from the same machines that sell daily or one-time tickets). However, a handful of regional rail systems like Caltrain have adopted the use of validation machines for at least some ticket types.

There are also machines that issue free tickets — for example, those for virtual queueing.