Simple solution to this problem, as I do already.
Buy the tickets from a train operators website, this can be done at your leisure and ALL the discounts are available. You can then collect the tickets from the ticket machine at your local station or have them sent by post.

John N, Warminster, UK

Are people really saying that we are less bright and adept than other nationalities that have managed to buy rail tickets from machines, without human help, for years now? They'll be asking for a flag to be carried in front of the trains next.

Paul Ainsworth, Leeds, UK

Will rail passengers ever be satisfied? Their travel is being subsidised by the taxpayer and they have no tax to pay. I receive no subisidy on my car journey to work and pay tax. The train companies owe it to the taxpayer to provide an efficent service, and passengers should accept automation.

Neil Hardy, Crawley, Sussex,

BR was such a disaster because the Tories ran it into the ground on a shoestring budget after closing many lines.

With proper investment, this country could have (and deserves) a good public railway network that serves the interests of passengers and not big business.

Henry Withers, Tunbridge Wells,

I tried using the machines at my local station as I was in a hurry. It took so long I missed my train and ended up buying the ticket at the counter anyway. The machine would not take my card nor would it sell the ticket I wanted. No, machines are not a good idea!

Hang on, I could go by car!

Roger, Didcot, England

I still haven't managed to work out how to get a single child fare out of the machines when collecting my grandson from school. If the ticket office is closed I just take the chance of not being caught.

Lin, London, UK

British Rail was a disaster.

Therefore nationalisation of the railways will be a distaster, right? Wrong.

Other countries seem to run an efficient nationalised rail service. Take essential infrastructure out of the hands of for profit companies and start providing a decent affordable service

Joe, Northwood, UK

how hard can it possibly be to buy a ticket from a machine? im going from a-b via c these are the tickets i will need. dead hard!
surely a bit of confusion, is better than splurging money at ticket offices that get 3 people using them every day.

will, grimsby, uk

patrick devlin, the government has tried to run the rail system, from 1945, to 199(odd) and it was an abject failure. within a few years of nationalisation BR began losing money and led to us having a second age of steam rather than modernisation.
why should the tax payer subsidise travel?

will, grimsby, uk

I went to Blackpool last year and, by booking online, found that it was cheaper to travel first class: 1st: £47.50; 2nd: £58.50. Would a ticket machine be able to make that kind of distinction, and if there were a queue, would you be able to take the time to do it? I don't think so!

Gavin Nicol, Glasgow, Scotland

In my opinion, even during past summer with prohibitive petrol prices, it was cheaper to drive from A to B in a hummer or any gas guzzler than to take a train... even for a single car occupant journey. However, parking spaces and fares are another national issue, making it a viscious circle >-(

Daniel, Weybridge, Surrey

I do remember British Rail - I remember my wife nearly missing a plane because of industrial action. BR was a shambles. What needs to be done now is to have a reasonable ticket pricing structure. Like the planes - book early get discounts.

Ian Burgess, Bristol,

it just goes to prove that private companies will sink as low as they can to grub a little more money, just doing it right means nothing to their nasty little minds nor service either

peter c, Devizes, Wessex

I can get large discounts on long distance trains because of my London Transport gold card, but that is not an option on the machines I have tried. Also, I just travelled to Wales1st class; the ticket seller told me I could buy a £10 upgrade on the train, the machine would just charge me £60 extra.

Neil Stoker, London,

"So in this age where you can purchase airline tickets on-line and print your own boarding pass from your own computer, why cannot the rail companies also allow this."
They do. I always buy my tickets online. I get all tickets alongside cost and irrespective of service provider.

Richard, london, England

Surely the problem isn't with the machines but with the ridiculous number of different fares, ticket types and prices that can be used to travel between the same two points. The present myriad of schemes is confusing and seems designed to catch out (and make more money from) the hapless traveller.

Chris K, Cheltenham, UK

The exact validity should be displayed on the ticket, rather than meaningless references to terms and conditions which are themselves meaningless. Once this is in place, people might have more confidence in machine-generated tickets.

Austin, London,

Something needs to be done, but be careful what you wish for. Those of us who are old enough remember the dire nationalised British Rail - hugely subsidised by non-rail-users' taxes - and the ruthless power of the unions, regularly and viciously exercised at the travelling public's expense.

Martin, London,

Is it cynical to even begin to suggest that in the cost-benefit analysis carried out by SWT and others on these closures, that they included a % of customers who would end up buying unnecessarily expensive tickets from the machines for fear of fines?

SeNI, London,

Bill from Ely makes a good point about privatisation, mono-assets like rail and the utilities (except BT) there is no competition and they charge whatever they want for an increasing inferior service.

Bruce, Four Ashes, UK

Prices of Rail tickrets in the UK are a scandal.Foreigners from all over the world cannot believe how expensive it is to travel by rail.
Privatisation iis meant to mean competition but the model used by the railways is just an other form of protected monopoly and open to abuse by the rail companies who ignore the protests because they know they can.

Paul Eadie, oswestry, UK

To Bill of Ely:

You can't pin this on Mrs Thatcher. The sell-off happened on John Major's watch. He objected to its complexity, preferring a return to regional railway companies. The scheme was drawn up in the Treasury by Sir Steven Robson, aided and abetted by Norman Lamont and John McGregor.

William Stanier, Northampton,

So in this age where you can purchase airline tickets on-line and print your own boarding pass from your own computer, why cannot the rail companies also allow this.

Laurie, Dover, Kent

If the ticket structure is simple, machines are fine. I often use machines on dutch railways - there are just two classes of tickets, (cheap and standard) - so the machines are easy to use and i get the right ticket.

The main problem is the inherent resistance to change in people.

Andrew, Cambridge,

A Ticket clerk can issue a ticket that is valid from another station ie at a zone boundary ,at present I have to go to kings cross to get a ticket from boundary to luton .If you are over 60 and on a freedom pass and a railcard these things matter.

g p edlin, london , uk

Now you see the result of Thatcher's privatisation. No real service to the public and ever increasing prices for the benefit of the shareholders. Likewise with the energy companies
Private doesnt mean better except for bosses and shareholders

bill, ely,

Remember British Rail? We grumbled about it at the time but how wonderful it was by comparison with today's over-priced, unaffordable, unreliable and frankly shambolic rail network.

Anthony Edwards, Selby,

It's alright - petrol is falling so driving is getting even more attractive.

C Jones, London,

Just put a few extra inspectors on trains and let passengers pay when you get on the train.

Paul Smith, geneva,

My local station machine will not issue off peak tickets until after the first qualifying train has departed! Why- because it is programmed centrally. Answer- but a permit to travel and face a long queue at your first suitable interchange.

William, London,

I am so sick and tired of rail companies every single year with huge above inflation increases yet no improvement in service, constant cost cutting and delays on the west coast main line became nothing but expected for me almost weekly.

Frankly they should all be scrapped, get rid of them.

Ashley McDonald, Bolton, Lancs

Seems to me that in this computer age that it shouldn't be too difficult for a machine to be programmed to provide the cheapest available ticket for a selected journey based on inputting departure point, destination, travel dates and times.

Graham, Pattaya, Thailand

Another chapter in the great railway scam. How will tourists and occassional visitors cope? Not everyone is a regular train user. The biggest problem is the deliberately confusing range of tickets on offer. Re-nationalise the whole system for the benefit of the populace.

robert, hartlepool, cleveland

Why should either the taxpayer or regular users have to pay for superfluous staff so that when great aunt Mildred takes her one annual train ride, she can twitter at a booking clerk for half and hour? How many regular train users cannot use a ticket machine?

Gary, Nottingham, UK

My experience is that the machines anre confusing and sometimes the advice at stations is wrong also leading to too much being charged. The Government should run the rail system for the public benefit, much like TfL does inLondon, and remeber it is a service and not a profit generator per se.

Patrick Devlin, Taipei, Taiwan