Late May 2018 - purchasing train tickets in Nice for trips to Cannes or Morocco. At the automated ticket machines, if you select "English" as the language, the actual ticket selections remain in French. Choosing the incorrect ticket is a 35 euro fine. Local agents are no help. Best to use the ticket office - which is a shame as it limits spontaneity. An appeal to a fine has remained unanswered.
Posted by
Paris
10193 posts
What happened exactly? This is a bit cryptic.
Posted by
Portland, Maine
2916 posts
Kim, I had the same reaction.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Was staying in Nice May 17 to 21, 2018. Wanted to travel to Monaco to tour for the day. Used the blue automated ticket vending machines in the train station lobby. Selected "English" as the language to use during the transaction, as I had done days prior in Belgium, Germany and Italy (with no problems). However, on the ticket selection screen (where one selects which ticket to purchase), the page heading was in English (from a photo: "Which price would you like?"), but all the ticket options were in French only. There were six (6) different fare categories and eleven (11) total choices. None of the categories or choices were in English. I chose one of the first two options that did not include the word "Enfant" (which I assumed meant "infant" or "child"), instead selecting "Cartes ZOU! Etudes". I now know "Etudes" means student; and received a 35 euro fine.
I explained the confusion to the person issuing the ticket and his manager trackside. When I received the fine anyway, I requested information on how to appeal, thanked them for directing me to the station manager, and wished them a friendly "good day" (I use to work in the airline industry and know nothing gets solved through being ugly; plus, they didn't program the machines). I immediately appealed, but to this date, I have had no response.
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
I am not excusing this, but part of the problem in translating this (machines or websites) is how far do you translate names of products.
I am sure if you switched to French on a London Transport machine, it would still say "Oyster" and not "carte Huître". Either you know what an Oyster card is (or a Cartes ZOU!), or you would need a full page of text to explain it and how to decide if this is the option for you. You can over-translate, do you know where the "Elysian Fields" or the "star triumphal arch" are in Paris? I have seen both in guide books.
I searched for "Carte ZOU", it is a discount card only available to students and school children.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
It is true a smart phone does have translation apps, and local references can add a degree of confusion. However, after you have stood in a long line to get to the ticket machine, and have a long line cueing up behind you, pulling out ones smart phone to start typing into a translation app is likely to cause some consternation among your fellow travelers. Also, this only happened in France, and was not a problem with any other of the countries we visited.
Ultimately, this is simply a case where the programmers of the SNCF ticket machines did not link their networked ticketing software to the proper display settings. It CAN happen anywhere; but WAS happening in the south of France (at least as of late-May 2018). Just be careful and research your ticket type in advance.