One frosty morning I arrived at my local station to find that the ticket machine was broken.

BBC: Swiss love affair with rail turns sour

The driver drives up to a ticket machine as he or she would in a conventional car park.

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At the ticket machine, I slid in my debit card, punched up the route and chose a day return.

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Or the ticket machine at the train station or the movie theatre.

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In vain do I point to the broken ticket machine and my paid-for ticket, valid only on that day, for that journey?

BBC: Swiss love affair with rail turns sour

You know how when you use a big bill to buy a train ticket or stamps from a vending machine and unexpectedly get a handful of Susan B.

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"It is in much the same way as you book a movie ticket by phone or online these days using your credit card and then when you get there you access your ticket through an ATM-type machine, " said Will, who is chairman of the World Cup ticketing sub-committee.

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Take, for example, the young man with a ticket which must be date-stamped by a machine on the platform.

BBC: Swiss love affair with rail turns sour

America left its ticket and passport in the jacket in the bin in the X-ray machine, and is admonished.

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