CalMac admit ticketing issues

An email submitted to Gazette claimed that the new ticketing system does not work and the ticket scanner machine has not functioned well enough, so staff abandoned the scanner during peak times, as it slowed check in times so much.

The sender also reported that the company’s ‘Print At Home’ ticket system is flawed and open to manipulation.

But, a CalMac spokesperson insists the technology continues to improve and they remain open to all customer feedback.

They said: As with any new technology system being introduced teething problems are to be expected and we have had some issues in Stornoway relating to the reliability of the broadband infrastructure and the ability of ticket scanners to operate 100%.

“However, we are working on resolving these and the port continues to scan tickets as was intended.

“As part of improvements to our ticketing system and in response to customer feedback, passengers can now print multiple tickets on one page significantly cutting down on paper use, we have also taken colour off the tickets to further reduce environmental impact.

“This has been successfully piloted at Stornoway and will now be rolled out to other ports across the network.

“We will continue to explore options for moving to a completely paperless ticket system as technology allows.”