This is just a way of shipping more profits overseas to the franchise owners.
It won’t make fares cheaper at all.
I travel reasonably frequently by train and bought a London-Liverpool return from the machine at Euston with Avanti
The machine wouldn’t process a seat reservation so I went to the ticketing counter where, as well as doing the seat reservation, the lady realised there were cheaper tickets and sorted those out with a £75ish saving each way.
Not sure if you read my last posting on this thread but I did refer to the comments made by Sir Michael Holden.
What some people do not realise is that the ticket office closures are being proposed by the government and not by the TOCs (the train operators).
Having spent many billions on the rail network during the pandemic our government is anxious to make economies and regular rail disruption is not helping matters.
As regards the train firms it must be noted that many are now in public ownership. Examples include: LNER, Northern, TPE, TfW, SE Trains, Scotrail and Caledonian Sleeper. (The latter two have been taken over by the Scottish government while TfW is run by the Welsh government).
Chief exceptions being Avanti, XCountry and GWR.
One final point is that, open access firms excepted, all fares revenue now goes to the government.
In other words these train operators are now paid a management fee to operate their services.
It’s been this way since ’emergency measures’ too effect at the start of the pandemic.
As a foreigner, I bought my August “Southern” tickets online and have been told to pick up the tickets at a kiosk. Fine.
However they advise I must use a recognized British credit card, OR pick up the tickets at the office.
I’m hoping there is no queue at Victoria as we are connecting from across London!
