IT Outage: Train ticket machines by South Western Railway broken across all Portsmouth and Hampshire stations

Dispensers operated by South Western Railway (SWR) are all malfunctioning this morning due to an IT problem. This affects all Portsmouth stations and those in Fareham, Portchester, Havant and elsewhere.

SWR issued a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Due to IT issues across the South Western Railway network all ticket vending machines are currently non operational,” they said.

“Please purchase your ticket online, on the train or speak to a member of station staff. We apologise for the inconvenience this causes.” Disgruntled customers issued responses stating why ticket offices should never be axed.

The previous government issued a bill which would scrap all sites, but pressure from the public caused a U-turn. One X user said: “Another reason you need a human to serve you.” Another added: “Another reason why ticket offices should never go.”

Southern Rail is also reporting IT issues. They said: “We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network. Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem. We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks. Additionally, other key systems, including our real-time customer information platforms, are also affected.”