Wiktionary
n. (context travel English) A machine that prints automatically tickets after the customer determines the destination and pays for it.
Wikipedia
A ticket machine, also known as a Ticket Vending Machine (TVM), is a vending machine that produces tickets. For instance, ticket machines dispense train tickets at railway stations, transit tickets at metro stations and tram tickets at some tram stops and in some trams. The typical transaction consists of a user using the display interface to select the type and quantity of tickets and then choosing a payment method of either cash, credit/ debit card or smartcard. The ticket or tickets are printed and dispensed to the user.
To encourage usage of ticket machines and reduce the need for salespersons, machine prices may in some cases be lower than those at a ticket counter.
In many countries where trains and urban transport tickets operate largely on the honor system (with enforcement by roving inspectors or conductors), there are also machines in stations (or in vehicles) just for validating tickets. This is for the situation where one buys a ticket in advance and decides to use it later. Usually, the ticket is time-stamped to determine its validity period. A common problem is forgetting to validate and then being fined as if one had no ticket at all.
Ticket machines that are out of service or accept 'exact change only' result in losses for transport providers. Ticket machines on trams in Melbourne, for example, often run out of change when passengers use a higher ratio of $2 and 50c coins, depleting the ticket machine of smaller coin denominations (10c, 20c). Passengers do not need to buy tickets on trams when ticket machines run out of change.
Such machines are generally not used in the United States. Nearly all American mass transit networks operating on the honor system expect their users to buy tickets immediately before use; regular riders can avoid that inconvenience by buying period passes in advance (often from the same machines that sell daily or one-time tickets). Recently, however, a handful of regional rail systems like Metrolink have adopted the use of validation machines for at least some ticket types.
Ticket machines are often used in car parking, as well as those that issue free tickets — for example, those for virtual queueing.
Usage examples of "ticket machine".
Like a dickhead, I forgot to ask for a smaller bill for the subway ticket machine, so we had to stand in line for ages to get to the kiosk.
The ticket machine began to rattle and hum, generating my ticket, the boarding pass, and the credit card voucher, which I signed where specified.
By now, the restricting cushioned arms of the ticket machine had been twisted from their bearings by the immense pressure of the crowds and Mapstone was carried over one side by the bodies streaming through.
He stopped beside a ticket machine and listened, in the darkness: absolute silence.
The ticket machine gave me an argument about changing a hundred-ruble note and I had to go find a conductor.
I looked around for the ticket machine and saw it beside the door we'd come in, but when I tried to get it to spit out a number for us the machine wouldn't let me have one until we'd entered our insurance stuff and paid the deductible.