In message , at 18:15:52 on Sat, 4 Jan 2014,
" remarked:
It could be that some of them are conditioned by the near impossibility
of using ticket machines at stations in France (and for that matter in
the Netherlands) if you are a non-native.

I find that surprising as I would assume that TVMs in both countries
would be multi-lingual.

It's not so much a language problem as needing local coinage or a local
cash-card (and I don't mean a local VISA/Barclaycard). Eventually things
tend to get better (but sometimes revert like accepting notes and then
stopping it again) although local equivalents of Oyster will often have
a steep learning curve.
--
Roland Perry