still use heat-sensitive tickets without ATC, requiring one ticket examiner per fare control. Examiners punch and collect non-magnetic tickets, provide customer information and assistance, troubleshoot AFC malfunctions (e.g. mutilated tickets), and return cancelled (stamped) tickets to passengers requiring proof-of-travel for expense claims. TRA volunteers (with yellow vest) staff some gates. Volunteers, like America's auxiliary police and volunteer firefighters, include carefully selected and specifically trained members of the public, and retired industry personnel. They assist passengers, sometimes exercising Japanese or English language skills, and report turnstile jumpers and AFC malfunctions to employees. Station management has considerable latitude in determining work scope of volunteers. Ticketing processes Most TRA stations feature staffed ticket offices, supplemented by ticket vending machines (TVMs) at busy locations. Unreserved single or day-return tickets must be purchased on the day of travel (to prevent ticket reuse), leading to ticket queues at peak commuter periods. Passengers purchasing advance tickets can delay entire queues, causing imminent train departures to be missed. To maximize passenger throughput, separate ticket windows provide train information, today's tickets, and advance or commutation tickets. Some daily ticket windows only accept cash, further decreasing transaction times. Ticket windows at busy stations can be dynamically switched between different functions, minimizing daily ticket queues. Fare vending machines Early machines designed primarily for commuters are essentially receipt printers, accepting only coins (no bills) and prepaid magnetic TransitChek-like cards – not credit cards. Passengers must first insert coins (amount deposited is displayed), then press numerous lighted buttons sequentially to specify traveller count, train class, single/return/concessionary, and destination. Buttons light up only when adequate coins are inserted. TVMs sell only unreserved single/round-trips to local destinations (<50 miles) from the current station. Earlier button presses constrain subsequent choices: destinations for which insufficient fares were paid (in selected train class) do not activate and have no effect. This machine's target audience is regular travellers who already know required fares. Passenger experiences for first-time customers can be confusing, but once customers learn this TVM, unreserved day ticket transactions are processed much faster than on typical full-feature machines. Machines need only electricity (not network connections) and staff to replace ticket stock, remove coins, and clear jams. Like soda machines, they are robust, self-contained, and have been deployed to remote locations. Long distance TVMs selling advance-purchase, reserved-seating, and prepaid internet/phone tickets were developed later. These more complex machines, functionally similar to Amtrak's Quik-Trak, are available at principal West