Ticket office closures

Originally Posted by nomadking

Tedious that people are constantly giving the false impression that each and every rail station if going to be completely unmanned 24/7.
The Rail Delivery Group will be the ones that know the levels and times of demand for anything.

And I am sure they will be completely customer-focused in their outcomes…

[ianch99]

Originally Posted by Rillington

Im not entirely sure this is the case here bearing in mind that more than 600,000 responded to the consultation.

And you think that this number of people, whatever they said, will change the outcome in a material way? They might but I doubt it.

The only way to stop this happening is to change to a society that puts people ahead of shareholder profits. This means that ... Seph, look away now .. we should never vote the Conservative Party into power ever again.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by ianch99

And you think that this number of people, whatever they said, will change the outcome in a material way? They might but I doubt it.

The only way to stop this happening is to change to a society that puts people ahead of shareholder profits. This means that ... Seph, look away now .. we should never vote the Conservative Party into power ever again.

I don’t recollect things being hunky dory when it was nationalised.

It’s nothing to do with ‘shareholder profits’. More like part of the modernisation programme that will deliver that stash of cash to RMT members when the current railway disputes are finally over.

---------- Post added at 15:36 ---------- Previous post was at 15:34 ----------

Originally Posted by Hugh

And I am sure they will be completely customer-focused in their outcomes…

Are they now?

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Are they now?

No, they don't get enough freedom to be that way at the moment.

[Itshim]

Originally Posted by spiderplant

It is a little bizarre. You don't go to a ticket office to buy a bus or plane ticket - why should you for a train?

Good point

Originally Posted by spiderplant

It is a little bizarre. You don't go to a ticket office to buy a bus or plane ticket - why should you for a train?

Originally Posted by Itshim

Good point

It’s not that good …

Originally Posted by Chris

Unless you’re boarding a driverless bus, every vehicle has a staffed ticket office. I used that ticket office to get into town only yesterday, because the ticketing options offered by both companies serving the route are so opaque it’s just quicker to ask the driver, and there is no cost-effective ‘any operator’ ticket for a simple return journey.

It’s also pretty much impossible to remove humans from the process of checking in for a flight because checked baggage has to go somewhere, so there will always have to be someone staffing check-in and taking money, even if only excess baggage charges.

Which pretty well illustrates the point - the systems require humans to make them work safely and effectively, and always will, no matter how seamless online ticketing becomes (and it is far from seamless on the railways). Even on the Glasgow subway there are an insane number of ticket options for a service that just goes round and round in circles through a mere 15 stops. You really do have to sit down with your calendar and a calculator to work out which one is more cost effective.

I visited a staffed ticket office at one of those 15 stops yesterday and had a nice chat with the man there in order to work out what to buy for our new student. It turns out you can charge up a Young Scot ID card with subway credit to spend on a per-journey basis, but you can’t charge it up with a season ticket, for which you either purchase a plastic card from the ticket man, or else go online and set up an account and get a free one with your photo on it - which clearly costs them more, so they are obviously very keen to push people online. One you have your subway photocard you can buy a weekly, monthly, six monthly or annual travel pass at the ticket office by presenting the card to charge it up … but if you want a 10-week season ticket (most useful to students) then oh, no, he can’t sell you that one, that’s online only. The whole thing is nuts, and while the pricing and incentives are obviously designed to push you to transact online, they are so opaque that perversely they also increase the likelihood that you’re going to want to actually ask a human employee for advice at some point.

[Pierre]

As I’ve said earlier. I don’t know what magical part of the country we’re talking about where these ticket offices exist.

But up here in West Yorkshire (apart from Leeds and possibly a handful of other stations I don’t know about) there hasn’t been a ticket office for well over a decade, probably two.

As long as there is a guard on the train (and in that argument I am on the side of the Rail unions) then you don’t need ticket offices.

Originally Posted by Pierre

As I’ve said earlier. I don’t know what magical part of the country we’re talking about where these ticket offices exist.

But up here in West Yorkshire (apart from Leeds and possibly a handful of other stations I don’t know about) there hasn’t been a ticket office for well over a decade, probably two.

As long as there is a guard on the train (and in that argument I am on the side of the Rail unions) then you don’t need ticket offices.

Here are the proposed closures in West Yorkshire

Bingley
Bradford Forster Square
Cross Gates
Garforth
Guiseley
Halifax
Hebden Bridge
Horsforth
Ilkley
Keighley
Leeds Travel Centre
Menston
New Pudsey
Shipley
Todmorden
Wakefield Westgate

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/...fices-27272127

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Here are the proposed closures in West Yorkshire

Bingley
Bradford Forster Square
Cross Gates
Garforth
Guiseley
Halifax
Hebden Bridge
Horsforth
Ilkley
Keighley
Leeds Travel Centre
Menston
New Pudsey
Shipley
Todmorden
Wakefield Westgate

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/...fices-27272127

Useful, thank you.

Well, a sensible person would say. Keep Bradford & Wakefield. (& Leeds if that is actually Leeds Train Station)

None of those other stations need ticket offices, as long as the trains have guards.

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by Pierre

Useful, thank you.

Well, a sensible person would say. Keep Bradford & Wakefield. (& Leeds if that is actually Leeds Train Station)

None of those other stations need ticket offices, as long as the trains have guards.

Didn't they want to get rid of guards too? Maybe also dispense with passengers, they make trains look scruffy and slow things down.

Originally Posted by Pierre

Useful, thank you.

Well, a sensible person would say. Keep Bradford & Wakefield. (& Leeds if that is actually Leeds Train Station)

None of those other stations need ticket offices, as long as the trains have guards.

What would the guards do, beside issue a fine if the passenger doesn’t have a ticket?

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Mr K

Didn't they want to get rid of guards too? Maybe also dispense with passengers, they make trains look scruffy and slow things down.

They did, but as I have attested to in my recent posts on the subject I am against that and support guards on trains.

They can’t have it both ways, either have staff at every station……..no chance.


Or have a person + Driver, on every train. That has to be the model.

With major stations with offices.

---------- Post added at 22:12 ---------- Previous post was at 22:10 ----------

Originally Posted by Hugh

What would the guards do, beside issue a fine if the passenger doesn’t have a ticket?

Help disabled people

Issue a ticket. Every train I got to Leeds I bought my ticket on the train from the guard.

General safety

I’m sure I could list more, but those three are reason enough.


Also, that very statement says to me, that you have not used a train on the regional network for a long time, if ever.

Otherwise, you wouldn’t have made that statement.

[1701-e]

And the Rail Delivery Group have done such a sterling job up to now #sarcasm

[ianch99]

I believe that all the Hampshire railway ticket offices are set to close under these proposals by South Western Railway (SWR). They claim to mitigate this by:

Instead of a ticket office, there will be a team of staff in each station to help customers from journey planning to ticket purchasing.

I would hazard a guess that over time, these staff would be cut to a point where the major stations would join the minor ones having no staff for most/all of the time.

You know there are still enough people in this country who are dumb enough to vote for the party that underwrites this. Welcome to Broken Britain but don't arrive by train

I think you guess correctly - closing the ticket office but retaining staff to help with ticket purchasing only really makes sense if the idea is to teach people to rely on ticket machines, and online purchasing and timetables. And once they think the traveling public has been sufficiently educated they will withdraw those staff too.