Discussion

Main Board| Accommodation Wanted| Accommodation Offered
Start a new discussion on this board

Let your next career move come to you.

Closing all the ticket offices

This is just designed to rinse us isn’t it? You know when you turn up to the station expecting to pay £60 and they say ‘No you need to get a Binge drinker’s overnight return saver, that’s only £4.60 because you’re travelling after 11:00 on a Saturday’. 

Basically removing that option because you won’t know to look/check

I see it maybe, although let’s face it probably not.

The height of stinge.

Fewer than 3,000 tickets were sold at Westcombe Park’s ticket office last year.

Ooh! Ooh! Fewer than 3000! Er that’s still eight people a day buying tickets DICK WAD

‘I’m usually in favour of all things railway, but I’ve not used a ticket office for 20 years. And prices are almost always cheaper online’

this requires a level of planning and organisation I don’t possess

but when I have tried to book online (usually stood on the station concourse) the price at the ticket office was cheaper because eg there was more than one of us travelling so we can get some obscure group saver instead

More importantly, when are the government going to finally sort out ticketing so it is a simple to use and means you know you’re getting the best ticket without having to use splitting sites or trying 25 different routes and times.

Tickets aren’t always cheaper online.

I always go to the ticket office when I can because the people working there generally know what the best deal is and can proactively make suggestions.

Just another way that this country is getting a tiny bit shabbier.

the man in seat 61 names 3 stations that will end up with their ticket offices closed.  none of them are impacted by the changes.  he's scare-mongering for likes.

 

They still exist but can't remember ever seeing a machine for years/decades. 

TBH if this was really about getting staff to do other things e.g. run security patrols across several stations, report oiks getting on without tickets, it would be fair enough. Trouble is rail is a classic left/right issue where on the one hand entitled w**kers still want to collect without adapting, and on the other hand massive dickheads want to run it into the ground for ideological reasons. 

My understanding is that most ticket staff will be moved out onto the concourse with a tablet so you'll still be able to ask them and potentially buy tickets from them.

If only someone could invent an app which provided your ticket without you even having to go to a machine to collect it...

‘Is there any kind of innovation that generates efficiencies that people aged >45yrs agree with?‘

well I’m not >45 but this is just ‘rinsing the public’ rather than ‘generating efficiencies’

broadly I think closing ticket offices is sensible given that tickets can easily be bought online or from machines BUT as the man in seat 61 points out various things (getting certain kinds of railcards, refunds etc) can't be done online and until they can a reasonable number of ticket offices should be kept open; also they are proposing quite significant changes to ticketing processes which should bed down first; and finally there are quite a few issues relating to accessibility and security which don't seem to have been fully thought through

Oh get over it Fence I'll be glad to see these thousands of redundancies, with some sadness that the staff will be 'good leavers' for their glorious pension schemes.  Hopefully the ticket offices can be repurposed in to small offices for fledgling businesses 

The mad thing is, tickets are not only dispensed by the offices, but they give you journey planning advice. No end of times I have planned a journey on the app, and it shows no issues. You get to the station and find there are delays and cancellations, the ticket office have been useful in seeking advice, regarding alternatives.

And what of tourists, what will they do

As above most ticket staff will now be on the concourse with a tablet so you can still ask them.

It's also depends how soon before your journey that you're looking at the app...

My nephew is autistic.  He has difficulties dealing with machines.  He gets frustrated.

His disability is not visible to most.  

Which is why ticket offices are important to him.  The staff are always helpful.  They listen to him.  Machines don't.

i see this as a prelude to removing station staff

if you are a wheelchair user or disabled then that leaves you completely fooked as no one will get out the ramp for you

they will ask for it to be specially booked but what will happen is that Jimmy or someone will forget to pass it on

whereas currently at stations where there are staff on duty, they will help out

Doing away with ticket offices would make sense if there was contactless tap-in, tap-out like TfL across the whole of the system that work out the cheapest price. But for that to work you’d need to have reasonable ticket prices (and people manning ticket barriers). 

What old grumpy and Jamiestone said. If you believe that the same number of staff will be on duty at the station in 5 years time you are an idiot. 

We need to move to having MORE real humans present and working on public transport and in public infrastructure, not less. These are the exactly the sorts of jobs that can replace those lost to AI and automation elsewhere. 

I just got back from a local bank. Not been in it since the pandemic. FOUR local ones have shut but this one was just a 10 minute drive. There was a very nice lady dealing with my issue - took me back to the old days of more interaction including at railway station offices.

My son's autistic and he wouldn't be able to deal with talking to a person. Horses for courses. Like all these things, there is fook all change management. They just do it and have zero regard to the victims. They could have phased out cheques 20 years ago if it wasn't just "this is happening" and then the backlash. 

The problem with trains is we are at a turning point where they could become completely irrelevant. Something needs to happen, and if this was a meaningful step I'd be all for it. Imagine if it was Denmark or the Netherlands - the works council would work hand in glove with the rail operator to get the best solution for everyone. Instead some quick-witted union dickhead and some chinless born to rule Tory khunts fook the system for everyone. 

Banaman - I hear you.  I have listened to the unions and I have listened to the Tory khunts.  I really wish I could sit somewhere in between. I used to.

Unfortunately, the middle space is so grey, I don't recognise it any more.

I tried the ticket office last week as the machine wasn't playing ball on how to buy a child ticket. TIcket office guy very helpfully came out of the ticket office and operated the machine for me.

(ticket office guy always has cheaper options up his sleeve, esp when travelling with kids - they always seem to know a way of getting the child a £1 travelcard when the machine wants £17)

Booking long-distance trips online is a fcuking nightmare nowadays, as it redirects you to individual companies, which invariably say "fare not available" or "sold out".

I have now read the thread and agree 100% with the OP. Our local ticket office has been shortlisted for closure. It's very sad. The station master only opens in the mornings now, but he's always there early, watering the plants etc. 

I feel a bout of Slow Train by Flanders & Swann coming on. 

The ticket machines are genuinely awful. Designed by either a fraudster or idiot, their USP is to confuse the poor public.

I always queue to see a human clerk rather than use them.

 

this is driven by the train companies not bidding for the franchises, instead of cutting the franchise fee they have asked the government to get rid of ticket offices, because ticket offices help people get the cheapest ticket instead of getting scammed. 

it's a terrible policy driven by the DFT being shit and bending over to let business fcuk the train companies

It’s all driven, btw, by the ideological fallacy that rail has to make a profit, or even break even.

er, why does it? Does street lighting make a profit? Does the maintenance of a military (not that we really bother with that any more) make a profit ?

Ticket machines are ok, but buying online is an absolute PITA nowadays. 90% of the time it will say "no fares available", especially on National Rail. Trainline is slightly better. 

Ticket machines are fúcking dreadful. 

 

And since my OP lauding online tickets I’ve noticed a sharp drop in lack of availability. Couldn’t buy one the other week on cross country for a route, day and time when I know for a fact they’re always half empty. Somebody clearly is pissing it about on purpose.

I would put an onus on more transparent and simple pricing (in line with consumer protection across a range of other industries) it shouldnt be the case that the streetwise and saavy can get great deals at the expense of the old and vulnerable in what is essentially a monopolistic utility.

So long as the machine spits out the same best price to everyone, the need for a ticket office disappears. 

Saver or  Supersaver?

Peak or Off-Peak?

Day Return or Open Return?

Which one of 15 discount Cards?

Via London or not?

First or Standard class?

Reserved seat or not?

NO ONE FECKIN KNOWS….🤪

I used to find some tickets were cheaper if you got a ticket to somewhere different and broke your journey on the way. The ticket guy would tell you how to do it. The gates are probably open anyway. The geezer. Then the enforcement chap would come along and tell you you're not allowed to do that. It's a tenner if they catch you. How much is a penalty fare these days?     

Join the discussion

Login Register