Right, let me reply to all of you! Sorry for the delay!
You're very lucky that nothing was taken further on this occasion. Your fare is due before travel where facilities are available, which they were. ATW would have had a slam dunk RoRA Prosecution after you left the barrier line.
Yes, however I had already waited rather a long time!
But you really ought to be careful. Regardless of how inadequate ATW's staffing levels are, a 15 minute delay really isn't worth the risk of getting caught ticketless by RPIs.
It wasn't in the end as I didn't miss the train, but even more so I shouldn't have had to wait another fifteen minutes due to the inadequate staffing levels at one of Wales' busiest stations. If there's any consolation I already caught the next service (was originally going to catch the 1041) as I got held up. I had a lift arranged at Penarth and my friend had her two little ones, who aren't exactly the most patient of children!
JakeF said:
I'd ask ATW what measures they have in place to ensure passengers do not have to queue longer than the times stipulated in their Passengers Charter, and what recourse their passengers have when these waiting times are exceeded.
That's a good idea actually. I may tweet them in a moment.
Although I sympathise as they really didn't do a good job of sorting ticket sales provision out during the refit. Ignoring the gateline assistant and boarding the train without a ticket could have lead to a lot of trouble.
I would have stood my ground. Somehow!
This doesn't surprise me. They treat customers for granted.
They do. It's not on.
yorkie said:
At that time, 3 minutes. But the company regularly flouts this. They claim to "audit queuing times regularly"; you could try asking them for a copy of the audit results. I suspect they will refuse to answer that too.
I'd be interested to see actually. I don't think they do regular audits to be honest.
yorkie said:
Reply to them asking for a proper response, and refer the matter to
Transport Focus.
I will do if I do not get a response (knowing my luck I'll have to wait hours for that too!).
yorkie said:
If queues are regularly longer than in ATW's
passenger charter (3 minutes off peak / 5 minutes peak), you can report the company to the regulator. If many people reported this, then the company would have to either employ more staff or allow people to buy on board. But if people do not report it, the long queues will likely continue unabated.
I shall bear this in mind whenever I am travelling by train. I will note where I am, what time of the day it is, the date and how long I have to wait. Should make interesting reading!
Unfortunately there just aren't enough windows at Queen Street.
Really it could do with another 3 TVMs inside. And 2 outside.
Absolutely. It is a ridiculous set up for the number of trains that call, the routes it serves and the passengers that use it.
This is clearly not the case though.
Most definitely. It was triple what it should have been.
It sounds as if the gateline person could have been proactive and let people buy tickets at the excess fare windows.
Indeed. He should have suggested this in the first place; not for it to take me to have to ask. He just wasn't even bothered in all honesty.
He did, to which the OP just walked off.
Only because I had to ask and by the time he agreed, I had to catch my train.
Looks like you've committed a criminal offence on this occasion by choosing not to use available ticketing facilities before joining a train. Lucky you weren't prosecuted.
It is lucky, otherwise I'd have taken it to the highest conclusion when I was not at fault for any of their cock ups!
In a metropolitan area like SE Wales there should be an SMART Card System anyway which would negate this issue - hopefully for the new franchise....
A great idea to be honest. Money could be loaded onto cards so that when you arrive at the station you can just tap through and commence your journey straight away. Exactly the same as Oyster. Could even have facilities such as auto top-up enabled.
GUIDANCE FOR RAIL TRAVELLERS:
This extract is taken from information to the public posted on the governments own website at: Direct.gov.uk
I don't agree with any of the points they make to be honest. 'Even if there is a long queue'? What if my train was every 2 hours or even just once a day? (not that it was in this case, but it's the same principle)
So a TOC can be REWARDED for their incompetence and poor service simply by refusing to staff a station adequately, or provide adequate ticketing facilities, then do a sting with RPIs and gain far more in fake fines than they would have received if they had been competent and sold everyone a ticket in time. No wonder there is no incentive to improve performance!
Agreed. I was very tempted to take it further even though in the end I wasn't delayed, but their customer services are absolutely shocking.
I agree with many of the points you are making, but the self-entitled strop you had whilst looking down your nose at the staff - sorry - 'overriding the gateline assistant's decision' probably wasn't the best way to go about it.
A lot does need to change, I completely agree, but ways and means. I know this won't be popular but I don't think the bull in a china shop approach will achieve anything.
Certainly wasn't in any of the light you're interpreting it as; no self-entitled strop or bull in a china shop approach. I simply said I'm sorry, I'm going to have to board my train and carried on. I was not rude or aggressive or stroppy at all.
At Cardiff Queen Street, which is a fairly newly redeveloped station, it is incredibly easy to retrieve CCTV footage of any incident to support action should the TOC decide to do so.
A further most useful aspect of that fact is that it will also give a clear indication who was right or wrong, of how bad the queuing and any delay actually was, so makes clear for local management what, if any, steps need to be taken to improve matters.
Indeed. Perhaps they could look back at it and they can see for themselves how long I had to wait. It would be nice if they could look back on it and perhaps even use that as feedback to improve their services; obviously we all know that won't happen!
Not to inflame the situation anymore, on seeing that Queen Street was busy and no doubt going to take a long time to get served, would it not of been easier and less stressful and confrontational to walk the short distance to central station?
Not in this case, as walking to Central would have been even longer and I was up the other end of town (i.e. Queen Street area) anyway.
Not withstanding the problems you had. Have you tried using ATW's app for buying a mobile ticket with a QR code that you can scan at the dateline?
I know about the app however on this occasion I forgot about it. Irrespective of that, it also just takes up even more memory on my phone, which I do not have much of anyway at the moment!
PaulHarding said:
This morning I traveled from Queen Street and there was a very British queue of people who'd arrived all queuing at one barrier to leave going through one by one. Some just flashed their season ticket at the guy manning the barriers who opened it for them while others manually scanned/inserted their tickets. At no point did the gate-line man encourage others to use one of the other gates.
Unfortunately sounds very typical of the staff at Queen Street to be honest.
PaulHarding said:
I'm not sure there's any space to put any more machines in the station (which has been extended to it's maximum capacity) unless some are put on the pavement outside - could that be a workable option do you think? (card only of course)
Yes, any extra facilities would be an improvement to the current layout at the moment.
Perhaps I'm cynical, having been on the railway too long, but you seem at pains to document everything here, including 'brushing your arm at the gateline attendant'. What does that mean? Did you make an offensive gesture? Come into contact with the gateline attendant? The wording is quite peculiar.
Not at all, I was close to the stairs leading up to platforms 3 and 4 by the time I had responded, I just waved my arm as if to say I cannot wait any longer. No physical violence or gestures were made at all, and that's not my nature anyway.
Bellbell said:
I think you should have been allowed through the barrier earlier to buy a ticket from the excess fares window, absolutely, but given what happened once you were allowed through, can you see how the gateline attendant might have been burnt by that arrangement before? I'm not familiar with the station but it certainly sounds like the set up is insufficient and must be very frustrating for passengers. I just get the feeling from what you've said that perhaps you overreacted, and are aware of that, once through the barriers and are therefore a touch defensive.
No, I was just annoyed by how carefree the gateline assistant was.
Whatever might have happened in the past I'm sure that the OP will have been re-educated by the experience. If he's a regular traveller through the Cardiff barrier lines he will now be better known to ATW staff.
Not being funny but I'm not that much of a regular that my face will be recognised. There is nothing for me to be re-educated about; I'll do exactly the same thing again if I have to.
Fare-Cop said:
The barrier line is covered by CCTV plus ATW revenue protection staff have clip-on cameras for video recording and the OP now knows that he could have been prosecuted, so I doubt the experience will be repeated.
As I said in a previous post above, ATW should use the CCTV footage to improve their services, not to catch me out!
