Is there a specified maximum time ...

[dcbwhaley]

, when the ticket office is open, you are required to wait before you can claim that you were unable to to buy a ticket prior to the start of your journey? Or are you expected to wait for as long as it takes to clear the queue even if that means missing two trains?

And, as a supplementary, does the ticket clerk have the authority to tell you that you may purchase a ticket on the train because he is too busy to sell you one.

 

[maniacmartin]

There is no specific time you must allow to queue at the ticket office, but many Train Operating Companies have a target maximum wait time specified in their passenger charters, available on their websites. This is a target though, and not a hard and fast rule, so you don't automatically have the right to just jump on the train if the queue doesn't move fast enough.

As far as I know, the ticket clerk has the authority to tell you to just board and purchase the ticket at the next available opportunity, however you might have trouble proving any verbal interactions to any staff you encounter later on.

 

[Qwerty133]

There is no maximum time that you have to wait and presumably any station at which it would be conceivable for 2 trains to be missed while queuing has a very frequent service as if any TOC regularly had queues of over 15 minutes they would be doing something about it.

 

[dcbwhaley]

There is no maximum time that you have to wait and presumably any station at which it would be conceivable for 2 trains to be missed while queuing has a very frequent service as if any TOC regularly had queues of over 15 minutes they would be doing something about it.

Doesn't have to be frequent and what has the ToC got to gain by "doing something about it" other than issuing penalties to people who have urgent appointments and can't wait while the ticket clerk spend fifteen minutes sorting out some old dear's February journey.

Of course, ideally the clerk would ask her to wait until the train had gone but, like supermarkets with unpriced items, there does not seem to be any way of putting a query on hold.