I am writing this on behalf of a friend who has a severely disabled son and who is wheelchair bound. Tomorrow they are heading up to the QE in Birmingham from Worcester and are trying to sort out assisted travel. Going is not a problem since they know exactly which train they are catching to University but coming back is presenting some issues. My friend spoke to LM to try to sort assisted travel out but has hit a stumbling block. LM want to know exactly which train they are returning on but given that it is a medical appointment which might well overrun my friend cannot give them that info. They don't want to hang around University station for an hour since the son really can get cold but they feel that LM are being rather inflexible .....
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Assisted travel LM
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Llanigraham
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Is University a manned Station?
If not then they have got to get staff too it.
If not then they have got to get staff too it.
Qwerty133
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It has a ticket office 7am til 8pm according to NRE, but I have no idea if it is single manned, and if it is probably too big for the ticket office staff to deal with assistance jobs.
Urban Gateline
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It's only manned by Ticket office and Revenue staff, who will not provide ramp assistance as they are not trained on it! LM may send someone trained to the Station, so I think equally it would be unfair if the OP made the staff member wait around. Otherwise the OP can contact LM exactly when they arrive at the station, but then expect to wait until someone can attend to assist!
It may also be the case that the Conductor is happy to do the assist by themselves, so they could be approached in the first instance as they appear on the Platform.
Does that apply to all LM stations, since I have seen the ticket office staff set-up the ramp on many occasions?
In some cases you may prefer to get a particular train, since a peak times, the length of the Hereford trains can vary between 2 and 5 carriages - it's clear which would be the more preferable to use.
Urban Gateline
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No, some staff are trained in using Ramps, but this is at the smaller stations where there is only 1 Ticket office clerk. I am not 100% sure, but I believe at University the Ticket office clerks are not ramp trained.
That would make sense, since I am referring to Droitwich Spa, where there is usually only one member of staff there at a time.
When I worked in the Birmingham area 5 years ago, the ticket office staff on Cross-City line stations (and indeed other LM-managed stations within the Network West Midlands area) always used to put out the ramp at these stations for either booked or last minute assists. Where the station was unstaffed for whatever reason (at the time all NWM-area stations bar those north of Walsall or south of Shirley were staffed from first train 'til last), then the guard would do it. Of course things may have changed in this period.
LM will respond on the day, but you may have to wait for assistance, that's all. In practice, a delay is unlikely.
If you want them to guarantee assistance at a specific time then you need to let them know in advance, but if you don't, you can just leave it until the time.
If you want them to guarantee assistance at a specific time then you need to let them know in advance, but if you don't, you can just leave it until the time.
Its difficult to see why LM wouldn't provide such training though.
the sniper
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Just show up when you want to go. Explain to the clerk that you're 'booked' on a later train but you're ready to go earlier than expected. Shouldn't be a problem. Generally only ticket office folk who are on light duties can't do the ramp, but then the Conductor would do the ramp.
Going later than your booked time can be more problematic, as it can throw up issues like turning up with the staff having gone home and the lifts being out of order, meaning you can't get to the train and can't tell anyone.
It'd be interesting to know what they did in the end.
Going later than your booked time can be more problematic, as it can throw up issues like turning up with the staff having gone home and the lifts being out of order, meaning you can't get to the train and can't tell anyone.
It'd be interesting to know what they did in the end.
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Urban Gateline
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Not really, it's not something that's relevant to their Ticket Office role. At the busier stations the Ticket Office staff will be busy enough selling tickets and excess fares, let alone leaving their office unmanned to go down and help with an assistance!
My friend went to the QE and, unlike the official attitude, found the guys on the ground more than helpful. Arrived at University and it was "Let us know if there is anything we can do on the way back - change trains etc"
In fact that was precisely what happened. Arrived back from the QE and they were put on a train to Worcs SH (not Foregate - SH is MUCH easier for picking up someone in a wheelchair), the staff having phoned through to SH to arrange a ramp.
They were really pleased and grateful ...
If anyone knows the staff at University, please say "Thank you"!
In fact that was precisely what happened. Arrived back from the QE and they were put on a train to Worcs SH (not Foregate - SH is MUCH easier for picking up someone in a wheelchair), the staff having phoned through to SH to arrange a ramp.
They were really pleased and grateful ...
If anyone knows the staff at University, please say "Thank you"!
Urban Gateline
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That's excellent! You could send an e-mail of praise to LM or if you have Twitter simply tweet them, they normally feedback to staff so the staff will also be pleased to get a thank you.
If you're on Twitter, you can send them a tweet amd they can pass it on (at certain times you'd be tweeting to a member of this forum, I know at least one of the team is on here
)Not relevant but on the FGW doc last year there was one old guy looking after a station, he did everything!
I'd be surprised if it wasn't part of their job at a station like University, it certainly is at one of the LM stations I work at (the other is single manned, so you'd have to shut the ticket office to do assists and there are no ramps anyway). We're a relatively busy station, though not as busy (passenger number wise) as University and have 2 windows. Window 1 sells tickets and window 2 assists with tickets and carries out station duties, which includes booked or unbooked assistance. If window 2 has an assist to do, it gets done, regardless of how busy it is.
I'm glad to hear that your friend found the staff at University station helpful, Unixman. Generally I find we're all happy to help whether the assistance is booked or not! Or that's what I'd like to think, anyway. I certainly don't mind, it's nice to get out of the office and spend time with the passengers on occasion.
The assisted travel line just want to know times of trains so assistance can be put in place and the information can be passed to the station at the start of the day, but it's not a problem if you only book it one way, or turn up earlier/later than scheduled really.
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Its certainly something that's part of ticket office staff's role at some other TOCs. At Selby for example TPE ticket office staff will close the office for a few minutes (leaving a sign explaining why and advising customers to use the TOD machines) in order to provide assistance.
It surely both makes most sense for TOCs (by using staff on the ground much less staff time is lost than sending someone out separately) and for passengers in giving the most flexibility over when support is available. It also eliminates the risk of wasted staff time if assistance is booked but the passenger does not turn up
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