Booking advances at a station

[island]

Can I book advances at a station? (I want to use up some rail travel vouchers.) Does it have to be a station with a "tickets in advance" queue?

 

[transportphoto]

Yes and no

However if the station has a designated office / windows (for purchasing tickets in advance) use them - you'll get nowhere in the Ticket for Today queue... if those windows / office is shut you can use any window


HTH

 

[142094]

If it isn't peak time and the "Tickets for Today" window is free they'll often help out with the queue on the "Advance" tickets side of things. Some stations can be extremely picky on what queue you pick, so go to the Advance one first unless instructed by staff.

 

[penaltyfines]

To be fair I feel for the staff working in those booths, it gives them something to occupy themselves enforcing rules like what ticket you can buy in which queue!

 

[yorkie]

Can I book advances at a station? (I want to use up some rail travel vouchers.) Does it have to be a station with a "tickets in advance" queue?

I am unsure on the exact obligations regarding tickets bought in advance, however I went to Sheffield today, and noted that they have scrapped the separate advance windows, and all windows were for 'all tickets'. The queues weren't too long either, and they even issued the tickets we asked for. I wonder if they read on here that we were coming... we'll have to do a surprise visit some time.

At York station, this is quite different, and there are clearly defined separate windows, and they stop selling tickets for advance travel at 18.45 (I don't know what time Sheffield stops).

So, I guess it depends on the station.

 

[bb21]

I am unsure on the exact obligations regarding tickets bought in advance, however I went to Sheffield today, and noted that they have scrapped the separate advance windows, and all windows were for 'all tickets'. The queues weren't too long either, and they even issued the tickets we asked for. I wonder if they read on here that we were coming... we'll have to do a surprise visit some time.

There is one problem with that.

This morning at Leicester station, all windows were for all tickets and all of them occupied by people enquiring, presumably about Advances, when I arrived. There was no one else in the queue and I had to wait 4 minutes to be served. Four windows were open and it was around 7.30am.

 

[yorkie]

There is one problem with that.

This morning at Leicester station, all windows were for all tickets and all of them occupied by people enquiring, presumably about Advances, when I arrived. There was no one else in the queue and I had to wait 4 minutes to be served. Four windows were open and it was around 7.30am.

That may not be appropriate for 4 windows (were all 4 people really buying advances at 7.30am?! ) but at Sheffield there were a lot of windows open and it seemed to work well. That said, we'll be checking on them in future to ensure that the improvement is not a one-off.

 

[bb21]

That may not be appropriate for 4 windows (were all 4 people really buying advances at 7.30am?! ) but at Sheffield there were a lot of windows open and it seemed to work well. That said, we'll be checking on them in future to ensure that the improvement is not a one-off.

I would think that one dedicated window just for people travelling on the day with simpler queries would benefit all.

I highly distrust machinery.

 

[Urban Gateline]

I would think that one dedicated window just for people travelling on the day with simpler queries would benefit all.

I highly distrust machinery.

Shame you haven't seen the Q's at some SWT ticket offices, on Monday morning (around 11am) I went to Wimbledon to make an enquiry, but gave up as only ONE counter out of 6 was open, and there were at least 15 individual customers waiting in line!!!

 

[yorkie]

Shame you haven't seen the Q's at some SWT ticket offices, on Monday morning (around 11am) I went to Wimbledon to make an enquiry, but gave up as only ONE counter out of 6 was open, and there were at least 15 individual customers waiting in line!!!

You could write to SWT asking them how long they expect customers to queue. Let us know what the answer is, as if they give an answer that is greater than ATOC's expectations, a further, higher impact letter could be written...

 

[DaveNewcastle]

. . . . I highly distrust machinery.

Hmmm. I have my doubts too sometimes, but it doesn't stop me traveling and using lots of IT.

You could write to SWT asking them how long they expect customers to queue. . .

Yes, and the corresponding answers from each TOC for every station they manage would be equally useful.

 

[causton]

Shame you haven't seen the Q's at some SWT ticket offices, on Monday morning (around 11am) I went to Wimbledon to make an enquiry, but gave up as only ONE counter out of 6 was open, and there were at least 15 individual customers waiting in line!!!

I experienced similar when no ticket machines were working at Hatfield station one morning... plus all the trains were heavily delayed/cancelled. I was about to call a taxi but they were cottoning on and charging double fare due to "high demand" (meaning only 5 taxis were waiting outside instead of 10)

 

[wintonian]

Shame you haven't seen the Q's at some SWT ticket offices, on Monday morning (around 11am) I went to Wimbledon to make an enquiry, but gave up as only ONE counter out of 6 was open, and there were at least 15 individual customers waiting in line!!!

And it doesn’t help when there’s no sign and they tell you buy it at the ticket office on the other side of the station, except on Saturday mornings when there is only office open and the queue is outside of the station building unlike weekday morning peaks.

The trouble is SWT got rid of all the travel centres which had the most knowledgeable and helpful SWT staff and replaced them with retail outlets. :mad:

 

[island]

There are notices up at many SET stations saying they will not do advances before 1000, which I can reasonably sympathize with in the interest of good queue management.

 

[penaltyfines]

I experienced similar when no ticket machines were working at Hatfield station one morning... plus all the trains were heavily delayed/cancelled. I was about to call a taxi but they were cottoning on and charging double fare due to "high demand" (meaning only 5 taxis were waiting outside instead of 10)

If it's a rank they can't do that - I would've refused to pay

 

[hairyhandedfool]

IIRC, 51% of open sales points are required to be completely impartial, other sales points may be restricted sell certain tickets, but must display a notice stating what the restriction is (e.g. Advance tickets only).

 

[142094]

There are notices up at many SET stations saying they will not do advances before 1000, which I can reasonably sympathize with in the interest of good queue management.

I wonder if this is legal or not, and whether a manager has put upon him/herself to do so. Certainly would be an interesting one is someone was to challenge it.

 

[island]

IIRC, 51% of open sales points are required to be completely impartial, other sales points may be restricted sell certain tickets, but must display a notice stating what the restriction is (e.g. Advance tickets only).

51% of all of them nationwide, 51% of each TOC, or 51% at each station?

 

[DaveNewcastle]

51% of all of them nationwide, 51% of each TOC, or 51% at each station?

At each station.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

I thought it was each office rather than station but I suppose in most cases there is no difference.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

I thought it was each office rather than station but I suppose in most cases there is no difference.

You are quite correct.

 

[island]

There are notices up at many SET stations saying they will not do advances before 1000, which I can reasonably sympathize with in the interest of good queue management.

I wonder if this is legal or not, and whether a manager has put upon him/herself to do so. Certainly would be an interesting one is someone was to challenge it.

They are part of the big blue posters at the stations concerned rather than home-made notices. I assume this is something reasonably prevalent around the network rather than something that a few station managers have taken it upon themselves to do.

 

[Mike395]

Interesting, I'll have a look when Im back in Kent next week - not seen them, certainly at Ramsgate and Canterbury - but that said I very rarely use the ticket office at either, as usually the ticket I want is available on the TVM!

 

[barrykas]

I wonder if this is legal or not, and whether a manager has put upon him/herself to do so. Certainly would be an interesting one is someone was to challenge it.

Exemptions from the normal "all tickets" rules are given in Schedule 17 of the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement, and almost all of them relate to the selling of tickets requiring reservations at peak times.

Looking at the list in question, Southeastern have got exemptions for ALL of the Ticket Offices where they can issue reservations, including Cannon Street, Charing Cross and London Bridge!

Cheers,

Barry

 

[island]

I suppose that'll be because they don't issue any advances at all for their trains.

 

[barrykas]

I suppose that'll be because they don't issue any advances at all for their trains.

To expand on my previous post, the exemption in question is mostly that SET won't do reservations at most of their stations before 10am, not that they won't do them at all.

Cheers,

Barry

 

[island]

Well, I went to do the booking today, with the details all nicely typed out. Kidbrooke booking office was closed (early), Lewisham refused to do it because "I'm the only window open, time issues". London Bridge has a notice saying they only do advances until 1730 on Saturdays and when I got there it was after 1715 with a long queue. The ticket office at the back entrance to Fenchurch Street said I needed to go to the main office. The main office (which also had only one window open) happily did all the tickets for me, but the rest of the queue behind me got mightily annoyed as it took nearly 10 minutes! Plenty of commission for National Express.

Is this a violation of franchise agreements by Southeastern I wonder?

 

[transportphoto]

Well, I went to do the booking today, with the details all nicely typed out. Kidbrooke booking office was closed (early), Lewisham refused to do it because "I'm the only window open, time issues". London Bridge has a notice saying they only do advances until 1730 on Saturdays and when I got there it was after 1715 with a long queue. The ticket office at the back entrance to Fenchurch Street said I needed to go to the main office. The main office (which also had only one window open) happily did all the tickets for me, but the rest of the queue behind me got mightily annoyed as it took nearly 10 minutes! Plenty of commission for National Express.

Is this a violation of franchise agreements by Southeastern I wonder?

I dont think this is a valid excuse really - whether they are only window open or not they should sell the ticket requested, impartial retailing.

OK, I would be happy to let two people infront of me if their train was due in about 5 mins but if you request a ticket then they have to sell it - It is your choice if you hold the queue up or not.

(That last bit [in italic] is my personal opinion)

 

[142094]

What frequently annoys me is that fact that at busy times, especially at places such as Newcastle, there are at least two or three windows closed without fail. Now TOCs say this is due to more people using ticket machines etc but it still is annoying. Especially when you get staff asking people if they are in the right queue (anyone who goes to York ticket office regularly will know what [and who] I mean).