How does reduced ticket office opening hours protect staff and customers?

[FQTV]

Diversify to save money. Most will have access to Apps or credit/debit cards to pay for tickets. I would imagine most ticket offices around the country barely see anyone throughout the day, especially at less busy stations, so productivity must be minimal, yet many ticket office duties are kept separate from other station duties. Ticket Offices are very often not open 24/7, whereas railway is pretty much 24/7.
Why doesn't the railway look to Travel Agents to sell tickets for those less able to use TVM's or Smartphones.
It's time for the railway to become more innovative and modern. Times have changed. It's not much different to the Airline industry that has adapted and costs kept low.

I’ve had to wait to buy a ticket at Kyle while the lady running the office refilled the water tank of the Class 158 sitting outside.

 

[SECR263]

I used Southall on a once a week basis it has no gates. It is was noticeble that it had many more tickets team checks than other stations I used pre covid pointing to above average ticket less travel or fraud.

 

[david1212]

Traditional ticket office staff ought to be relatively safe from customers. First where open plan rather than perspex screens before March I would have thought screens would have been put in place. Further not really close contact and only for a short time. Where multiple staff at the best of times not all positions are open. Now it should be in most cases possible to separate staff by not using adjacent positions. Where ticket offices are closed but roving staff sell tickets then potentially a greater risk. The only protection from reduced hours might be medium / long term retaining some jobs.

As to ' Are ticket offices necessary ' simply Yes. TVM's are slower, can not sell a full range of tickets e.g. all steps of a split fare or give advice about validity etc. Various other threads cover this.

 

[ComUtoR]

Also because cash is disgusting. You can clean TVMs and touch in points etc. and that's proving to be effective. Reducing the number of times you need to interract with staff and reducing the places where people congregate is a positive step in reducing infection.

 

[mrd269697]

I’m a retailer at a station. I’m shocked how many people here are quite happy to see even more stations destaffed. Luckily in my part of the world every station is staffed from start to end of service. Becoming modern doesn’t mean laying off loads of staff. People often want to see a familiar face at the station. There’s also people who need directions, enquiries, assistance onto a train, advance ticket purchasing, rail cards, passes, privs ect. Ticket officers/retailers are important. I oppose the gradual de staffing of stations across the network. It’s sad to see really.

 

[The Quincunx]

West Ealing has also had its hours cut, but there is usually someone on hand in the (tiny) booking hall to give you advice. I am not sure if they can sell you a ticket, though, and the station is thoroughly unaccessible.

 

[Horizon22]

Do ticket offices have a part to play on the railway? Definitely. Is it likely to be the same as it has been? Definitely not. Could we expand their duties to include other station tasks? Definitely.

Places like Southall will have a significant usage of contactless / Oyster and I imagine the ticket sales are low. Adjusted hours could work fine by looking at ticket data.

 

[TUC]

But more people will come when te ticket office is open, once they know about the reduced opening hours. OK, some won't, but the reduction in number of people interacted with is not going to be anything like 50%.

And ticket offices normally have perspex screens anyway, so there is very little risk.

This sounds like just an excuse for cutting hours.

Surely most people, unless they're buying a ticket in advance (and many of those will buy online), will only go to the station at the time of their train? Many of these will use TVMs, whether the ticket office is open or closed, and the rest will use a ticket office if it is open. The question of what hours a ticket office is open is pretty irrelevant to when most passengers buy a ticket.

 

[FQTV]

I’m a retailer at a station. I’m shocked how many people here are quite happy to see even more stations destaffed. Luckily in my part of the world every station is staffed from start to end of service. Becoming modern doesn’t mean laying off loads of staff. People often want to see a familiar face at the station. There’s also people who need directions, enquiries, assistance onto a train, advance ticket purchasing, rail cards, passes, privs ect. Ticket officers/retailers are important. I oppose the gradual de staffing of stations across the network. It’s sad to see really.

I suspect that lots of people don’t realise how much folks who work in all kinds of retail spend a great deal of time helping with, advising on and sorting out all sorts of weird and wonderful problems - many of which are only obliquely relevant to their principal job role.

In the case of a station ticket office, there’s perhaps a bit of an irony that it was the more modern move to a ‘travel centre’ kind of environment that broadened the types of interactions, and then the vastly increased range of ticketing and booking options made slower, more involved enquiries even more necessary.

And, in terms of station ticket offices specifically, I suppose that not many people might be in a position to observe the range of interactions that take place, and to get a handle on why lots of folks are there, nor to get a feel for the relationship between the enquiry and the circumstances of the person travelling, nor the relationship between the time of the enquiry and the time and date of any travel that does subsequently take place.

Indeed, sometimes, it’s actually an enquiry about past travel, including complaints and compliments.

Anyhow, whenever something in retailing loses human interaction, there’s inevitably a little bit of the population that’s excluded, and some part of the reason for the service existing that’s lost.

Surely most people, unless they're buying a ticket in advance (and many of those will buy online), will only go to the station at the time of their train? Many of these will use TVMs, whether the ticket office is open or closed, and the rest will use a ticket office if it is open. The question of what hours a ticket office is open is pretty irrelevant to when most passengers buy a ticket.

Anecdotally not; see above.

 

[island]

The trend has tended to be to remove the screens, especially at some of the major stations. Both King’s Cross and St Pancras have an open desk layout (or at least they did before this spring!).

The EMR booking office is open and the Thameslink booking office right next to it has screens. (Again pre-Covid.)

TfL have this ongoing fetish for roving customer service assistants armed with tablet computers. They assist at TVMs, TfL Rail doing away with traditional behind window ticket clerks outside the AM peak.

In the quieter TfL Rail stations they can be seen standing, bored and freezing cold on the platforms.

TfL says its customer survey results state passengers would prefer staff to be out in the open at stations offering assistance to passengers rather than sat behind windows in booking offices.

 

[Geeves]

Lots of the smaller stations I cover you are pretty much in charge of the upkeep of the place and you get paid a higher grade to do so. You might also be the only person someone talks to all day at some of the more obscure locations, but unfortunately it is is all measured purely on tickets sold and I can see them all closing in the next few years, such is progress I suppose. I am glad I got to enjoy it while it lasted.

 

[Non Multi]

TfL says its customer survey results state passengers would prefer staff to be out in the open at stations offering assistance to passengers rather than sat behind windows in booking offices.

They'd be more useful if they'd been given portable ticket machines, certainly at the TfL Rail stations. Not everyone is traveling to a destination with a contactless card reader!

 

[david1212]

TfL have this ongoing fetish for roving customer service assistants armed with tablet computers. They assist at TVMs, TfL Rail doing away with traditional behind window ticket clerks outside the AM peak.

In the quieter TfL Rail stations they can be seen standing, bored and freezing cold on the platforms.

TfL says its customer survey results state passengers would prefer staff to be out in the open at stations offering assistance to passengers rather than sat behind windows in booking offices.

They'd be more useful if they'd been given portable ticket machines, certainly at the TfL Rail stations. Not everyone is traveling to a destination with a contactless card reader!

Regardless of who manages the station where predominantly local and commuter with relatively few ticket sales roving staff who can sell a full range of tickets are logical. Where a near constant stream of customers requiring tickets at the ticket office window then the office should remain together with a roving member of staff to deal with queries and assist passengers.

Roving staff will see situations that even with CCTV someone in a booking office would be unaware with. Even if aware to intervene someone in a booking has to close the office temporarily then get to the location.

 

[ComUtoR]

TfL says its customer survey results state passengers would prefer staff to be out in the open at stations offering assistance to passengers rather than sat behind windows in booking offices.

They scam survey results. It's very easy to make them say what you want.

If you asked the people with many many ticketting issues if they preferered ticket staff or generic customer service staff you would get a different response. Overall, passengers want staff. They want people to be available to help them when needed.

 

[bramling]

The EMR booking office is open and the Thameslink booking office right next to it has screens. (Again pre-Covid.)

TfL says its customer survey results state passengers would prefer staff to be out in the open at stations offering assistance to passengers rather than sat behind windows in booking offices.

That’s a bit like saying do you want more information or less information! In other words, a leading question. What one tends to get on TFL now is a less knowledgeable member of staff roaming round a booking hall with a disordered crowd of people swarming round them. That’s when they’re there at all, of course.