Jewellery Quarter: Bizzare Ticket Office Opening Hours..

[DaventryRabbit]

I assume that these periods were originally identified (probably pre the C Word) as the busiest times but it does seem strange. Also why the 1 hour shutdown in the middle of the day on Saturday?
Haven't come across another case of a facility only being Open part time for 1 Day in the Working Week..

 

[newtownmgr]

Been like that for sometime. Footfall is predominately in during the morning & out PM with some interchange off the metro.

 

[Snow1964]

It's a 2 hour shutdown, not 1 hour

 

[Starmill]

Most of them are like that so that a single member of staff can cover more than one station. It's unlikely that they would have been selling very many tickets, even before etickets were available on that route. And now...

 

[Dr Hoo]

I assume that these periods were originally identified (probably pre the C Word) as the busiest times but it does seem strange. Also why the 1 hour shutdown in the middle of the day on Saturday?
Haven't come across another case of a facility only being Open part time for 1 Day in the Working Week..

Sorry for wandering OT but many sports venues, places of worship or seaside ice cream stalls work on an ‘occasional hours’ basis. Not really a ‘working week’ phenomenon admittedly.

But it all comes down to ‘is it worth staffing/opening’?

 

[Starmill]

Sorry for wandering OT but many sports venues, places of worship or seaside ice cream stalls work on an ‘occasional hours’ basis. Not really a ‘working week’ phenomenon admittedly.

But it all comes down to ‘is it worth staffing/opening’?

Small Heath, Jewellery Quarter, Bescot Stadium, Duddeston and Adderley Park were all proposed to be permanently closed around a decade ago. In the end they didn't go ahead, but hours were reduced. I understand Cheddington, Lye, Witton and Wythall did close. More recently I think that the independent at Ledbury closed.

The number of tickets sold at West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway ticket offices is very small indeed now, outside of a very small number of hub stations such as Wolverhampton, Milton Keynes Central, and Worcester Foregate Street.

 

[DaventryRabbit]

Interesting Cheers people
Guess it will be academic anyway soon if the DFT get their way...

 

[Elecman]

Small Heath, Jewellery Quarter, Bescot Stadium, Duddeston and Adderley Park were all proposed to be permanently closed around a decade ago. In the end they didn't go ahead, but hours were reduced. I understand Cheddington, Lye, Witton and Wythall did close. More recently I think that the independent at Ledbury closed.

The number of tickets sold at West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway ticket offices is very small indeed now, outside of a very small number of hub stations such as Wolverhampton, Milton Keynes Central, and Worcester Foregate Street.

Ledbury independent ticket office did close during Lockdown and never re opened

 

[Mojo]

All stations in the former West Midlands County Council area, with the exception of Bordesley and Whitlocks End, used to have stations staffed from the first train to the last train, seven days a week. In early 2011, across their entire network, London Midland proposed the closure of 9 ticket offices and alteration of opening hours at most of the others [link to forum thread from the time].

Jewellery Quarter was actually one of the ticket offices London Midland originally wanted to close completely, but this was rejected by the then Rail Minister, Norman Baker in September 2012 [alteration of ticket office hours on National Rail is regulated by the Department for Transport]. It wouldn't therefore surprise me that the hours were selected because they effectively could be provided at zero-cost by taking advantage of staff rosters that would otherwise see the staff member not doing anything else, but allowed the company and the DfT to "save" a ticket office from closing completely.

 

[Revilo]

Bescot Stadium, mentioned above, has similarly bizarre opening hours. Only 2 hours on Mondays and Fridays, closed every other weekday, but open for 5 hours on a Saturday. Though when I was there on a Saturday, when it should have been open (a few years ago now), it was actually closed.