Ticket office staff refusing to sell tickets originating at different station?

[NLC1072]

Where more than one company has a Ticket Office at a station, only the "Lead" Retailer is required to offer the full range of tickets under the TSA.

So in the case of Euston, the "Suburban" office could decline to sell anything other than London Midland tickets providing suitable signage was in place. In practice, however, I'd imagine they offer the full range.

Similarly, at London Victoria, the Gatwick Express office adjacent to Platforms 13 & 14 only used to sell tickets for the non-stop services between that station and Gatwick. For anything else, you had to go to the main Ticket Office.

This is what I was getting at, sorry for the vagueness! Couldn't think straight at the time...
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It's not a valid reason for refusing the sale of Advance tickets - I work at a lot of different stations with two windows, often I'm working solo. I'd never decline to serve someone just because they're after an Advance ticket. A good ticket office clerk can regulate the transaction time at their window. Asking closed questions about date and time of travel speeds things up. Any dithering or uncertainty on the customer's part can be met with a polite request for them to allow others to be served whilst they decide. In 100% of cases at my window, they're fine with this.

Empathising with the position at Wickford, deciding not to do Advance tickets on this basis can only be down to sheer laziness. When people don't pull their weight, it does two things - it inconveniences the customer and it creates workload for somebody else.

There isn't any excuse for this on a line with 3tph and stations with TVMs in addition to the ticket office window - except Schedule 17 restrictions.

its to do with pay scales as larger stations staff get more money specifically for dealing with advance purchase tickets where as the smaller stations staff are paid only to sell walk up tickets in their contract, so I'm told.

 

[maniacmartin]

its to do with pay scales as larger stations staff get more money specifically for dealing with advance purchase tickets where as the smaller stations staff are paid only to sell walk up tickets in their contract, so I'm told.

The implication from what you've posted is that GA instruct these clerks not to issue APs? If so, that is a clear breach of the TSA

 

[NLC1072]

The implication from what you've posted is that GA instruct these clerks not to issue APs? If so, that is a clear breach of the TSA

The TSA only applies to the basic product ie walk up tickets and applicable railcards, anything more is optional I believe.

 

[VauxhallandI]

The TSA only applies to the basic product ie walk up tickets and applicable railcards, anything more is optional I believe.

I would expect to see that annotated in the TSA under the column headed "Exceptions"?

 

[hairyhandedfool]

The TSA only applies to the basic product ie walk up tickets and applicable railcards, anything more is optional I believe.

Erm....

6-14 LEAD RETAILERS' OBLIGATIONS IN RESPECT OF BASIC PRODUCTS

(1) Basic Products available at the date of this Agreement

Subject to sub-Clause (2) and Clauses 6-17 to 6-19 below, the Lead Retailer at each
Regulated Station must offer for Sale at that Station during its opening hours:-

(a) all Permanent Fares which are Basic Products and which relate to the
Flows that are listed in those Fares Manuals in existence at the date of this
Agreement that are specified in Schedule 17 against the name of that Station (and
any new Flows listed in any Fares Manuals that replace them, to the extent that they
cover the same or substantially the same geographical areas);

(b) the Young Person's Railcard and the Senior Railcard; and

(c) Reservations for trains which run on any of the Flows referred to in
paragraph (a) above.

....

6-13 DEFINITION OF "BASIC PRODUCT”

A Basic Product is a Rail Product which:-

(a) is valid for one or more journeys on the Network in Great Britain and, if it gives the
Purchaser or any other person the right to obtain goods or other services (for example, entry
to a place which is not a Station or a TTL Station, complimentary refreshments or a discount
off the price of any goods or services that would otherwise apply), that right is evidenced by
the Ticket or Reservation Voucher issued in respect of the Rail Product and not by any
other document; and

(b) can be Purchased with any of the methods of payment referred to in Clause 7-1
below.

 

[infobleep]

The lady who served me didn't seem unhelpful or obstructive as such - just insistent that she couldn't do what I was asking for.

The situation wasn't helped by the fact that on a midsummer Saturday morning, only 2 out of the 5 or so windows were open, meaning that the queue stretched across the concourse to the entrance doors. Having queued for quite some time, with the train departure time approaching and a long line of others waiting behind me, I was pressured into taking what she offered me where I would usually have checked more carefully before leaving the counter.

After they closed down the travel centre they put in 5 ticket windows. However I've never seen more than 3 in use at one time. Does anyone know one know why five would have been put in? Perhaps it was in case of failures to some machines.

I've never had issues buying tickets from other stations. I've had occasional issue where a member of staff wasn't entirely sure what to do but it got resolved at the ticket window.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

After they closed down the travel centre they put in 5 ticket windows. However I've never seen more than 3 in use at one time. Does anyone know one know why five would have been put in? Perhaps it was in case of failures to some machines....

Possibly future proofing. Salford Central has two ticket windows (since it's refurb), with cash draws and so on, but only one ticket machine to use.

Equally, it could be that shifts overlap, and rather than close a sales point to change shift, another is opened before the first is closed.

The event of a failure might have been a reason in the past, but I don't think it is really the case now, TOCs will want only as many machines as they need to have and the modular design of the current ticket machines makes complete failures much less likely.

 

[jon0844]

I'd be interested to see how long it takes for Greater Anglia to investigate the problem and communicate to the relevant staff that this is not correct practice. The timescale of some point next week suggests they're not as on the ball as they could be.

I don't see any evidence from my own conversations that they really follow anything up at all.

I told them about the faulty buttons on their trains ages ago, they said they'd report to the fleet team. Obviously nothing happened. So when I reported them again more recently, with a video, they said they'd .. yup .. report it to the fleet team.

And when I asked about ticket extensions having to be bought from a ticket office and not a TVM (when other TOCs now allow it), I was told they'd investigate and respond. Obviously that didn't happen.

In fact, the only thing I think I can recall a reply on was the platform screens at Cheshunt not working properly and being told their IT people were working on it. And the other day, I noticed they were working - but I've been told by others (and I'm sure I'll notice in due course) that it seems to work sometimes anyway, so perhaps it was just luck.

The Twitter team are pretty friendly, but that's about it as they seem to be only interested in passing the buck, or just saying what's necessary to end a conversation.

 

[Universediver]

I used to work at an ATOC Agent and we were told that it was a condition of our licence that we sold all operator and route tickets and we had to in a impartial manner.

We understand ticket offices had to operate in the same way.

 

[TEW]

After they closed down the travel centre they put in 5 ticket windows. However I've never seen more than 3 in use at one time. Does anyone know one know why five would have been put in? Perhaps it was in case of failures to some machines.

I've never had issues buying tickets from other stations. I've had occasional issue where a member of staff wasn't entirely sure what to do but it got resolved at the ticket window.

There were 4 in use the other day when I was there. I agree though it's rare to see more than 3 windows open. That's despite the fact there nearly always seems to be a queue. At weekends especially when 2 seems to be more normal for the number of windows to be open, there can be huge queues.

 

[VauxhallandI]

Reply from dft on Wickford station ticket offering:

Wickford station are refusing to sell advance tickets

Thank you for your e-mail to this Department dated 4 July regarding Advance fares. I have been asked to reply.

You are correct that Schedule 17 of the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement states that there are no exceptions when selling rail tickets at Wickford Rail Station. However, in the column immediately to the left it also states that this Station does not sell tickets with reservations. Advance fares require a reservation when purchased and it is for this reason that Wickford Rail Station does not sell this type of rail fare.

If you wish to discuss this issue further and if you have not already done so, you should direct your concerns to Abellio Greater Anglia. They can be contacted using the details in this web link: http://www.abelliogreateranglia.co.uk/contact-us

 

[yorkie]

Reply from dft on Wickford station ticket offering...

Is the system used at Wickfield incapable of issuing reservations, or do Greater Anglia not want to issue them?
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I used to work at an ATOC Agent and we were told that it was a condition of our licence that we sold all operator and route tickets and we had to in a impartial manner.

We understand ticket offices had to operate in the same way.

They do have to - in theory - but who is going to enforce it when they don't?

The TOCs are not afraid of Passenger Focus or the DfT, who are not going to do anything about it.

Loads of stations will refuse to issue tickets under a range of circumstances, the London area is notoriously bad for it.

 

[BRX]

I've recieved a response from SWT regarding my complaint.

Rail voucher for the difference between what I spent on the ticket clerk's advice and what I should have spent.

Not a penny more though.

No acknowledgement that the ticket office was in the wrong, no apology and no statement regarding what action will be taken to stop this happening again.

I'll be getting back to them.