Update on LM ticket office closures

[island]

What's the score with PayPal's Mastercard (which uses funds from you PayPal account) being used to pay for train tickets? I know Visa Electron, Solo and similar have issues for people who have bank accounts that don't allow you to go overdrawn.

I don't think PayPal issues those cards any more, so it might be a moot point. Solo is also defunct, and the railway doesn't accept Visa Electron.
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How does the railway know that this is the case? Are Guards/RPIs now allowed to look inside people wallets to check that they don't have a card and are in fact allowed to use their card?

That's not a question I can answer. It might come up in a court case sometime.

 

[northwichcat]

I don't think PayPal issues those cards any more, so it might be a moot point. Solo is also defunct, and the railway doesn't accept Visa Electron.

Paypal sent me an email promoting their pre-paid Mastercard just this morning so they must still do them.

Electron cards are also being phased out, being replace by Visa debit cards marked 'Electronic use only' or similar, but they will work in the same way as Electron cards i.e. cleared funds must be confirmed for the transaction to be confirmed.

 

[island]

Some of the said Visa debit cards say they are for electronic use only, but others don't. I have a gadget that can identify whether a card is electronic use only, but I don't take it out of the house as it could get me nicked!

 

[Bald Rick]

Perhaps you should pass on your comments to the MD of LO and tell him that having staff at stations and conductors on trains as a complete waste of time. I am sure he would be happy to hear your views and who knows you get a thank you for saving the company over 450 posts within those two grades.

I can assure you that the MD of LOROL is delighted with his staff at stations and conductors on the trains, and that they are not a waste of time.

I can also assure you that if it was not for the fact that TfL specified and paid for these posts, there would be many, many fewer.

 

[transmanche]

Glad you highlighted Crouch Hill tis my local station.

I grew up not far away, but had never used the station until a couple of years ago. I've used it quite a bit since, now that it's a more welcoming place. And it's a very good example.

I suppose the DLR is therefore a failure with the public as a result of the no manned stations policy?

I know women who won't use the T&W Metro in the evening due to the complete absence of staff (other than train drivers) even at the deep level stations, trains only running every 15 minutes (other than the central Pelaw-South Gosforth section) and a lack of BTP presence (policing of the Metro is left up to Northumbria Police).

On the DLR, trains run every 5 or 10 minutes in the evening and at least the trains have staff on-board.

I was contrasting your assertion that station staff are important to the success of London Overground with the situation on the DLR which has no station staff at all at most stations.

To be fair to 313103 it was originally my assertion. But what I actually said was

Having staffed stations is part of the reason for London Overground's success - with all stations being staffed from start to end of service. This makes stations feel safer for passengers. Incidentally, even stations that don't have ticket offices (e.g. Crouch Hill) are staffed.

Of course, improved services and Oyster integration, etc are also part of the success. But you shouldn't underestimate how reassuring a staff presence can be... and I don't just mean someone locked up in a ticket office.

 

[Mojo]

The hours look a little peculiar, with a difference in hours on Mond, Tues - Thrs and Frid, as well as the normal Satr and Sund.

Why, for instance, is Adderley Park closed on a Mond? Surely if there's one day a week you WOULD open, it would be a Mond (for season renewals)?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Because that's DfT logic. Seriously though that intrigued me too - Jewellery Quarter's are all over the show - open Friday and Saturday only for a grand total of six hours, broken into three two-hour periods. Bescot Stadium has survived too but slashed from over 18 hours a day to just two (or seven on Saturday ), and that's a Monday, Friday and Saturday only operation! The only explanation I can think of is that LM and the DfT have dived really deep into figures for each surviving office and looked at where it makes the most money each hour each day, with the resulting figures the most revenue taking. I wonder if they did that for the four closing ones what their hours would look like!

 

[Tomonthetrain]

I would like to see the TVMs attempt to issue nnetworks

 

[SS4]

Because that's DfT logic. Seriously though that intrigued me too - Jewellery Quarter's are all over the show - open Friday and Saturday only for a grand total of six hours, broken into three two-hour periods. Bescot Stadium has survived too but slashed from over 18 hours a day to just two (or seven on Saturday ), and that's a Monday, Friday and Saturday only operation! The only explanation I can think of is that LM and the DfT have dived really deep into figures for each surviving office and looked at where it makes the most money each hour each day, with the resulting figures the most revenue taking. I wonder if they did that for the four closing ones what their hours would look like!

Football? It would probably be too much trouble to be every other Saturday when Walsall are at home.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

I thought that but then assumed that most travel would be provided by the club in the form of coaches, or tickets pre-booked online if it's an away day. The only real purpose I could see it serving is when Walsall play someone else in the Black Country or nearby, further wouldn't most use Walsall station anyway? On top of that I wouldn't have though many would use the train - they're never really likely to take more than a few hundred to say Colchester or Bury...

 

[Morden Via CHX]

What I find puzzling is that the ticket office won't be open on Sundays for the popular Bescot market.

 

[blacknight]

Buzz word in ticket vending is shift migration attempting to lure passengers into booking online thus reducing revenue going through station ticket offices, thus allowing TOC's like LM & others to then adjust downwards the opening hours of ticket offices accordingly.
What is never shown in those figures is time spent on giving ticket & travel advice.
Faced with option of closure IMO I would rather see a state owned D.O.R take on running of all ticket offices nationally relieving TOC's of this financial burden but in return they take reduced percentage of ticket sale to cover cost of overheads in running the office.

 

[Tomonthetrain]

How can one buy a say nnetwork one day online? Impossible. Can't do it at a Tvm as its a special ticket stock

 

[WillPS]

How can one buy a say nnetwork one day online? Impossible. Can't do it at a Tvm as its a special ticket stock

The solution would be to change them (all) to be issued on standard ticket stock.

TVMs (with more than one printer) can potentially print on different stock, not that I've known it to ever happen.

 

[Smethwickian]

How can one buy a say nnetwork one day online? Impossible. Can't do it at a Tvm as its a special ticket stock

I have just once one had issued on normal orange stock by a conductor onboard, when a ticket office was closed, but I was rather hoping to get as far as my next changing point to buy one there as I knew I'd have trouble getting on buses. Sure enough, first bus I got on: "Don't accept those. Only Network Daytrippers..." Cue much patient explanation, pointing out the ticket type and price, followed by further scratching of bus driver's brow, followed by eventual somewhat grudging acceptance.....

Hopefully, if London Midland's solution is to routinely sell such Network tickets onboard or from TVMs, bus operators will be fully briefed that they ain't necessarily going to be blue in future.......

 

[the sniper]

I have just once one had issued on normal orange stock by a conductor onboard, when a ticket office was closed, but I was rather hoping to get as far as my next changing point to buy one there as I knew I'd have trouble getting on buses. Sure enough, first bus I got on: "Don't accept those. Only Network Daytrippers..." Cue much patient explanation, pointing out the ticket type and price, followed by further scratching of bus driver's brow, followed by eventual somewhat grudging acceptance.....

Hopefully, if London Midland's solution is to routinely sell such Network tickets onboard or from TVMs, bus operators will be fully briefed that they ain't necessarily going to be blue in future.......

You would have been/should have been issued with a Daytripper Exchange onboard the train. You take this to a ticket office and they exchange it for the ticket the bus drivers accept, because as you say, they won't normally accept the ticket on normal orange ticket stock. Obviously this won't help you though if the ticket office where you get off is also closed.

Most Conductors I know accept Daytrippers on the scrappy strips of paper that pass as tickets in the bus world, but hey ho, I guess bus drivers play by their own rules...