New Train Services To/From Stafford.

tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
highguyuk said:
My opinion is slightly again the grain here it seems, but I have no objection to closing ticket offices.

The vast majority of the country are able to buy tickets on a mobile phone, and those who can't can use the ticket machines - which are substantially better than they were years ago.

If cash vs card is the problem, then that person has a bigger issue than just rail tickets considering the way the wider world is going.

Just because something has been done the same way for many years, doesn't mean we should keep doing it that same way...
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If all they did was sell tickets then maybe, but they also offer advice. A few times I've been helped out with alternative routes or cheaper tickets by asking someone when I've not known. Changing at Shrewsbury for mid Wales was a great tip, you don't get off the train but splitting it saved something like 20 quid a time when we went to Barmouth.
 
Gramaisc

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
It doesn't have to be one or the other - for repeat simple journeys, a machine is OK, but the GB rail system is so Byzantine that anything 'unusual' requires real effort and inside knowledge.

It's a few years ago now, but my first Stafford/ferry/middle of Ireland ticket actually took three days to achieve, including me getting a ferry brochure from a travel agent, to persuade them it was possible.

I've had a hand-written ticket, because the computer had no ferry times installed, so the journey was 'impossible', resulting in it refusing to print them.

I tried to do it on the phone, only to be told "We don't sell through tickets to Ireland" - "But, I've got the one in my hand from three months ago, I've been using them for years. I did the last one over the phone" - "You can't have. We've never sold those tickets" - "OK. Can you put me onto someone else who might be able to do it?" - "No, if I can't do it, nobody can!".

Whatever it is, it needs to work - and to work for the passenger.
 
Thehooperman

Thehooperman

Well-Known Forumite
Mudgie said:
And never mind those of us that have difficulty with ticket machines.
Your "I'm alright Jack" attitude is all too prevalent in post Thatcher Britain.
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There are staff at most major stations to help if needs be and as you stated earlier there's always the pay on the train option.

The burden of keeping a booking office open when the majority don't use them anymore is just adding to the price of travel.

As long as there is an alternative means to buy a ticket or assistance is available what sense is it to have staff that are under utilised?
 
Theresa Green

Theresa Green

Well-Known Forumite
highguyuk said:
My opinion is slightly again the grain here it seems, but I have no objection to closing ticket offices.

The vast majority of the country are able to buy tickets on a mobile phone, and those who can't can use the ticket machines - which are substantially better than they were years ago.

If cash vs card is the problem, then that person has a bigger issue than just rail tickets considering the way the wider world is going.

Just because something has been done the same way for many years, doesn't mean we should keep doing it that same way...
Click to expand...

Vast majority?

You sound like a deaf Tory

Careful what you wish for

Or carelessly fail to wish to keep
 
Theresa Green

Theresa Green

Well-Known Forumite
Thehooperman said:
There are staff at most major stations to help if needs be and as you stated earlier there's always the pay on the train option.

The burden of keeping a booking office open when the majority don't use them anymore is just adding to the price of travel.

As long as there is an alternative means to buy a ticket or assistance is available what sense is it to have staff that are under utilised?
Click to expand...

Paperless Trees

Windowless Carriages

Beer free pubs

Beeching for King
 
Mudgie

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
Thehooperman said:
There are staff at most major stations to help if needs be and as you stated earlier there's always the pay on the train option.

The burden of keeping a booking office open when the majority don't use them anymore is just adding to the price of travel.

As long as there is an alternative means to buy a ticket or assistance is available what sense is it to have staff that are under utilised?
Click to expand...
Passengers may need assistance in many ways and "staff at most major stations" has always partly been so that passengers are safe and feel safe from very early morning to very late at night - a bit like the "Safety of Women at Night" thread indicating how welcome a police presence in town is after 11pm at the weekend - and the idea that looking after passengers is a "burden" just shows what happens when the shareholders of foreign owned train operating companies are the main priority. .
 
kyoto49

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
highguyuk said:
My opinion is slightly again the grain here it seems, but I have no objection to closing ticket offices.

The vast majority of the country are able to buy tickets on a mobile phone, and those who can't can use the ticket machines - which are substantially better than they were years ago.

If cash vs card is the problem, then that person has a bigger issue than just rail tickets considering the way the wider world is going.

Just because something has been done the same way for many years, doesn't mean we should keep doing it that same way...
Click to expand...
For a simple journey by someone who knows the system and can work the ticket machine then you are right. If I'm doing a day return to Liverpool then the ticket machine is fine. Unfortunately there are still many people and journey types who need additional information before making a journey, shortest route, change options, other routes, info on delays etc etc. Its important that those who aren't needing a straight forward ticket for whatever reason are catered for. Never mind the customers tho, they get in the way of the 'profit maximisation at all costs' approach.
 
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Noah

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
gilesjuk said:
I remember not being able to get a ticket from Penkridge to Brum.
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Normal state of affairs. The old permit to travel machine never worked (not quite true, on the one day it did work no-one would believe it) and the more modern ticket machine never worked after morning rush hour as it ran out of tickets.
 
Noah

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
I once needed a return ticket from Rugeley to Dudley Port (brewery visit if you really want to know) guard on the train had to phone the office to find out how much it was and how to issue the ticket. Might be worth trying that on a machine and see if the entire system crashes.
 
Mudgie

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
Noah said:
Normal state of affairs. The old permit to travel machine never worked (not quite true, on the one day it did work no-one would believe it) and the more modern ticket machine never worked after morning rush hour as it ran out of tickets.
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Noah,
There was neither old permit to travel machine nor more modern ticket machine when I stayed in Penkridge.
I much preferred the footbridge to the tunnel and long ramp for returning home.
I suggested to Holdens converting the neglected station building as they so successfully have in Codsall but they can't have thought it a good idea.
 
c0tt0nt0p

c0tt0nt0p

Well-Known Forumite
highguyuk said:
The vast majority of the country are able to buy tickets on a mobile phone, and those who can't can use the ticket machines - which are substantially better than they were years ago.
Click to expand...
I'll go on the record and say the new machines at the station are not an improvement on the old ones and that comes from a 48 year old techy literate...
I tried to use them in my last throws of commuting to Solihull....I had to give up in the end and go to the ticket office.
Yes you can use a mobile phone, but there are certainly occasions when you cannot guarantee the said phone will have any charge at the end of the day/night....
 
Mudgie

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
c0tt0nt0p said:
I'll go on the record and say the new machines at the station are not an improvement on the old ones and that comes from a 48 year old techy literate...
I tried to use them in my last throws of commuting to Solihull....I had to give up in the end and go to the ticket office.
Yes you can use a mobile phone, but there are certainly occasions when you cannot guarantee the said phone will have any charge at the end of the day/night....
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"commuting to Solihull"
Do you live on Parkside ?
 
The Hawk

The Hawk

Well-Known Forumite
When I lived in Haughton years ago, there was someone there who commuted to London every day (this was when the train to London took almost two hours), then had to take the tube to their office.

They then got transferred to Amsterdam. They still commuted from Haughton every day, driving to Birmingham Airport. They discovered that their new commute was quicker to Amsterdam, then their old one to London. With faster trains (and slower flying journeys post 9/11), I suspect London would now be the much quicker destination.
 
Thehooperman

Thehooperman

Well-Known Forumite
The Hawk said:
When I lived in Haughton years ago, there was someone there who commuted to London every day (this was when the train to London took almost two hours), then had to take the tube to their office.

They then got transferred to Amsterdam. They still commuted from Haughton every day, driving to Birmingham Airport. They discovered that their new commute was quicker to Amsterdam, then their old one to London. With faster trains (and slower flying journeys post 9/11), I suspect London would now be the much quicker destination.
Click to expand...
Was that Mr Bunnion by any chance?
 
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