Advances not sold at Ticket Office

[All Line Rover]

Bicycle reservations


Also it is often quicker to ask, if for example hunting an advance sleeper booking as Scotrail's site for this purpose is not the best.

And then the bicycle reservation

Bicycle reservations can be made using WebTIS. I have no experience of sleeper reservations, although I imagine these form a very small proportion of overall ticket sales.

 

[Butts]

I don't buy Advance tickets at the station either, but I see quite a few people that still do!

I always buy my advances online as well - you have so much more choice and no time constraints. With all the permutations I go through to select my Advance 1st East Coast Tickets I would be as popular as a Tur* in a Swimming Pool if I attempted the purchase at FKG

Online booking has revolutionised the process giving the customer far greater choice (probably to much sometimes) and it is easy to bag a bargain

 

[ainsworth74]

I have no experience of sleeper reservations, although I imagine these form a very small proportion of overall ticket sales.

And that assumes that the booking office in question even knows how to issue them! I've heard plenty of stories of people who tried to book sleeper reservations and had to either take the clerk through it step by step or gave up and contacted the appropriate telesales/website.

 

[NLC1072]

Working from a booking office where we don't issue advance tickets; the reason is that even with two windows open, we don't have enough capacity to sell them and will end up with ques down the street! Also I think it's a pay issue too, stations where they do issue advance purchase tickets are paid a higher wage too.

 

[Greenback]

Also I think it's a pay issue too, stations where they do issue advance purchase tickets are paid a higher wage too.

That is somethin gI hadn't considered, although perhaps I should have as if you were worked in the Travel Centre in Reading you were a higher grade than if you worked the booking office where Advances were not issued.

I thought they may have done away with sort of delineation now though!

 

[NLC1072]

That is somethin gI hadn't considered, although perhaps I should have as if you were worked in the Travel Centre in Reading you were a higher grade than if you worked the booking office where Advances were not issued.

I thought they may have done away with sort of delineation now though!

It's to do with the classification of stations on ATOC's list I believe too, A stations, B stations, C stations etc which determine wage at a few booking offices I know, hence why only A stations and a limited amount of B stations (staffing levels permitting) issue advance tickets as it comes in their job descriptions according to wage, but not grade.

I.e. a Level 1 customer service can get a higher wage at an A station then say a C station because it involves more duties such as advance purchace, even though they're both at the same grade.

Level 2 customer service staff still at a C station will not issue advance tickets though as a level 2 at an A station again gets a higher wage to do so.

Confusing I know!

 

[TUC]

I'm still left unclear how a member of the public is meant to know which stations will won't sell advance tickets.The relevant National Rail webpage http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/purchasing_tickets/ has links for which stations have ticket offices and what their opening hours are but nothing I can see about differentiation between ticket offices.

With all respect, whilst I can see an issue where a station doesn't have the right equipment (although one would have thought that providing such equipment is a pretty basic issue for a TOC) its very difficult to see why pay levels should come into the equation these days. As all of those who book on-line prove, selecting an advance ticket is scarcely a complex task.

Whilst sympathising with those who work at stations with limited staffing, from a passenger viewpoint it seems a poor reason to refuse to sell an advance ticket, especially if its a station that's designated to sell them. A shop that said 'please don't buy that here even though we sell it' wouldn't survive very long. Again, just what are passengers meant to do?-use guesswork as to how many staff will happen to be there at a given time?

 

[Butts]

That is somethin gI hadn't considered, although perhaps I should have as if you were worked in the Travel Centre in Reading you were a higher grade than if you worked the booking office where Advances were not issued.

I thought they may have done away with sort of delineation now though!

Did you get " scrambled egg" on your hat to demonstrate your enhanced status

 

[Greenback]

Did you get " scrambled egg" on your hat to demonstrate your enhanced status

They had stopped dishing out hats and caps, at least to indoor staff, so I never got one at all!

I'm still left unclear how a member of the public is meant to know which stations will won't sell advance tickets.The relevant National Rail webpage http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/purchasing_tickets/ has links for which stations have ticket offices and what their opening hours are but nothing I can see about differentiation between ticket offices.

With all respect, whilst I can see an issue where a station doesn't have the right equipment (although one would have thought that providing such equipment is a pretty basic issue for a TOC) its very difficult to see why pay levels should come into the equation these days. As all of those who book on-line prove, selecting an advance ticket is scarcely a complex task.

Whilst sympathising with those who work at stations with limited staffing, from a passenger viewpoint it seems a poor reason to refuse to sell an advance ticket, especially if its a station that's designated to sell them. A shop that said 'please don't buy that here even though we sell it' wouldn't survive very long. Again, just what are passengers meant to do?-use guesswork as to how many staff will happen to be there at a given time?

As I said earlier, it's no good relying on notices at the station itself if someone has made a special trip there to buy an Advance ticket.

Ideally, I'd like all staffed stations to eb able to sell them, though I can foresee only confusion and misery if time restrictions are introduced to allow immediate travellers priority in the peaks - it would be just as bad as now.

So I would definitely like to see all TOC's provide much better information on where Advances can be bought instead. I won't hold my breath though.

 

[Deerfold]

They had stopped dishing out hats and caps, at least to indoor staff, so I never got one at all!



As I said earlier, it's no good relying on notices at the station itself if someone has made a special trip there to buy an Advance ticket.

Ideally, I'd like all staffed stations to eb able to sell them, though I can foresee only confusion and misery if time restrictions are introduced to allow immediate travellers priority in the peaks - it would be just as bad as now.

So I would definitely like to see all TOC's provide much better information on where Advances can be bought instead. I won't hold my breath though.

Indeed - as someone's who's regularly travelled by train for more than 25 years it wasn't until I read this thread that I realised there were any stations which sold tickets but not advances - I'm quite used to not being able to use my local station as it's unstaffed and 99% of the time I buy Advances online but I'd have been surprised to be told at a station I couldn't buy them even though tickets were being sold.

I'm particularly suprised that one of the ones that can't sell them was my local station for 3 years!

 

[Greenback]

Indeed - as someone's who's regularly travelled by train for more than 25 years it wasn't until I read this thread that I realised there were any stations which sold tickets but not advances - I'm quite used to not being able to use my local station as it's unstaffed and 99% of the time I buy Advances online but I'd have been surprised to be told at a station I couldn't buy them even though tickets were being sold.

I'm particularly suprised that one of the ones that can't sell them was my local station for 3 years!

I was also surprised that this sort of thing still exists, even though almost all ticket offices will have equipment that is live and web based rather than remote and unconencted to the various databases.

Still, as TOC's seem to be keen to close ticket offices, I suppose it's no surprise that they want to suppress use as much as they can.