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Greater Anglia Advance fares online only ?

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Sleepy

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RMT report GA are planning to sell Advance and Super Off Peak online only in their drive to cut ticket office useage / staff !!

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-warns-of-greater-anglia-threat-to-cheap-tickets/
Rail union RMT warned today that train operator Greater Anglia is threatening to cut off access to cheap Advance Purchase and Super Off Peak tickets as they set out plans that would restrict sales to on-line only as part of a broader attack on ticket offices and staffing.

In proposals handed to the union the company say that, as part of a their pending Retail Guidelines schemes: “GA Advance Purchase and Super Off Peak Tickers to be designated as On Line only products”.

RMT has warned that such a move, tied in with a wider threat to close ticket office windows and remove staff, would have dire consequences for older passengers, those with disabilities and those without access to the internet. The union says that it also makes a mockery of a plan trumpeted by the Rail Delivery Group only a few weeks ago to ensure that everyone has access to the cheapest ticket.

RMT has pledged to fight the Greater Anglia proposals and to object to the DfT and London TravelWatch who would need to approve any closure programme.
 
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ForTheLoveOf

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RMT report GA are planning to sell Advance and Super Off Peak online only in their drive to cut ticket office useage / staff !!
I suppose it's theoretically possible. Neither are regulated fares (as Greater Anglia have Off-Peak Returns for their regulated Saver equivalent, and Advances are unregulated), so they are under no obligation to sell either at all, let alone at a specific method of retailing.

Not a very favourable development for staff or passengers of course, but this is one of a raft of changes that GA seem to be making to save money given their catastrophic overbid. All the more reason for fares regulation to be expanded and strengthened rather than "reformed" (aka scrapped), as the RDG is pushing for.
 

Joe Paxton

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Southeastern Advance tickets are, I believe, still only available online and not from ticket offices (including their own).

For a significant period (certainly longer than any permitted 'temporary / experimental' period) Southeastern also tried to prevent any other retailers from selling them, so they would only be available from Southeastern's own website & app (though some online retailers ignored this restriction). They appear to have given up on that game.
 

island

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Southeastern Advance tickets are, I believe, still only available online and not from ticket offices (including their own).

For a significant period (certainly longer than any permitted 'temporary / experimental' period) Southeastern also tried to prevent any other retailers from selling them, so they would only be available from Southeastern's own website & app (though some online retailers ignored this restriction). They appear to have given up on that game.
Southeastern booking offices seem to have a great deal of exemptions from the rules around being neutral points of sale. Many are exempt from selling Advances before 10am. And Charing Cross seems to always have half or more of its windows marked “local and season tickets only”, whatever that is meant to mean.
 

Joe Paxton

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Southeastern booking offices seem to have a great deal of exemptions from the rules around being neutral points of sale. Many are exempt from selling Advances before 10am. And Charing Cross seems to always have half or more of its windows marked “local and season tickets only”, whatever that is meant to mean.

In this particular instance, (AIUI) no ticket offices of whatever TOC are able to sell Southeastern Advance tickets. This could well be the same arrangement as proposed by Greater Anglia for retailing their GA Advance tickets.
 

AY1975

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RMT report GA are planning to sell Advance and Super Off Peak online only in their drive to cut ticket office useage / staff !!

I understand that they will still be bookable by phone from the Greater Anglia Contact Centre, though. In fact, GA's website says you can do this, but already doesn't say you can buy Advance tickets at a ticket office.
 

AY1975

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Southeastern Advance tickets are, I believe, still only available online and not from ticket offices (including their own).

According to the Southeastern website you can now also get them from ticket offices.
 

thedbdiboy

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All the more reason for fares regulation to be expanded and strengthened rather than "reformed" (aka scrapped), as the RDG is pushing for.
No, the report calls for it to be reformed. Expanding and strengthening it counts as reform. The point is that it is up to the government to choose what it wishes to regulate, including funding those requirements.
 

ForTheLoveOf

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No, the report calls for it to be reformed. Expanding and strengthening it counts as reform. The point is that it is up to the government to choose what it wishes to regulate, including funding those requirements.
In which case, if the Government, as might be expected, doesn't want to pony up more then the current system can stay.
 

nesw

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I understand from ‘informed sources’ that GA are shortly to announce further ticket office closures.
 

thedbdiboy

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In which case, if the Government, as might be expected, doesn't want to pony up more then the current system can stay.
Except that it can't stay as it is - it is a 1980s fares structure overlaid with all sorts of adaptations to try and make it work in a digital age. So the government has to choose how it wants it to change, but no change now just puts off for a little while inevitable decisions about what sort of fares need to replace, for example, off-peak returns with validity structures designed in 1985. It's got nothing to do with train companies trying to change the system for their own ends, and everything to do with government taking decisions about what is needed to meet the needs of the 21st century. See Sir Keith Williams' message from his speech today, that's exactly what he is saying too.
 

Joe Paxton

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According to the Southeastern website you can now also get them from ticket offices.

Indeed so it does. Assuming the website is correct (and it is unambiguous on this point) then the situation has changed fairly recently.
 

ForTheLoveOf

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Except that it can't stay as it is - it is a 1980s fares structure overlaid with all sorts of adaptations to try and make it work in a digital age. So the government has to choose how it wants it to change, but no change now just puts off for a little while inevitable decisions about what sort of fares need to replace, for example, off-peak returns with validity structures designed in 1985. It's got nothing to do with train companies trying to change the system for their own ends, and everything to do with government taking decisions about what is needed to meet the needs of the 21st century. See Sir Keith Williams' message from his speech today, that's exactly what he is saying too.
Unfortunately, if you trust the profit-hungry TOCs to propose and implement reforms for altruistic reasons, I fear you may be forgetting the lessons of history. We have been here before, and each time the "reforms" and "simplification" were code for reductions in passengers' rights and increases in fares. No proposals can be accepted for implementation until they have been thoroughly vetted as being in the passengers' interest for once, and it must be made clear and understood by the TOCs that proposals are liable to be rejected, and for passengers to kick up a stink, if they aren't in the interests of the passengers for once.
 

yorkie

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RMT report GA are planning to sell Advance and Super Off Peak online only in their drive to cut ticket office useage / staff !!
Do you know if they propose for the fares to be available through all online retailers, or just themselves? I assume it's the first of these!
 

Sleepy

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Seems that GA have been persuaded not to do this now. https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/greater-anglia-advance-super-off-peak-ticket-sales-move-online-1-5967107

A last-minute U-turn by Greater Anglia means the stealthy withdrawal of their cheapest fares at ticket offices is being scrapped.

Plans to stop selling advance and super off-peak tickets at stations were due to be introduced from April 8, meaning the cheapest fares would only be available online, via the Greater Anglia app or via a pay-per-minute phoneline...
 
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