I've just got back from a fun experience at Blackpool North today.
The train going to BPN from Manchester was absolutely crammed full, especially after leaving Preston with passengers taking advantage of the lovely weather and heading to the coast for the day.
On arrival at BPN, we were greeted or unpleasantly frowned upon by two of the station staff.
One of them actually said within earshot of myself another passengers ”####ing hell look at the state of this lot.” Which caused a bit if commotion and complaint from a lady with a pushchair.
I've emailed Northern this evening with a description of the member of staff about that unnecessary comment.
When walking slowly through the doors and onto the concourse I discovered only one of the barriers was being used to exit the station.
It was only as we waddled closer towards it that the member of staff who was sat on a seat next to it guarding it had in fact placed some black masking tape over the sensor to keep it open for people to just walk out.
So despite seeing three members of station staff, zero ticket checks on the train or at the barriers.
On my return journey home I was again not required to show any ticket and just walked through the open barriers on to the concourse.
One member of staff shouted at a couple who were deemed to not be social distancing at the new phone charger point.
I'm not sure if this was here on my last visit but it's just to the right of the barriers and you can plug your phone into one of the numerous phone chargers supplied by Northern.
That member of staffs comments was interesting because the doors to the platform only opened seven minutes before departure and by that time everyone was in a lengthy queue with guess what - zero social distancing. So why not open the doors earlier to avoid a huge queue so that everyone has room and fresh air out on the platforms?
It's unbelievable the level of rudeness one has to experience when visiting this station.
Sadly, on today's experience, nothing has changed.
Why even have the staff on site if they are not needed? They would be better keeping the glass doors open from first train to last and keep the barriers open without the need for the member of staff to put masking tape over the sensor letting everyone in and out without tickets being checked.