Haywain
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Indeed, which is why I suggested that there must be some other problem with the coding rather than a restriction problem.
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FGW at Paddington still getting evening Off Peak validity spectacularly wrong.
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Indeed, which is why I suggested that there must be some other problem with the coding rather than a restriction problem.
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Apparently, according to a manager at King's Cross, the restriction codes are encoded onto the ticket, and the barrier will know whether or not the ticket is valid. Therefore, staff do not need to check restriction codes, nor do they have the means to check as such means are not necessary.
Also, according to a gateline assistant at King's Cross, the job of a gateline assistant is revenue protection, and off peak tickets are definitely not valid at 6pm.
I actually witnessed this, so I know it to be true.
The problem may be temporarily eased at Paddington, but it will never go away.
I wonder how many passengers, who are not as assertive as us, have either been unnecessarily charged or unnecessarily delayed as a result? Must be loads!
Also, according to a gateline assistant at King's Cross, the job of a gateline assistant is revenue protection, and off peak tickets are definitely not valid at 6pm.
I actually witnessed this, so I know it to be true.
The problem may be temporarily eased at Paddington, but it will never go away.
I wonder how many passengers, who are not as assertive as us, have either been unnecessarily charged or unnecessarily delayed as a result? Must be loads!
I can understand the train of thought that says the ability to check tickets is not necessary as the barriers are so intelligent as to know everything, it's the latter part of that which I find absolutely amazing.
With managers as poor as that, it's no wonder the frontline staff struggle.
With managers as poor as that, it's no wonder the frontline staff struggle.
Rather than a blanket restriction on ALL trains between 1600 and 1900 (I presume that's the peak) could they allow off-peak tickets on some of the less busy services? That way people could still travel at that time without paying a premium - but only on selected services.
Is there any way they could path any additional London-Reading fast services? Either terminating at Reading or just going on to, say, Oxford or Bedwyn. Or is the line literally at capacity?
Morning has always been a problem for any via-London travel. The problem is that a journey like (going OT - sorry) Southampton to Canterbury is more or less impossible to do in a reasonable time without going through London, though splitting the ticket helps somewhat.
Restrictions don't apply to trains, they apply to tickets - that's the problem!
That's already the case on GWR's main restriction codes, which bar travel on most services that are fast from Paddington to Reading.
(The above is a simplification of very complex restriction codes for the purpose of discussion. I'm sure there are some trains which are fast from Paddington to Reading during the afternoon peak on which some or all off-peak tickets are allowed, and there are probably some that call at Slough which bar some off-peak tickets. Please don't start forensically dissecting the point, which is that GWR has already attempted to shift passengers onto stopping services.)
Indeed. The solution is to train staff adequately.
If staff don't have the means to check, they should allow passengers through.
I don't understand how people can get away with being so bad at their jobs in this part of the rail industry. I'd expect the sack of I was that bad at my job!
If staff don't have the means to check, they should allow passengers through.
I don't understand how people can get away with being so bad at their jobs in this part of the rail industry. I'd expect the sack of I was that bad at my job!
This is the main issue. It's fine not to know but to refuse to find out or to lie to your customers repeatedly is amazing and the fact that the TOC's seem quite happy to allow their staff to do this (it does clearly benefit them) makes it even worse. As passengers we are pretty powerless as BNM has shown given he got approval right from the top and yet it still happens over and over. To be fair training adequately won't stop jobsworths from still doing this but it would help. It would also at least show that the TOC's are trying to stamp it out whereas instead they seem to actively encourage it.
Just to mention that I had an inconvenience at Paddington this morning but although I witnessed the bad, I ended up walking away fairly impressed with the courtesy and service.
I was travelling from Ealing Broadway to Crawley on a U1-6 - Crawley Anytime return. My plan was to get the tube to Victoria and change to the overground service. On arrival at Ealing Broadway there was an announcement that there were major delays on both the Central and Districts lines and Passengers should use the next available overground service to Paddington and take the underground from there.
This I did but as I exited Paddington, obviously my ticket didn't work. The gentleman on the gateline asked to see my ticket and informed me that it was only valid on underground travel as far as Victoria. I explained what had happened but he was insistent that I shouldn't have travelled on an overground service and called a Revenue Iinspector.
Fearing the worst at this point, the Revenue Inspector asked my what had happened so I explained again to him. He looked at the service status screen behind him which was still showing major delays and concurred that I had the probable authority to travel. He went back to the employee on the gateline and again asked the question, to which the reply was the same, 'invalid ticket'.
However, he still wasn't happy and asked me to follow him as he wanted to discuss with his supervisor. We went to another set of barriers and he spoke to the supervisor who confirmed I was a pass through as authority to travel had been permitted. He shook my hand, apologised for the delay and wished me a safe onward journey.
Wish I had got his name, but if he reads this forum thank-you. Shame about the gentleman on the gateline though!
I was travelling from Ealing Broadway to Crawley on a U1-6 - Crawley Anytime return. My plan was to get the tube to Victoria and change to the overground service. On arrival at Ealing Broadway there was an announcement that there were major delays on both the Central and Districts lines and Passengers should use the next available overground service to Paddington and take the underground from there.
This I did but as I exited Paddington, obviously my ticket didn't work. The gentleman on the gateline asked to see my ticket and informed me that it was only valid on underground travel as far as Victoria. I explained what had happened but he was insistent that I shouldn't have travelled on an overground service and called a Revenue Iinspector.
Fearing the worst at this point, the Revenue Inspector asked my what had happened so I explained again to him. He looked at the service status screen behind him which was still showing major delays and concurred that I had the probable authority to travel. He went back to the employee on the gateline and again asked the question, to which the reply was the same, 'invalid ticket'.
However, he still wasn't happy and asked me to follow him as he wanted to discuss with his supervisor. We went to another set of barriers and he spoke to the supervisor who confirmed I was a pass through as authority to travel had been permitted. He shook my hand, apologised for the delay and wished me a safe onward journey.
Wish I had got his name, but if he reads this forum thank-you. Shame about the gentleman on the gateline though!
Just for the avoidance of doubt when you say 'overground' you mean GWR don't you?
Yes sorry ....
No it's fine but best to sure!
I'm glad you got sorted and on your way eventually though you'd have thought that gateline staff would have been alerted to significant disruption!
I'm glad you got sorted and on your way eventually though you'd have thought that gateline staff would have been alerted to significant disruption!
Well indeed. Presumably LU had agreed with GWR to pass passengers with Underground tickets, so you'd have thought that the message should at least have been communicated to the Paddington gateline. I'd be inclined to raise this issue with GWR customer services, even though it ended well. You were still delayed while 3 members of staff faffed around.
gray1404
Established Member
Agreed, I would raise this with them too and being held up when ticket acceptance is in place is not acceptable.
(1) Raising with issue with GWR not only draws the attention of management, but also provides an opportunity to praise the helpful member of staff.
(2) Can someone explain for me, please, why the "U1-6 - Crawley" ticket wasn't anyway valid on the GWR train from Ealing Bdwy to Paddington. Isn't the "U1-6" part just a travelcard for Zones 1-6? Thanks.
bb21
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A single journey on LU/DLR services only. National Rail journeys should use tickets issued to named stations.
Thanks BB21.
Thanks for the replies and comments. Will drop GWR a note in the morning and update on reply. Also, the delay at Paddington resulted in the missing of the 1036 Service to Crawley from Victoria. I had to get the 1106 which was late, so got to my meeting late annoyingly.
gray1404
Established Member
I trust you will be raising this with the TOC concerned?
I can assure you that it has been raised.
gray1404
Established Member
Just to let you know that I submitted a letter to GWR, complaining about the attitude at the Gate Line, praising the RPI for their consideration and pointing out that there actions resulted in my overall journey being delayed by over 30 minutes. I received the following reply, which actually explains nothing;
Dear Mr XXXX
Making sure we give you great service
Thank you for getting in touch about your trip to Crawley on 4 April. I was concerned to learn about the incident you described after getting to Paddington.
We work hard to make sure we give our customers a great service, so its disappointing you feel so let down this time.
We do our best to help you wherever we can
We train all of our staff to a very high standard. That way they can help our customers stay safe, and get the right information when they need it. They can also help them with any requests they have.
When they are unable to help, we expect our staff to explain why they cant help, be polite, and see if theres anything else we can do. If that wasnt the case with the person you spoke to, Im sorry. Well be going through all the details of your complaint with them, and their manager, so we can make sure that the right policy is being followed.
Thanks for getting in touch
Thank you for taking the time to write. If there is anything else we can help you with; please do not hesitate to contact us again.
Yours sincerely
XXXX XXXX
Customer Support Advisor
Haywain
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A thread about similar problems at the Paddington gateline has just appeared on WNXX Interactive. It can be found here: http://www.wnxxforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11467
Llanigraham
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What a brilliant, well written, personal reply that addressed all your issues, compensated your loss and inconvenience, and enacted an action plan to rectify the problem in the future.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Or use google
Looks like the issue in question was
- OP had CDS Luton Airport to Winchester code restriction UT
- UT isn't valid on the 1835 that the OP was trying to board
- However NRE showed up that it was
If I gave the paddington gateline credit I would assume they would have checked the code for UT, and determined it wasn't valid on the train the OP was trying to catch and apologised.
traintimes.org (and I assume NRE) gives this as a valid itinerary for the ticket:
£42.50 for an Off-Peak Day Single
However code UT
http://www.brfares.com/#faredetail?orig=LUA&dest=WIN&ldn=1&tkt=CDS
Shows
The fact that NRE shows it as valid means that the barrier staff should have allowed the person through, despite the ticket not actually being valid.
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