GNER allows rovers after all!

[Techniquest]

Two words spring to mind...'Outrageous!' and 'Disgusting!'. To think some of these TOCs win awards for their training programmes. Granted, New Street staff aren't with a TOC, but still, their training provider should be disgusted.

Your report of the guy with the ALR not being recognised rings true with joy54 IIRC, on his ALR trip last year. We were on the way to Fishguard or Johnston (he continued to Milford Haven, James and I went to Johnston to tick it off), the ATF conductor didn't know what it was, we explained to him what it was and asked him if his machine was capable of selling it, which it was suprisingly. He did say that he'd not seen one before and would have refused it! hock:

I tell you, if only I was a conductor, there'd be no such problems, what with memorising of the rovers' rules and maps, at least I would know what I could accept on my services if presented with a rover. Still, I'd no doubt end up selling SDS all day, putting up with blantantly obvious 17 and 18 year olds trying to buy a child ticket too...

Maybe we should all write to the RPC (I don't know its new name) and complain, this is out of hand. The staff at New Street didn't recognise my HoE rover, the only thing they understood on it was 'Cardiff Central', where I had had to buy my rover en-route for Hereford as I knew HFD's staff couldn't get it done in time. I've also had CT drivers who seemed to know it all tell me my WMDR was not valid to Redditch (his moan was that I had stepped off at Barnt Green during the 8-minute wait...), I then showed the conductor who came up and asked to see it the map proving it was valid. Good thing I had it printed off at HFD on that day. I had only been looking for the side number on the 323 carriage so I knew which one I was riding in before we went (we did have some minutes to go), why the CT driver was suspect of me I don't know, but that's that.

Even madder than ever before, ending the weekly Sunday rant, FGWFan. :x

 

[AlexS]

New Street staff are employed by Virgin Trains and Central Trains, they both have their own set of staff, they just interchangeable (ie might find a Virgin dispatcher sending out a Central service and vice versa).

 

[Jim]

On the rover point, you CAN buy the WSX FOSS/SW/DC ON the train, but hardly anyone knows how to do them. Good bit of referemce for you

 

[Techniquest]

But not with a Y-P or other railcard, that's one thing that they get you on. You certainly can't buy the rover on a Voyager unless boarding at a station with no ticket facilities!

Always a better idea to buy before you get on board anyway. Whether the station knows how to issue it is another thing...

 

[Jim]

Always a better idea to buy before you get on board anyway. Whether the station knows how to issue it is another thing...

TRO don't open till 0640, the train leaves at 0638 :roll:

 

[metrocammel]

But not with a Y-P or other railcard, that's one thing that they get you on. You certainly can't buy the rover on a Voyager unless boarding at a station with no ticket facilities!

Always a better idea to buy before you get on board anyway. Whether the station knows how to issue it is another thing...

He he.... Someone bought a child GM Ranger on a Voyager from Macclesfield tuther' day. The guard found the ticket and sold it.... £1.45 instead of a £3.00+ return.... I, on the other hand was on a perfectly valid saver rtn portion from Stoke.

And in theory, any ticket machine, be it SPORTIS, APTIS or any of the new generation machines can sell ANY ticket. So you ask for a Coast and Peaks on a train in Devon, with a SPORTIS he can sell it to you.. with relative ease, though it isn't in his training... plus he would have to call someone for the fares, as he wont have the full fares manual no doubt. he cant however sell "flexis" as sportis stock has no boxes obviously... Guards on sportis are also not allowed to sell monthly seasons, as monthly season tickets are reinforced, usually by a thin platicy layer in the ticket, which makes them (nearly) impossible to rip.

 

[Techniquest]

Come on down and tell the conductors that. I swear, if I went and asked for a rover, as well as being looked at as if I were mad, they'd refuse to sell it on knowledge and machine incapability grounds.

 

[Mojo]

Pfft, Chiltern Railways struggled to issue an ALR on APTIS, in the ticket office!
Not only had they never heard of one 'til I directed them to the URL on National Rail Website (they don't have barcode books or NFM in the station (apparently ATOC? want to save on printing costs), but they also issued a "mutant" ticket the 1st time, and the machine was misprogrammed on the 2nd go, where I printed the instructions from the eNFM.

If that's the training for ticket office staff, I dread to think what an RPI would do with a SPORTIS!

 

[metrocammel]

Pfft, Chiltern Railways struggled to issue an ALR on APTIS, in the ticket office!
Not only had they never heard of one 'til I directed them to the URL on National Rail Website (they don't have barcode books or NFM in the station (apparently ATOC? want to save on printing costs).

Didn't they have access to the eNFM at Aylesbury, in which case it should have been "a piece of cake" to issue, with no need for a barcode.

If that's the training for ticket office staff, I dread to think what an RPI would do with a SPORTIS!

LOL, yes, but I was just saying what should happen, but would probably only really happen if all RPI's / TTI's were automated....!!! And even then they would only be as good as the programmer, so they probably still wouldnt know how to issue many of the "tougher" tickets....

 

[Mojo]

Didn't they have access to the eNFM at Aylesbury, in which case it should have been "a piece of cake" to issue, with no need for a barcode.

I assume so, as at the time the eNFM was avaliable for all online, but still I don't think they knew what they're doing as they were on the phone for about 45 minutes.

Though I think poor TO staff is a thing across Chiltern (generally speaking). The other week at Birmingham Moor Street the man had never seen a priv before, and took my ticket wallet away for 5 minutes, when he returned "Sorry this isn't valid with us" - me actually noticing he had my First Great Western 'Forward' membership card in his hand :roll:, and it'd happenned at Leamington Spa last year, with one of the RPIs (a friend of my dad), who was doing a spot check having to tell the man what they are.
It also happenned at Aylesbury in December, and a time in June when they tried to charge me £7 for a Child Priv ticket

Suffice to say, I now retain ten PRIV issued tickets in my wallet for a variety of journeys to prove to staff they DO actually exist.

 

[Jim]

he cant however sell "flexis" as sportis stock has no boxes obviously... Guards on sportis are also not allowed to sell monthly seasons, as monthly season tickets are reinforced, usually by a thin platicy layer in the ticket, which makes them (nearly) impossible to rip.

They stick boxs on the ticket (issue as a 2 piece)

 

[Techniquest]

Indeed, I had exceptional value out of my last Freedom of South Wales! Probably about £40 more than usual! All thanks to the new systems!

 

[metrocammel]

They stick boxs on the ticket (issue as a 2 piece) - That makes it easier not to mark your days off 8)

No, they can only do that with Avantix, SPORTIS definately doesnt print boxes, unless down your way they use SPORTIS with some sort of patch to make it do boxes, but AFAIK Wessex has Avantix.

 

[Jim]

They stick boxs on the ticket (issue as a 2 piece) - That makes it easier not to mark your days off 8)

No, they can only do that with Avantix, SPORTIS definately doesnt print boxes, unless down your way they use SPORTIS with some sort of patch to make it do boxes, but AFAIK Wessex has Avantix.

I dunno

 

[steve158]

Two words spring to mind...'Outrageous!' and 'Disgusting!'. To think some of these TOCs win awards for their training programmes. Granted, New Street staff aren't with a TOC, but still, their training provider should be disgusted.

Your report of the guy with the ALR not being recognised rings true with joy54 IIRC, on his ALR trip last year. We were on the way to Fishguard or Johnston (he continued to Milford Haven, James and I went to Johnston to tick it off), the ATF conductor didn't know what it was, we explained to him what it was and asked him if his machine was capable of selling it, which it was suprisingly. He did say that he'd not seen one before and would have refused it! hock:

I tell you, if only I was a conductor, there'd be no such problems, what with memorising of the rovers' rules and maps, at least I would know what I could accept on my services if presented with a rover. Still, I'd no doubt end up selling SDS all day, putting up with blantantly obvious 17 and 18 year olds trying to buy a child ticket too...

sometimes there's things you don't deal with in a while and you forget. i had to an excess a london evesham ticket the other day to travel via euston and i made a balls-up of it. or doing a wheelchair passenger discount.

while i'm on a rant i was doing tickets a couple of days ago and out of nothing the back of the printer door on my avantix flew open. load of rubbish, bring back sportis :x

i see plenty of ALRs, Day rangers and other rovers though.

 

[steve158]

New Street staff are employed by Virgin Trains and Central Trains, they both have their own set of staff, they just interchangeable (ie might find a Virgin dispatcher sending out a Central service and vice versa).

Central Staff are responsible for Train Dispatch.

Virgin Staff("Couldn't care less team")are responsible for Station Assistance.

 

[Techniquest]

Two words spring to mind...'Outrageous!' and 'Disgusting!'. To think some of these TOCs win awards for their training programmes. Granted, New Street staff aren't with a TOC, but still, their training provider should be disgusted.

Your report of the guy with the ALR not being recognised rings true with joy54 IIRC, on his ALR trip last year. We were on the way to Fishguard or Johnston (he continued to Milford Haven, James and I went to Johnston to tick it off), the ATF conductor didn't know what it was, we explained to him what it was and asked him if his machine was capable of selling it, which it was suprisingly. He did say that he'd not seen one before and would have refused it! hock:

I tell you, if only I was a conductor, there'd be no such problems, what with memorising of the rovers' rules and maps, at least I would know what I could accept on my services if presented with a rover. Still, I'd no doubt end up selling SDS all day, putting up with blantantly obvious 17 and 18 year olds trying to buy a child ticket too...

sometimes there's things you don't deal with in a while and you forget. i had to an excess a london evesham ticket the other day to travel via euston and i made a balls-up of it. or doing a wheelchair passenger discount.

while i'm on a rant i was doing tickets a couple of days ago and out of nothing the back of the printer door on my avantix flew open. load of rubbish, bring back sportis :x

i see plenty of ALRs, Day rangers and other rovers though.

Really? It always feel like you're the only one on a rover when I'm doing one!

I know that forgetting thing well, the difference between Hot Chicken Salads and Chicken Caesar Salads was forgotten a few times between September and November, which I did find embarassing, considering I thought myself to be one of the better makers of salads in our kitchen!