I was travelling today with Avanti when the signalling failure happened this afternoon. I was originally travelling on an Avanti and Connections advance between Birmingham and London. Avanti staff were excellent and honest about the issue, and Avanti quickly announced ticket acceptance with Chiltern, which I decided to take advantage of.
Upon arriving at Moor Street I scanned my ticket, which obviously didn’t work. I approached the gateline staff, who asked me to scan my ticket, and informed me, without even looking at it, it is not valid as it was rejected. I explained it is an Avanti ticket, and there is ticket acceptance, and was told if it was valid for acceptance the gates would open. I showed the staff the NRE page stating ticket acceptance, and Avanti’s twitter saying the same, but they maintained if I could the barriers would let me through. This is an absolutely appalling lack of knowledge, it is not how Cubic barriers work. There was no application of common sense in what NRE said, just a computer says no approach. I eventually was forced to purchase another ticket for my chiltern journey.
Upon arrival at Marylebone there was a large group of people in front of me waiting to be manually let through (As I needed to retain my ticket I was forced to buy), who it turned out were Avanti passengers who had got through the Moor Street gateline. They were being told that their tickets were invalid because acceptance had ‘just ended’. There are two huge issues with this:
- Acceptance had not ended, in fact it is still advertised on NRE as I write this, 3 hours later. It was on showing staff this they were begrudgingly let through.
- the staff did not deny that acceptance was in place when they left Moor Street. However they were saying that because it had ended mid journey a whole new fare was due. It takes just the tiniest amount of common sense to see the issue here. It is absolutely appalling that the staff thing that that idea is acceptable.
In my opinion this happening at both ends shows a clear total lack of training on behalf of the staff, which isn’t localised to a single station. It’s absolutely appalling, and the worst experience I’ve had on the railway in a good few years. There was no accusation passenger had done anything wrong, just the gateline seemed to see it as a gotcha for more profit. I can absolutely see why people dislike the railway after situations like this.
I have of course put in a complaint to Chiltern, and will at least be pursuing it till I receive a refund for the ticket I was forced to purchase.
Upon arriving at Moor Street I scanned my ticket, which obviously didn’t work. I approached the gateline staff, who asked me to scan my ticket, and informed me, without even looking at it, it is not valid as it was rejected. I explained it is an Avanti ticket, and there is ticket acceptance, and was told if it was valid for acceptance the gates would open. I showed the staff the NRE page stating ticket acceptance, and Avanti’s twitter saying the same, but they maintained if I could the barriers would let me through. This is an absolutely appalling lack of knowledge, it is not how Cubic barriers work. There was no application of common sense in what NRE said, just a computer says no approach. I eventually was forced to purchase another ticket for my chiltern journey.
Upon arrival at Marylebone there was a large group of people in front of me waiting to be manually let through (As I needed to retain my ticket I was forced to buy), who it turned out were Avanti passengers who had got through the Moor Street gateline. They were being told that their tickets were invalid because acceptance had ‘just ended’. There are two huge issues with this:
- Acceptance had not ended, in fact it is still advertised on NRE as I write this, 3 hours later. It was on showing staff this they were begrudgingly let through.
- the staff did not deny that acceptance was in place when they left Moor Street. However they were saying that because it had ended mid journey a whole new fare was due. It takes just the tiniest amount of common sense to see the issue here. It is absolutely appalling that the staff thing that that idea is acceptable.
In my opinion this happening at both ends shows a clear total lack of training on behalf of the staff, which isn’t localised to a single station. It’s absolutely appalling, and the worst experience I’ve had on the railway in a good few years. There was no accusation passenger had done anything wrong, just the gateline seemed to see it as a gotcha for more profit. I can absolutely see why people dislike the railway after situations like this.
I have of course put in a complaint to Chiltern, and will at least be pursuing it till I receive a refund for the ticket I was forced to purchase.
