London Midland ticket office holiday closures.

[jaigee]

I am amazed that LM decided that Tuesday, one of the busiest days on the system, that Nuneaton ticket office would be still be closed for the holiday.

The queue for the sole ticket machine even at mid-day overspilled from the foyer and along the outer wall of the station for 20-30 yards. Many people joining the queue were unaware that it was for the machine only and, upon realising, just abandoned their journey. The chaos was further compounded by approximately 50% of people being unfamiliar with the machine when they eventually reached it.

Anybody with pre-booked tickets who had allowed the normal collection time would have had no chance to catch their booked trains.

I eventually made it to Coventry where I noticed that all the Virgin ticket windows were open as normal!

 

[ivanhoe]

I know that Nuneaton is in the penalty fare zone. Does this apply when the ticket office is closed?

 

[jaigee]

This is from the LM site:

We take fraudulent travel very seriously and are continuously working to reduce the opportunity for travelling on any of our services without a ticket. To this end, Penalty Fares Schemes operate on the majority of London Midland routes and services. Special ticket checks will take place from time to time at all our stations and if you do not have a valid ticket you may well be delayed or delay others. When travelling with London Midland, you must carry a valid ticket for the class of travel required (and valid railcard if appropriate) for your entire journey. If a station does not have a ticket office, the ticket office is closed or this facility is unavailable, a ticket can be purchased from the self-service ticket machine(s) at the station. If the ticket you require is not available from the self-service ticket machine(s), then a ‘Permit to Travel’ should be purchased from the machine at the station. Failure to purchase a valid ticket for your entire journey may leave you liable to pay a Penalty Fare of £20 or twice the appropriate full single fare to the next station stop, whichever is the greater. If a disabled passenger is unable to obtain a ticket from the facilities available on a station, a ticket can be issued on the train (including Disabled Railcard discounts as appropriate) irrespective of whether the journey is within a penalty fares zone.

It appears that if the ticket office is closed and there is a ticket machine you must obtain a ticket/permit to avoid the penalty.

 

[87015]

They are just useless. Full SX service last friday = wedged all afternoon on four cars then twelve cars carrying fresh air in the evening peak. Today, Sat service, no strengthening, so morning 'peak' was 2tph 4 cars from north of Tring, F&S from Hemel in.

And as an extra point, the 0713 M.Keynes-Clapham Southern and the 0716 Bletchley - Euston had clashing schedules all the way at the West Coast so some quality planning there compounded by a complete lack of validation by MK Network Rail planning. Quality railway :roll:

 

[bengolding]

I find the LM ticket machines are much more user-unfriendly than the Virgin FastTicket machines, taking much longer to print out tickets.

Even at peak times, Nuneaton often only has 1 window open, or none at all during the day for no reason. On the few occasions I use the horrible Coventry shuttle, many people buy tickets from the guard who obliges, when the ticket office is open. If Nuneaton is in a Penalty Fare Zone, I've yet to see RPIs on any trains enforcing this.

 

[Greenback]

Putting my cynical hat on, perhaps LM have decided to save money by not covering ticket office duties and instead charging everyone unable to buy a ticket a PF instead?

Setting my cynical hat aside for a moment, perhaps it was a short notice absence which meant that LM had insufficient resources?

What do people think is more likely?

 

[Greeby]

Putting my cynical hat on, perhaps LM have decided to save money by not covering ticket office duties and instead charging everyone unable to buy a ticket a PF instead?

Setting my cynical hat aside for a moment, perhaps it was a short notice absence which meant that LM had insufficient resources?

What do people think is more likely?

Combination of both. I can't speak to the specifics of Nuneaton's roster, but the general state of play is that vacancies have been piling up at London Midland booking offices for 2-3 years now. To the point that on any given day a good dozen or more stations have either no late shift or are closed completely for the day. You want head office' vision of the future? The OP just experienced it

 

[Greenback]

Combination of both. I can't speak to the specifics of Nuneaton's roster, but the general state of play is that vacancies have been piling up at London Midland booking offices for 2-3 years now. To the point that on any given day a good dozen or more stations have either no late shift or are closed completely for the day. You want head office' vision of the future? The OP just experienced it

Then my latter, non cynical, reason is a direct result of my cynical reason?!

 

[SS4]

Putting my cynical hat on, perhaps LM have decided to save money by not covering ticket office duties and instead charging everyone unable to buy a ticket a PF instead?

Setting my cynical hat aside for a moment, perhaps it was a short notice absence which meant that LM had insufficient resources?

What do people think is more likely?

I think it should be Which is more likely

It does make me interested given LM's plan to cut ticket office hours (and presumably staff) in the West Midlands (does anyone know if it is/was a centro mandate to staff stations when trains were running?)

 

[Greeby]

Then my latter, non cynical, reason is a direct result of my cynical reason?!

Well, in the sense that the motivation is a cynical and greedy one. But part of a long-term agenda to remove human beings from ticket selling, rather than short-notice staff issues.

 

[Greenback]

I think it should be Which is more likely

You are correct, it's been a long day!

 

[MKB]

The windows in Nuneaton were shut at 17:00 last Wednesday (21st) as well despite posted notices saying they should be manned until much later. I had to collect tickets for the 17:17 and only just made it after a very stressful wait. If it were not for the fact that the woman in front of me realised pretty quickly that she couldn't work the machine and gave up, I would have missed my train.

 

[jaigee]

Setting my cynical hat aside for a moment, perhaps it was a short notice absence which meant that LM had insufficient resources?

It was not a short term absence but part of the Christmas closure schedule, which most people were not aware of until they arrived at the station to travel and would only then see the posted notices.

I assume most people thought the same as me and that Tuesday would be a normal open day, considering that there was virtually a full train service.

 

[AndyHA]

As First Capital Connect used to say " ( Ticket ) Machines are the way forward " Well it was that excuse they used a couple of years back to cut out 16 Ticket offices posts !

 

[MKB]

29/12 Update: since my last visit, a notice of "Festive Opening Times" has been posted by each window in Nuneaton. Which is pretty useless if you've made a special trip to the station for which you need a member of staff and you find a notice telling you it's closed.

The LM website is still saying that the windows are open until 21:00 (21:30 Sundays): http://www.londonmidland.com/your-journey/station-info/NUN/ You couldn't make it up.

 

[Greenback]

It was not a short term absence but part of the Christmas closure schedule, which most people were not aware of until they arrived at the station to travel and would only then see the posted notices.

I assume most people thought the same as me and that Tuesday would be a normal open day, considering that there was virtually a full train service.

It is a reasonable assumption, given that the railway usually operates almost normally on public holidays.

I am appalled that LM even had a Christmas closure schedule, even more so that it included Tuesday 27 December. Even in a small station like Llanelli the ticket office was open as normal!

As First Capital Connect used to say " ( Ticket ) Machines are the way forward " Well it was that excuse they used a couple of years back to cut out 16 Ticket offices posts !

TVM's will not be the way forward until theya re able to sell the same, full, range of tickets as a ticket office.

29/12 Update: since my last visit, a notice of "Festive Opening Times" has been posted by each window in Nuneaton. Which is pretty useless if you've made a special trip to the station for which you need a member of staff and you find a notice telling you it's closed.

It seems that LM find it diffcult to get their heads around the fact that people might not actually plan their journeys weeks in advance - obviously if you are cheeky enough to want to use their trains, you need to enquire ahead of time whether they will be willing to sell you a ticket on the day!

The LM website is still saying that the windows are open until 21:00 (21:30 Sundays): http://www.londonmidland.com/your-journey/station-info/NUN/ You couldn't make it up.

Why am I not surprised by this???