Queue Waiting.

[fowler9]

What happens in practice is that you choose not to go to Lime Street for leisure purposes

Yeah I just use the bus service run by a company owned by Deutsche Bahn instead. So before privatisation I used BR or MPTE. Now I use a train run by the French and Dutch state or a bus run by the German state.

 

[transmanche]

Now I use a train run by the French and Dutch state or a bus run by the German state.

I don't believe that Serco is owned (directly or indirectly) by the French state.

Although yes, I still find it bemusing that the UK government is such a great proponent of public transport being in state ownership - just so long as it's another state who owns it and not the UK!

 

[Clip]

Well then maybe a few members of management can staff the appropriate ticket offices for an extra few have? Obviously the police manage to have sufficient officers at the event and on the buses the 202 bus route which is normally operated with single deckers has double deckers to cope with the crowds, just a bit of forward planning.

Well for management to do that you have to close down a ticket office window let the clerk cash up and book off then the management have to go through the same process so you are looking at at least 45 minutes of a window being closed which then defeats the point of the exercise.

ETA: And that's not forgetting that if something kicks off then the management will be holed up in a booking office and unable to deal with the fallout so disruption could last longer and passengers have to wait longer for solutions because they're sat doing ticket office work. Oh and there's the little problem of the unions not liking it too.

I don't believe that Serco is owned (directly or indirectly) by the French state.

Although yes, I still find it bemusing that the UK government is such a great proponent of public transport being in state ownership - just so long as it's another state who owns it and not the UK!

Eh? Serco is a UK company.

 

[dcsprior]

This subject of how long it is reasonable to queue has come up before, almost certainly more than once.

Personally, I've not changed my opinion since I posted in this thread

I don't know the official answer to the OP's question of what the point is that passengers are no longer required to buy before boarding, but what'd seem fair is to treat excessive queues as a delay. Many (all?) TOCs publish waiting time targets , such as:

East Coast: Our target is that you need not wait to buy a ticket longer than five minutes during peak times or three minutes at other times. Peak times are shown on station information posters.

Scotrail: You will be served at our ticket offices within three minutes at off-peak times. At peak times it should take no longer than five minutes to be served. We will publish the times of these busy periods at each station.​

If these were treated as a delay for the purposes of Delay-Repay/etc, then it wouldn't remove the need to keep queuing, just like other types of delays don't allow you to travel without a ticket - but it may mean its in the TOC's interests to announce "the next service from platform XXX will have pay-on-train allowed today, due to large queues at the ticket office" instead of paying out the DR

I don't believe this could work with the current targets, as they seem very optimistic in some cases. Perhaps TOCs could have a "should/aim to" time and a "must/will" time.

 

[fowler9]

I don't believe that Serco is owned (directly or indirectly) by the French state.

Although yes, I still find it bemusing that the UK government is such a great proponent of public transport being in state ownership - just so long as it's another state who owns it and not the UK!

My bad. I thought part of Serco-Abelio was French state owned. I can't keep up with these multi nationals. Ha ha.

 

[island]

Wow I wasn't aware there was a law about queuing!!

There might be one in the Railway Byelaws, I can't remember or be bothered to check.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

There might be one in the Railway Byelaws, I can't remember or be bothered to check.

It's not too hard to find . . . . it's Railway Byelaw number 1 !

It's also there in the Byelaws for TfL and Strathclyde PTE, again in the number 1 position.

 

[Rheilfordd]

I am at a loss to understand the point being made in the above post. I was the passenger who witnessed the incident, I have no axe to grind, I merely recounted the incident exactly as I perceived it, including my personal perception of unreasonable and intimidating behaviour. Both towards the lady involved and to myself.

This perception appeared to be shared by other passengers as they also intervened, in itself a most unusual situation on trains around London.

The words in my post were chosen based on the facts of what actually happened on that train. I can therefore only assume that the writer who considers my post a "rant" and suggests that the inclusion of "magical" words such as "intimidation" confirms some ulterior motive on my behalf, must be biased as well as rude.

Perhaps the behaviour was entirely justified because it has been established beyond any reasonable doubt by people with no knowledge of the circumstances, that the lady involved in this incident was part of a ruthless, Southend based, fare dodging cartel :-?

For all the cynics who jumped on my post with immediate assumptions of fare dodgers. The truth is even worse. Extract below from the Southend Echo,linked below to full article.


7:30am Tuesday 27th January 2015 in News.

COMMUTERS fear fines and even prosecution after a train station was left without a ticket machine or vending staff.

Prittlewell train station, on the Greater Anglia line, has been unmanned since the beginning of December due to staff sickness.

The ticket machine is also out of order, with a notice telling customers to pay at the ticket office.

The office has not been open before 9am, meaning commuters have to board trains without a ticket.

Katie Dukes, 22, of Bournemouth Park Road, Southend, commutes to Brentwood every day and did not renew her usual travel pass because of time-off coming up.

She said: “I’ve complained to about four different people and was told the machine should have been fixed weeks ago, but it hasn’t stopped me being threatened with a fine from a ticket inspector.

“Thankfully, there were two others with him who pointed out I couldn't be fined if the ticket machine wasn’t working, and luckily I’d taken pictures on my phone to prove it. If they didn’t speak up, I probably would have got a fine or even been taken to court.

http://m.echo-news.co.uk/news/11750401.We_cannot_buy_our_rail_tickets/

Welcome to AGA Land.

 

[island]

I have a contrary experience. Travelling on a Sunday earlier this year, two RPIs joined my train to Southend Victoria and were only too happy to sell a ticket to a passenger who joined at an unstaffed station.