I booked online a ticket for travel tomorrow between Cressington and Huddersfield, via Liverpool South Parkway. Cressington is only one stop from Parkway, but as the fare is the same I wanted to avoid having to pay the £1 or so for that bit of the journey (yes I am a Yorkshireman). I went to Parkway to collect the tickets (including reservation) from the TVM but although it was selling tickets for cash it was not taking cards or issuing prebooked tickets.
I had an interesting conversation with a very courteous and friendly member of Merseyrail staff. She explained that the ticket office was unable to issue the tickets because it is run by Merseyrail whereas the TVM belongs to Northern (the train I will be using is Transpennine Express). She said that if I had been travelling today she could have issued a permit to travel, but they are unable to issue these in advance so I would need to pick one up tomorrow (if the machine is still not working).
That would be fine but it still means I would be liable to pay the (Merseyrail) fare from Cressington. According to the conditions of carriage that is the case even if it is impossible for me to collect my ticket for reasons beyond my control. The staff member was very understanding and reasonable about this and said that if there was any problem getting through the barrier tomorrow to mention her name and she would sort it out.
So there is no real problem for me tomorrow (and I would shrug my shoulders and pay the extra fare to Merseyrail if I had to). But it highlights several things.
[1] There is only one ticket vending machine at this station marketed as an international hub serving the airport. It is frequently breaking down. The ticket office doubles (in Merseyrail style) as a shop selling magazines, drinks, confectionery etc. Frequently the queues are long and it is easy to miss a train despite leaving plenty of time.
[2] The station is served by five TOCs (it will be six, temporarily, when Lime Street is closed for a month shortly). Yet there seems to be little co-ordination between Merseyrail who operate the station, and the other TOCs, including Northern who are responsible for this machine.
[3] It's outrageous for a passenger who has already paid for the journey, and has confirmation of that with an email and booking reference, to be treated as if they were a fare dodger just because they are unable to get hold of the right piece of card.
[4] If one is making a journey on a connecting train from a station without a TVM, it is inconvenient to have to make a prior journey to another station simply to pick up a prebooked ticket. Worse than that if the journey was in vain as in my case. Why can't booking office staff print the tickets if a machine is unavailable?
[5] In other countries e-tickets are common. I believe there are some services in Britain where there are available. Since a ticket is simply proof of purchase of the right to travel, why is it impossible in this technological age to accept electronic evidence?
[6] Bearing in mind that this particular station, along with many others, is likely to be used by many people, British and foreign, with little familiarity with the Kafka-esque workings of the British railway system, finding a much more user-friendly system is surely a priority.
I had an interesting conversation with a very courteous and friendly member of Merseyrail staff. She explained that the ticket office was unable to issue the tickets because it is run by Merseyrail whereas the TVM belongs to Northern (the train I will be using is Transpennine Express). She said that if I had been travelling today she could have issued a permit to travel, but they are unable to issue these in advance so I would need to pick one up tomorrow (if the machine is still not working).
That would be fine but it still means I would be liable to pay the (Merseyrail) fare from Cressington. According to the conditions of carriage that is the case even if it is impossible for me to collect my ticket for reasons beyond my control. The staff member was very understanding and reasonable about this and said that if there was any problem getting through the barrier tomorrow to mention her name and she would sort it out.
So there is no real problem for me tomorrow (and I would shrug my shoulders and pay the extra fare to Merseyrail if I had to). But it highlights several things.
[1] There is only one ticket vending machine at this station marketed as an international hub serving the airport. It is frequently breaking down. The ticket office doubles (in Merseyrail style) as a shop selling magazines, drinks, confectionery etc. Frequently the queues are long and it is easy to miss a train despite leaving plenty of time.
[2] The station is served by five TOCs (it will be six, temporarily, when Lime Street is closed for a month shortly). Yet there seems to be little co-ordination between Merseyrail who operate the station, and the other TOCs, including Northern who are responsible for this machine.
[3] It's outrageous for a passenger who has already paid for the journey, and has confirmation of that with an email and booking reference, to be treated as if they were a fare dodger just because they are unable to get hold of the right piece of card.
[4] If one is making a journey on a connecting train from a station without a TVM, it is inconvenient to have to make a prior journey to another station simply to pick up a prebooked ticket. Worse than that if the journey was in vain as in my case. Why can't booking office staff print the tickets if a machine is unavailable?
[5] In other countries e-tickets are common. I believe there are some services in Britain where there are available. Since a ticket is simply proof of purchase of the right to travel, why is it impossible in this technological age to accept electronic evidence?
[6] Bearing in mind that this particular station, along with many others, is likely to be used by many people, British and foreign, with little familiarity with the Kafka-esque workings of the British railway system, finding a much more user-friendly system is surely a priority.
