Great Western Coffee Shop

OK, so the lack of a decent G&T from a FGW buffet is something I can live with, but the random opening hours of Bristol Temple Meads' booking office is something I'm less happy about.

No longer can I rely on the published opening hours. Yet again today it was closed during its published opening hours, and yet again the Duty Station Manager tells me this is due to staff shortages. That's the same reason/excuse I've been given over the last 12 months when I've enquired as to why the booking office is shut when it should be open. I don't believe you anymore FGW. I think you are actually not bothered about providing a booking office service at Bristol Temple Meads and these 'closures' are a stealthy move to show that the booking office is not needed. You've already removed Saturday opening and started opening later in the morning. Penny pinching at its worst.

I wanted a SailRail ticket today and I knew that this would not be an easy transaction so didn't wish to tie up a ticket clerk at one of the (just) two windows open. But I had no choice and felt sorry for the folks behind me in the queue who were probably just after tickets for travel today.

Oh, and the platitude offered by the DSM was two new TVMs being installed shortly. Needed I agree, but not as a replacement for the booking office.

I take it you are referring to the 'Travel Centre' BNM? Going the same way as the travel centre that was at Bath Spa which of course no longer exists :(

Before it finally closed, when they did the lovely refurbishment of the Bath Spa ticket office area (tongue firmly in cheek), it would often close early or not be open at all 'due to staff shortages'. I find it amazing that they don't open the Bristol travel centre on Saturdays anymore. A time when I thought trade would be good for those booking advance tickets and tickets for overseas travel.

There was a time when the travel centre at Bath Spa would be open on Sundays but the one at Bristol Temple Meads was closed. I guess the tourists kept demand up enough to warrant keeping the Bath Spa travel centre open for longer hours than the one at Bristol.

Whilst we are on this topic. Another travel centre that was a sad loss IMHO was the one down at Weymouth. Same story there too. Closed more than it was open 'due to staff shortages' towards the end of its life. Since it closed several years ago it remains an empty shell to this day as SWT have not been able to lease it out.

So.. and I might be wrong.. Is the "travel office" the only place that you can currently buy tickets from a "real person" rather than a machine at BTM? In which case, for once, Maidenhead station is such a better place for ticket buying :-)

Although not FGW, Newport Travel Centre (ATW) failed to resurface after the refurbishment at the station.

Yes I did mean 'Travel Centre'. When writing my rant I was trying to distinguish between 'booking office' and 'ticket windows'.

'Travel Centre' was the term I was looking for but couldn't for the life of me remember what I should be calling it!

I know that human interaction when it comes to ticket sales is diminishing, what with online sales and TVMs being such a large part of the business these days, but there is still a need for these 'Travel Centres' at larger stations.

ATOC have fupped up the recent changes to RailSail meaning that, at the moment, it is not possible to buy these tickets online. Even when, prior to the changes, it was possible to buy RailSail online, I preferred to buy my rickets from a human so as to ensure all bookings were correctly made.

And, as many of you know, I often buy split tickets on the day of travel (as well as PlusBus, excesses, seat reservations and tickets for future travel at the same time) and prefer to do this at a Travel Centre, conscious that my esoteric needs may tie up a booking clerk for some minutes. These are things I can't do from a TVM and would rather not p155 off those behind me in the queue for a ticket window. Ticket windows which, at Bristol Temple Meads, always have their 'Tickets for today only' illuminated sign displayed.....

Bristol Temple Meads is a large enough, and busy enough, station to warrant a separate 'Travel Centre'. I'm doing my bit to use it or lose it, but it isn't easy to use it when it ain't open when it should be.....

There's a place for online sales and TVMs, but it shouldn't be at the expense of Travel Centres/Future Travel Offices at stations as large and as busy as Bristol Temple Meads.

I worry that future, less prescriptive, franchise agreements will see TOCs pair down the ticketing provision provided by knowledgeable humans. SWT have already gone down this route, arguing that they are predominately a commuter network, so don't need Travel Centres. Failing to realise that not everyone who turns up at their larger stations is a commuter with relatively simple needs.....

Thanks for that bignosemac.. I couldn't quite work it out from what you had posted... At least there are always some "real people" selling tickets even if the travel centre is closed.. Although I agree that it makes sense to have the travel centre open at larger stations.. well it makes sense to us anyway  :)

Er... my terminology in the original rant may've caused confusion.

Bristol Temple Meads (that's BRI, BTW  :P ;)) has up to 5 ticket windows, 4 TVMs and a 'Travel Centre' with up to 4 positions.

Usual daytime (8am-6pm) staffing is 2/3 windows and 2 positions in the Travel Centre, with 4 windows open in the morning peak and if you're really lucky an extra human either in the Travel Centre or someone stood in the booking hall armed with an Avantix. The person armed with an Avantix is often just a TM/Conductor drafted in to cover the ever present 'staff shortages' and will only process simple ticket requests.  ::)

Been a while though since I've been through BRI early doors and needed to buy complex/esoteric ticket combinations, so can't say for sure what the staffing is on a busy Monday morning!

As ever there is a conflict between customer service and costs.

Do members of this forum want the rail industry to reduce costs (as suggested by McNulty)?  If the answer is yes then this means that the industry must shift sales to the cheapest channels which are web or phone.

Alternatively if you want to have fantastic customer service with lots of travel centre staff who is going to pay?

I'm not sure that the two are mutually exclusive, though. 

Fantastic customer service requires enough staff to service the customer requirement, not necessarily lots.  There are system issues that lead to overcomplexities that require a real person to help, when customers would be very happy to use a simple machine / on line system if they could.   Start to sort out some of those issues - offer the customer a carrot to use the lower costs systems, improve systems for booking office staff, and you can have fantastic customer service at a good price.

Specific examples?   Here are a couple personally.

I would love to be able to go online just before I leave home, buy my ticket and print it out.  I travel quite often on a Sunday evening and I'm not sure until the day where I'll be leaving from - it depends on what else is happening that day, so what time I'll be able to leave, and thus whether I can catch the regional train up to Chippenham, or have to get a lift to an Intercity station such as Westbury or Chippenham - where I'm likely to use the chap in the ticket office rather than fight the machine, especially as I'm likely to be travelling in sections such that some of my tickets won't be issueable by the machines.

I had a group to take from Melksham to Swindon and back in December, and tried to order the tickets online.  I couldn't, because the size of my party exceeded the maximum number on a booking.  I tried by phone, but found that I would be putting through several transactions with the group booking section, a further transaction with the regular booking people (for a handful of the party who were joining at an earlier station), special delivery charges for the tickets (because I didn't have exact final numbers until the day before).  So I went to my friendly local manned station, where I approached the desk at a time that no train was due.   The helpful gent could have been much more efficient in serving me had he been able to issue Groupsave tickets all on a single voucher (not one voucher per person), but apparently that's not possible at that ticket office with the particular systems they have.

In each case, I would love to have left the fantastic staff (they usually are!) to be able to help people who needed help because they really needed advise and help, rather than to serve me simply because the other system can't handle my needs as well or with the confidence that I need.

You misunderstand McNulty.  His review was all about getting value for money.  Ticket sales are a small part of the picture, but illustrate the point well.  It isn't a choice between
doing something properly and expensively or badly and cheaply.  It is about doing things better.  So for example, the way to reduce the need for expensive staff taking ages over selling tickets is to do things like simplify the fares and/or improve training so that each member of staff can sell more tickets faster and be more productive.  Even small things like reducing the number of bits of card involved in buying a fare would speed things up slightly and then sudenly an accountant in Swindon notices that the staff in the booking office are actually earning their keep very well and decides that another clerk can be recruited. 

productivity needs to me improved.  This is sometimes misunderstood as  making staff work harder but it ought to be about helping them to work smarter.

The frieght railway has demonstrated that this can be done.  Their productivity is up at the same time as staff pay has increased essentially because each driver now carries twice the goods he/she used to.   The passenger railway has failed to do this and although fares income has rocketed they have failed to keep costs from increasing at exactly the same rate. 

Both of the last two posts make good points which I accept - the industry needs better systems which are easy to use and the current ticketing systems make this difficult.  We also must make it easy to collect tickets either via smartcard or TVM (there are reliability issues).  Print@home should be OK but there are serious revenue protection issues and barcodes are unlikely to become widespread with the advent of ITSO and NFC (Near Field Communications) based on phones.

I don^t think the future lies in staffed ticket selling - I want to see staff out on platforms and the concourse advising and helping passengers not sitting behind glass.  We need smarter web applications and TVMs possibly with direct access to and advisor via a webcam.  In the future we will purchase and hold our ticket on a phone which we can then check visually and which will operate gates.

Finally - Airlines don^t have offices and if you choose to book via an Agent it costs more than use of the web.  It is the same (for a very simple transaction) at the cinema where there are no ticket booths.

My 78 year old mother is a complete convert to telesales - her local station ticket office closed years ago and she is confident she gets the cheapest ticket over the phone with fulfilment via post.  Although she lives 100 miles from London she has an Oyster in her handbag for when she uses TfL and I am sure will use her ITSO (Bus pass) for rail tickets when  it is available in a couple of years.   

I'm am always nervous when I but tickets online, as I am never sure whether it's sold me the right ticket.

I don't use the TVM at Taplow preferring to make a special journey to buy at  the station if I'm travelling after 13:00.

Even when you are sold the right ticket by staff our Club 55 tickets were queried by the TM who said they weren't valid on that particular train although he didn't do anything about it as he said there were others Club 55s on the train.

As Tim says the only way to get productivity in the booking office is to simply fares remove most of the restrictions, sort out split ticket anolmolies etc.

Another other way is Grand Central's sell reasonably priced tickets on the train.

My bestman used to run the BR Travel Centre in Regent Street at which he vastly increased their turnover by arranging towns to do promotions etc and then sell tourist tickets to that town. Unfortunately as it was a Southern Region asset so it fell victim to Eastern Region jelousy, as he was selling too many York tickets and ER wasn't getting any credit! Despite the fact it was all BR revenue!

Ideally ATOC should run travel centres but they never could because the TOCS could never agree and it would show up the sham of TOCs trying to compete.

That would never be practical for franchised TOC's, you'd need about 10 ticket examiners on every train.

:( While I agree 100% with the original poster, be thankful you are not in NXEA land, whole ticket offices close hours earlier than advertised times due to staff shortages on a VERY regular basis even at very large stations like Norwich or Colchester !

I agree Cornish Traveller that ticket offices/travel centres not being open when they should be is not restricted to FGW land by any means. TOCs should be fined when they don't provide the advertised manned ticket office facilities. Or maybe they are?

Closed again yesterday morning, Friday 2nd March at 0830, with sign on the window saying only open between 1100-1500.

Spoke with the station manager, Glyn Beck about this, who seemed totally dismissive of any concerns I raised. He was unable, or unwilling, to give a straight answer. I pressed him on whether today's reduced hours were again down to staff sickness/annual leave, but he wouldn't say. So I asked whether it was just down to insufficient staff, full stop, as the travel centre is far too often not open as advertised. Again, no real answer.

So I asked, directly, "Why isn't it opened as advertised today?"

"I don't know", was the reply!

"Could you find out?" I asked.

"No. It's open 1100-1500, that's all I can tell you."

I got the impression Glyn Beck couldn't care less about travel centre opening times at Bristol and perhaps he is in agreement with what appears to be wider policy across many TOCs that sees them closing dedicated travel centres. If Bristol goes though, FGW or its sucessor will be alone of the inter-city TOCs in only having one dedicated travel centre.

I also got the impression that Glyn Beck doesn't care for passengers approaching him to raise issues such as this. OK. I won't in future. I'll go through Customer Service channels, making it clear that my local station manager appears dismissive of customer complaints.

A shame really, because the team under Glyn Beck, his Duty Station Managers, are a generally approachable bunch who will listen, understand and find out wherever possible.

The last three occasions I have passed through Temple Meads booking office (2pm Friday, 10am Sat, 2pm Sat, so differing times) the queues have been to the door into the Brunel shed. So I pity any unsuspecting passengers turning up with less than 15 minutes to their train needing to buy a ticket (or retrieve an advance ticket, which clearly has its own issues if the train is missed).

It seems wrong that FGW have clearly got inadequate ticketing facilities at one of their largest stations. How many times, every day, are passengers inconvenienced by missing their train because of it?     

Whilst on the subject of booking offices. Popped into Bath Spa last weekend to see if they had any of the new Sunday timetables (white as opposed to blue) on the racks. Wasn't surprised to see they weren't. Do they have them available at the travel centre at Bristol Temple Meads or at any other FGW station?

It's good that FGW make the effort to produce them but they need to be put on display or they will end up in the bin come May tt change. Think FGW HQ need to let their station managers know that they need to be put out.

Very disappointing to see a dismissive response like that from a senior manager. Probably too much to hope that any other FGW management reading this will act on it but you never know...

May I just re-iterate that my bugbear, in this thread, is the failure of FGW to open their travel centre at Bristol Temple Meads as advertised.

A side issue is the fact that BRI only has (most days) four ticket windows (extremely rarely, five) and maybe one additional 'floor walker' with an Avantix. What also doesn't help is only four FastTicket machines, with only two of those geared up to accept cash.

When the travel centre is closed during its advertised opening hours, this puts additional pressure on the already meagre ticketing provision. Particularly when those four open windows all advertise 'Today's Tickets Only'.

I appreciate that many of this forum's members may look upon my moaning and compare it with what is on offer at their local station, but it's worth pointing out that Bristol Temple Meads is the third busiest station on FGW's network (after PAD and RDG) and it really does need more POS opportunities than it currently has. I agree that their are some constraints with the layout of the booking hall area, but that merely highlights the need for FGW to actually use all the POS they currently have in place. Open the travel centre as advertised. Simples.

When it is actually open as advertised I've never seen it bereft of customers/passengers.

I'm a great believer of 'use it or lose it'. Not easy to do though when you turn up expecting it to be open, as advertised, only to discover that it isn't. Staff sickness I can excuse. A Station Manager saying, "I don't know", and refusing to find out why, I can't. That gives me the impression that management don't care, or, more sinisterly, know what's coming and wish to continue with closure by stealth and just dismiss the odd moan from someone who cares.

It is annoying to be on the receiving end of a dismissive response from senior management. I was polite when I appraoched Mr Beck, but it was difficult to accept his (lack of) explanation without further questions. That may've got us going round in circles for a brief moment, and I probably didn't help my point of view by saying I would take my concerns higher up the 'chain of command'.

However, I took the opportunity to raise the issue there and then, as Mr Beck was right there near the gate line, not obviously busy doing something else. So, that seemed like the ideal opportunity to raise the issue.

For the record, I have taken my concerns higher up the chain of command....

I was disturbed by the recent posts on this thread. I thought there was a policy not to name individuals below Director level in FGW, but this is clearly highly critical of Glyn Beck, who is the Station Manager for Bristol Temple Meads and some way below Director level. I can't find that policy statement, so I may be wrong but, nonetheless, I need to express my concerns.

I know Glyn very well. I used to work with him, and he is a top man in my experience. He knows what it is all about, and his heart is entirely in the right place. He has been Station Manager at various times at Reading, Bath, Oxford, Didcot and other locations in the Thames Valley. One incident I recall demonstrates his commitment to the job. A few years ago, a charter train bound for Birmingham with 400 school kids on board was terminated late one Saturday night at Oxford due to a technical fault. Glyn, as the on call manager, turned out to look after the 400 kids until coaches and parents could get to Oxford to pick them up. What a fantastic effort that was - it was an EWS charter, not even booked to call at Oxford, but he saved the day by providing food and shelter for the kids. Any suggestion that he is not customer focused, based on one encounter, is dangerously wrong.

Glyn is one of the good guys. If he could not answer your question, there was a reason. Station Managers, as I well know, have little influence over policy, and yet have to present that policy to the public and their staff. Its the worst of both worlds.

I only hope that your criticism is not too damaging to him. If it was, it would be sad loss for Bristol.

As I'm retired now, I can speak more openly!

Just a couple of points (I have to catch a train in a minute, but thought this was worth a bit of input):

1. Station managers' names are publicly available, being posted at stations and quite possibly on the internet as well, so at least in this case naming the staff member involved may not be as bad as in others.
2. I would hope that, should any action follow as a result of this, the company will look at the member of staff as a whole, taking in to account all the good things they have done in the past and not simply penalizing them based on an "off day".

Like I said, limited time so not able to respond as fully as I would like right now, sorry.

Thank you to all of those who have posted here, for your commendably restrained comments.

I have personal knowledge of this particular 'interraction', having met some of those involved yesterday (Saturday).

Firstly, I don't think there is criticism of Glyn Beck (who I know) personally - it's more a criticism of the 'corporate response' he chose to put forward, in his role as 'Station Manager' at Bristol Temple Meads, to a genuine query posed by a passenger;

Secondly, I know that this matter was raised with FGW at Director level: with Mark Hopwood, Managing Director, actually.  I was there when it was discussed.

On that basis, I'm suggesting that we await further developments in due course - which I will be happy to post, whatever they are.

Chris  :-X

I rather share(d) the concern with Oxman with the way this thread was going.

When members sign up, they agree to the forum's terms and conditions which includes:

You remain solely responsible for the content of your posted messages. Furthermore, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of this forum, any related websites to this forum, its staff, and its subsidiaries.

Those terms and conditions of use are available for all to read under Newcomers start here ... and a reference for older hands (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=1761.0) in our http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?board=1.0 (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?board=1.0) board.   It's a sticky topic - always stays in the top group - so that it's always easy for you (and me) to refer back to.


That's a good "shorthand", Oxman, and errs on the side of caution.  However, there are other cases where naming an individual isn't ruled out - a prime example is that we've often named managerial spokesmen - people in the media role who have appeared on TV to put the First case - names such as Andrew Griffiths and Julian Crow spring to mind such as in my post here (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=8911.0), and that extends to other who's role is named and public facing;  that's something that First have chosen to do (and I personally think it's a good decision) with their station / area managers.  It would be absurd for us to have a discussion forum where we didn't use names, faces, places that are plastered all over station notice boards.  But at a management rather than a director level, these people are all the more working to the company's policy rather than making policy themselves. And evidence points to a relatively low priority to travel centres in the FGW area - topic for discussion here (I won't dilute my admin post by doing so).

Two further thoughts - in spite of the responsibllity remaining with the individual poster, the moderators and admin team here will lock / quarantine / delete posts and threads when that's appropriate.  And our moderator / admin team can go back and edit / amend old posts - something we do very rarely, but it has been know. For example,  where a member has come back to us - perhaps for personal reasons - and suggested that his / her personal details which someone else has quoted should be removed.

Topic in hand - should the provision of Travel Centres in the FGW area that are manned to advertised hours be a priority for FGW?  How about ticket office hours?  There was indeed a very interesting public question / answer exchange with Mark Hopwood earlier in the day  yeaterday (Taunton meeting) about the cost of providing extra staff (train crew in this case) to reduce still further the remaining cancellation rates.  And on that side, I would rather agree with FGW that the cost of having an extra crew on standby at every shift-change / clock on point could be a huge expense, potentially without a major performance gain.

By the way ... I get to manage in my own little way at times.  And there are times that I don't know everything that is happening within the team / area I manage.   I try to keep atop of things, I want to hear about exceptions, but I can't always (and neither can any manager) 100%. And there are times, too, where my answer has to be an unpopular "no" - not good use of resources, not our business, I have answered that already, I can't offer you a limitless ongoing free online support service, etc ... I have a great deal of respect for area managers with FGW - I've know both a longstanding one at Westbury (now elsewhere), and the current one - excellent people the both;  I also have a great deal of sympathy for them in some of the circumstances I see them having to handle on occasions, and to do so with a smile.   I don't know how they do it!

I took the decision to name the Station Manager at Bristol Temple Meads, primarily because the name is in the public domain, I knew I was approaching Mr Beck because his name and photo are all over posters at stations in my area. Also because it would've been widely known to whom I was referring by saying 'Bristol Temple Meads Station Manager.' Of course, If I'd been talking to a Duty Station Manager I would not have named them.

I don't doubt Mr Beck's dedication to his job and I appreciate I may've caught him on an off day, I also understand that only my side of the story is being aired and Mr Beck may not have, or choose, the right to reply to my public criticism.

As Chris from Nailsea said, it did appear that I was getting a corporate response.

This isn't a new issue regarding the travel centre opening times in Bristol, I've seen it closed during advertised opening hours on many occasions in the last few years. I've often enquired of other staff or the DSM as to why it is closed on a particular day. I've also bought the matter to the attention of FGW Customer Services in writing. In the past it has been the understandable excuses of staff sickness/maternity leave. This time though the answer appeared to be, 'that's just the way it is.' That's what got me moaning here again and I think justified my naming of the senior manager who gave that response.

I'm not going to war with the station manager at Bristol Temple Meads, just being critical of this one response. I've thanked him in the past for the actions of one of his DSMs, and I will continue to offer praise when it's justified.
 

Just a little rant. For the past couple of months or so every time I want to get a ticket (peak times) I have had to queue for over an hour and a half, missing several trains, into the car park quite often.  >:(

Not all of the ticket windows are open and the ones that are open are serving people who want tickets for next week or something, because the travel centre is closed.

When i asked about extra staff to the "flagship station manager" LOL he was rather abrupt and told me they were getting more ticket machines, in a few months.

They need more staff and more machines, so annoying and the station manager attitude didn't help. Surely the could train up some of the gate line assistants to do ticket duties.

Anyway rant over!! just very frustrating.

I know I should book and collect in advance, but don't alway know when i am travelling.

As it happens we have an eerily similar thread already running on this very topic: I'll merge it in for the sale of tidiness ;)

Incidentally, it's very disappointing to read from two independent sources about the problems this is causing and the apparently dismissive attitude of senior management to it. Paging FGW Towers, are you listening...?

BNM, have your concerns borne fruit and a new yellow travel centre recently appeared on the car park next to the station.  ;)

I can't find anything about it elsewhere on the board so thought I might as well post here rather then a new thread. Mods feel free to modify as you wish.

Closed again today at 3pm.  ::)

Staff sickness again.

[Jest mode on] Is there some sort of communicable disease going round the Travel Centre staff? [/Jest mode off]

I bottled approaching Mike Holmes with my concerns (he was wandering around P3). Instead I had a pleasant, constructive chat with today's DSM. He apologised and assured me that there are no plans to permanently reduce opening hours in the Travel Centre and went on to say that there are new staff currently being trained. I have heard this before though so I remain deeply sceptical.

I am getting a little exasperated by this ongoing situation.....

Well..... what's this? The Travel Centre at Bristol Temple Meads was open this morning on a bank holiday!!!!.

I was SHOCKED^ and STUNNED^ (Trade Marks ^Btline 2012)

So I thought I'd pop in later in the day to see if I couldn't grab a FGW Network Timetable. I already have one in the post to me (after moaning about the inability to actually purchase one of these rare valuable items - they keep 'em locked away at BRI), but I also have a friend, out of the area, who wants one too.

So I go into Broadmead, do a bit of shopping and head back through Temple Meads. I arrive at the Travel Centre at 1305 to find it now closed with the dreaded notice pinned to door apologising for early closure. The notice says, "This office will be closing at 1315 today, we apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Well it wasn't bleedin "closing at 1315" (by the way, this note wasn't there when I passed the office earlier, around 1100), it was already closed by 1305.

Someone is taking the p155.

Lesson learned. If you see it open, damn well get yer ass in there and avail yourself of the facilities. Don't plan on coming back later based on the opening times they advertise. You'll likely be out of luck.

Sorry for ranting on again and being a little more base with my language, but this issue really does get me mad.  :o >:( :o >:(

At least I wasn't in any way FLEECED^.  ::)

Wow, I'm amazed it was actually open on a Bank Holiday, though a shame it closed early. Does it still open on Saturdays? I know it's closed on Sundays and has been for quite a few years.

No longer open on Saturdays.

Advertised hours are 0830-1800 Mon-Fri.

That's advertised mind. Actuality is far too often different....

The cynic in me suspects it was open this morning because they had a surfeit of staff willing to work the bank holiday morning and coin in the overtime...... Just not enough staff to do the same past lunchtime.

Sorry Big nose.............but all NORMAL bank holidays are a standard rostered working day on the Railway with no enhancement of pay applicable

Having just come back from South Devon there seem to be problems with staffing there. Both the ticket offices at Teignmouth and Paignton have been closing early. The sign at Teignmouth said the closure was due to a shortage of staff across the area.

Thank you for that clarification, dog box. So the Travel Centre should've been opened as per advertised hours for a normal Monday?

FWIW the travel centre at BRI was also closed when I passed through at about 1100 on 29 May, and had a notice posted in the door implying that would be the case all day.

However, there were at least four ticket windows open, with two being set aside for "today's tickets only" and the other two offering "all tickets", as well as an ATE with an Avantix taking people off the front of the queue and selling tickets, so the wait was not too bad.

Are we sure about that?  Drivers get time-and-a-quarter for Bank Holidays and clerical staff used (back in the days of BR) to get a day off in lieu as well as an enhanced rate IIRC?

Bank holidays are treated as normal working days as Mr Dog Box says. We are rostered to work them as normal. Only extra bank holidays such as Tuesday's Queenathon attract any extra pay.

Fair enough.  Some of these restructuring deals that have taken place since privatisation have really rung in some changes.