Great Western Coffee Shop

Into Bristol Parkway at 18:55, to buy a ticket and catch 19:09 to Manchester. Walk to ticket office but doors won't open.  Surely it doesn't close this early?   Chap walks up inside waves me away and locks the door.   Looks like it does close this early!

Go to ticket machine - I already know what I want and find it on the panel.  "Off Peak" I press and it says ...
"Please Enquire for Restrictions" But where can I ask - no staff to be seen anywhere!
"Valid via any permitted route" But isn't that tautlogy - surely every ticket is valid via the routes it's permitted on.

Why the heck not say "Valid on trains scheduled to leave after 09:30 on Monday to Friday and and time Saturday and Sunday", and "Valid on through trains, and also with changes of train at Birmingham New Street, Tamworth, Lichfield, Stafford and Crewe - also via Newport, Hereford and Shrewsbury".   Hmm - I suppose that's getting a bit complex and I'm answering my own question!

Quite agree.  The government can't have it both ways.  If they want to close ticket offices they have to ensure companies provide ticket machines that provide an equivalent service.

Some TOCs have some restrictions in their TVMs, e.g. South West Trains.  On various tickets it will actually tell you the availability times.  Even this is incomplete and often incorrect.

One of the worst examples I saw earlier this year was at Liverpool Street.  Helping a friend to buy a ticket to Cambridge or Huntingdon or somewhere nearby on a Friday.  I hadn't pre-planned that I'd be asked for fares assistance after a few pints and only had about 2 minutes until the train departed.  I was presented with a selection of ticket types but no restrictions so no clue what was valid.  Then I was asked to choose "LER Only" or "Any Permitted".  Considering London Eastern Railway Ltd no longer operate trains (they are operated by Abellio Greater Anglia Ltd), I assume this ticket is useless*.

Sadly I don't have any photographs or videos, but the Italian ticket machines were excellent.  They operated with a very similar interface to the Trenitalia website, where you select a "solution" (i.e. itinerary) then are presented with up to three fares for that specific service: base, economy and super economy.  They can make seat reservations and you can choose a seat next to someone who already has a reservation, if available.  Sadly they couldn't sell tickets if the itinerary involved a Deutsche Bahn service, even if wholly within Italy.  And don't get me started on the Regionale and Regionale Veloce services.....

* = Of course, I am joking.  The ticket actually printed as "GRT ANG TRNSONLY".  Now why didn't it say that on the screen in the first place.  ::)

If this is today you are talking about (Sunday) then the ticket office at Bristol Parkway should have been open at 1855 and not have a staff member waving you away 5 minutes before the advertised closing time of 1900.

Opening hours are set out by Schedule 17 of the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement (http://www.atoc.org/clientfiles/files/SCHEDULE%2017%20-%20December%20'12.pdf) (.pdf), an agreement that FGW have to abide by as part of their franchise obligations. Lead operators at stations must use reasonable endevours to ensure they comply with the minimum opening hours in that schedule. If a staff member is locking up 5 minutes early then I can't think of many circumstances when that would be reasonble. Some emergency may have occured and the office may have been single-manned, but I'd expect a notice to be displayed in those circumstances.

I'd be writing to FGW and asking why this occured.

It was very close to the 7pm - I pulled into the car park at 18:50 and was on the platform by 19:02 - so my 18:55 is an estimate.  You have car park ticket machine, booking office door, booking and walk in those 12 minutes and I will not be asking.   I was more surprised that it's scheduled to close as early as 7 pm, and disappointed at insufficient information being available (an impractical "please enquire") between a 70 pound ticket and a 150 pound one.