Great Western Coffee Shop

Having just read JayMac's thread, I thought I would post my recent experience with what reasonably be called a 'jobsworth'. Suffice to say it took place at a railway station, but not one within GWR land.

I was at station Y and wanted to travel to station Z and then back to station X. These three stations are all on the same line, with the same service linking them up, running from X to Z via Y.

I explained what I wanted at the ticket office, and the person there said (and I agreed as I already knew this) that it would be cheapest to buy a return ticket from X to Z, which I did.

I then went to the barrier and put the ticket in, and it was rejected, presumably because the barrier was programmed to only recognise tickets to and from station Y. So I showed my ticket to the staff member on the barrier, who said I could not use that ticket because it was from another station, and that I would have to buy two separate tickets for my journey. I explained very carefully to him that I had just been sold the ticket at the ticket office and explained what my journey was. We then spent at least 10 minutes (I was watching the clock as I didn't want to miss my train, which was fortunately running late) discussing what my journey was (which he seemed to have great difficulty understanding, despite me spelling it out very clearly to him many times). At various points he said he would have sold me two separate tickets for my journey, and kept saying I would have to do that. It was fortunate I am of a passive nature, as at one point he said "well you should have been more honest in describing your journey when you bought the ticket" at which I explained, very politely, that I had explained exactly what my journey was. Eventually, he said he would get his superior officer, who came over a moment later, and on seeing my ticket, just said "Breaking his journey" and opened the barriers for me to go through.

Had I been anyone who wasn't certain what ticket I was allowed to use for that journey, the rail company would have benefited from getting two payments from me instead of one, as well as having a very disgruntled passenger.

....................and an idiot employee who was even more convinced that he knew what he was doing !!

At least 9 out of 10 (probably a far higher ratio) get it right. Then there's one.

If your gateline person wasn't sure, he should have said "don't know" and checked with his supervisor while you waited, or passed the passenger and ask a colleague later so that he learned.  Only if a member of staff is totally sure should he tell you your ticket needs upgrading to a more expensive one or pair, and to accuse you of lying to the ticket office ... well, no, no, no.

I've seen an argument before that a member of staff can't be expected to know all the rules.  Well - they should engage staff who can know all the rules, or simplify the rules to make them understandable.

I hope you havé reported this

I haven't. I'm quite reticent about reporting any incidents about staff, as I know they have to put up with a lot of abusive passengers and don't particularly want to add to their stress. And while he was wrong about having to have two tickets, he was technically correct when he kept saying I was doing two different journeys, which I was. His confrontational stance did shock me at the time, and on that I may well take issue (and might make a complaint if it isn't too late - it was late in June), but I have no idea of his name or number (I was intent on just talking to him rather than look down to see any badge) and once through the barrier just wanted to get onto the platform and away from the station. And I would imagine he would just deny making the remark (there were no witnesses as far as I know) so it may not get anywhere. I assume the supervisor, having seen he was questioning my right to use that ticket, will have explained to him what the correct position is on that.

One thing I have since thought is that he did keep saying he would have sold me two tickets. I assumed gateline staff didn't also ever sell tickets, but perhaps he was a ticket seller who had been drafted in to cover the gateline? If so, that might mean lots of passengers there are being charged too much if making similar journeys.

Reminds me of the time about 20 years ago when I visited Richmond (Surrey) by train and on my way back to Tilehurst broke my journey at Reading. On re-entering the station, despite having a ticket to Tilehurst, I was told I had to buy another one from Reading. Which confused me. When I mildly remonstrated, the guy consulted his colleague, who waved me through. I guess the first bloke was thinking of Richmond, Yorkshire - though it doesn't have a railway station, but I see that nowadays one can buy a rail ticket that includes a bus journey to it from Darlington.

I generally take the view that "the customer is always right" is nonsense, but this sort of situation shows why we need to take that attitude sometimes.

My generous side wonders if he didn't realise Y was on the route from X to Z, and therefore didn't twig that it was a simple break of journey. (If it was so close by that he should have been familiar with it, I revoke this generosity...!) Or he was used to BoJ tickets working fine, and therefore jumped to the assumption something was amiss on this occasion.

As we seem to move inexorably towards de-staffed stations, it's worth considering that 9/10 right is probably rather better performance than the technology (gateline software) manages.

Indeed. And if someone wishes to buy a ticket such as I described at the start of this thread, how will that even be possible without a staffed station? Ticket machines don't allow you to buy a ticket which starts from another station - would they be changed to make that possible?

Certain TVMs do now offer that facility…eg those at Chiltern for example.