Great Western Coffee Shop

From Journeycheck:

Is this when you need ticket offices then??

Or a half decent network engineer  ;D

From "The search for Spock"

Scotty : Aye, sir. The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.

Probably a "train data issue"  ::) ::)

Somebody entered "rogue" travel data into the system. You should be able to travel within a week!

No, this is when you need ticket offices even more than usual.

GWR already have form for this. The TVM at Hungerford was removed because it had been installed outside and the touch sensitive screen would get wet every time it rained. It was also not properly connected so you couldn't collect tickets. During peak hours, the solution has been to put a GWR RPI on the station to sell tickets. I'd argue this is conclusive proof that proper investment in TVMs has not been made and that having a real person selling tickets is considered more cost-effective by GWR than a working TVM and/or no ticket facilities.

The RPI has to follow the new model for station staff. There's no ticket office or heated waiting room, so they have to stand under a shelter or the footbridge to protect themselves from the weather. A far cry from proper station that Hungerford once was.

Exactly this. Oldfield Park was the same, a completely useless TVM that didn't work at the first sight of dampness, and was impossible to see in sunshine due to glare. Along with a screen that would seize up halfway through any transaction by not responding to touch just when you were ready to pay. And this is just one of the majority of stations with no building, no warmth and very little shelter from the elements.

Never mind the passengers?

The passengers might only be on the station a short time. The staff, on the other hand, might be expected to be there for several hours.

It’s not a job I’d want to do in the winter months.

This is why I think at a lot of stations the existing ticket office will have to remain in order to provide welfare facilities for staff. 

It just won’t have a ticket machine in it!

Indeed. Which means the savings to the rail company will be...?

Small.

Talking to staff at one tube station when the ticket offices were killed off they told me they couldn’t issue me with an Annual Travelcard with Gold Record Card. I asked if they still had the machine in the office and they said “No”. I asked what the point of removing the ticket machine from the office was and they said “There wasn’t one, at least not one that benefits the passenger.”

Why is it common thinking that the station buildings will be shut just because they want to shut *ticket* offices? The tuicket office is that place you find behind the glass frontage, not the whole actual building. so staff will remain within the public area of the station building as well as helping passengers out on the platforms. They aren't being banished from the buildings. And they will still have restrooms too.

I don’t think anyone has suggested staff will be banished from existing station buildings.

Agreed - but it's not beyond the realm of future speculation as station buildings need repair and perhaps lie out of use that they could end up being demolished.  Modern protection for history will probably ensure Frome and Bradford-on-Avon and safe, but I wonder about Trowbridge and Warminster - just looking at currently staffed ticket offices in my home area. Westbury is probably safe as it, surely staffed for a few years.

Or are seen a valuable retail outlet space

Someone else feels the same way as I do else why the comment? Someone has suggested that they won't remain?

I don’t know, have they?  I can’t remember hearing it said.  You said it was ‘common thinking’?

"will have to remain" meaning they were in danger of going? Said who?

If a building or room is not required for its original purpose ... logic suggests there are a number of options ...
Open a travel and information centre
Coffee Shop or other cafe
Retail outlet
Housing
Sheltered Accommodation
Air B&B
Museum
Cinema
Creche
Community Room
Staff or BTP Offices
Public Loo
Rail industry supply depot
Demolish it

I said that, but thought it was fairly clear what i meant, which was that the existing area used for the ticket office at a lot of smaller stations will potentially need to remain an area used for staff for welfare facilities.  By which I mean somewhere they can take a break, store their belongings etc.  The exact situation will vary from station to station.

But, I can’t see any connection with that and your statement that it was ‘common thinking’ that staff would be banished from using existing station buildings?

Why would you say that unless you thought that the opposite (those areas might close) might be thought likely?

The stated intent is that stations will remain staffed on virtually identical hours to current planned ticket office staffing, and if you accept that at face value you still need staff loos, recreation areas, places to keep their private things, etc.

But there are a couple of problems there. 

* Ticket offices are not currently open to the agreed and published hours.  Signs on the door "we have closed early", "we will be open late" and even "we are only open Ad Hoc when we have staff" and I don't see any published plans to fill the vacancies and get staffing levels back up so that they are open for the  contacted time

* With staffing being unreliable, you have people no longer able to rely on staff.  Some don't use the railway any more, others find alternatives and you have less need for the staff - and in that scenario and with nothing being done to fix, you are on a downward spiral where staff in any role are less required - you've driven away those awkward customers who use them

Because the idea of closing ticket offices is to save costs.  If a room or rooms formerly used for selling tickets is still being used by the TOC, the savings won’t be anywhere near as much as if those room(s) were repurposed or demolished.