Great Western Coffee Shop

I have set a poll on my blog which I would really appreciate if people could reply to.

http://www.iworkforfgw.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=137

Please do not reply here. I want the results all in one place.

Thanks,

Ollie

Railway Eye has picked up on this (link below.)
http://railwayeye.blogspot.com/2008/10/i-am-not-number.html

I think you can't really compare the two, both have their merits and both have a role to play in todays railway!

The general aim is to get the idea of given the choice between machine or person what would you use.

Granted when a ticket office is open a machine plays it's role and eases pressure.
Or if ticket office closed then machine plays it's role by being available.

Fair points, vacman and Ollie, I think!

Sorry to go on a bit about Nailsea, but I'm just using it as an example of a local station, which is manned only in the morning (if at all):

When / if the ticket office is manned, we don't really need the machine (there's only one now!).  However, if the ticket office is busy, or the Avantix has a flat battery, the alternative of the ticket machine becomes very useful!

Likewise, when the ticket office is not manned (generally after 09:30, or whenever there is an R in the month?), even one ticket machine is better than nothing.

Given the choice, I'd certainly prefer a person with access to a screen and all the options to discuss, rather than a ticket machine - for anything other than my standard daily return commuter ticket.

1) The station toilet is available when the station is manned. It is not available when the station is "machined".

2) The penalty fares system hasn't (at least publicly) developed to cope with situations like passengers for Ebbw Vale without tickets because the "E" on the touch screen would not work.

3) The machines don't offer advice.

They are a useful supplement to people, but unfortunately some ToCs (SWT being an example) are predictably using them as an excuse for reducing manning at stations.

Yesterday morning I would have quite liked a machine, as the person was having to cope with a succession of would-be passengers turning up five minutes before the train is due wanting the likes of a first class return (er, where to madam?), five days' car parking - oh and a receipt, just as you have completed the transaction and printed the tickets, followed by a Dutch family, who asked for first class tickets to London, then changed their mind when asked for ^200+, meaning most of the transaction then had to be rekeyed as they could get Groupsave in standard, who then presented a card which apparently wouldn't work with UK chip and pin, but wouldn't swipe either. I don't know what happened next, as the train was due, so I left and eventually bought a ticket at the Oxford barrier line - though I'll be getting my money back after the trauma on the way home.

The problem we have at Moreton-in-Marsh is that because the booking office is staffed from 5.45am-7pm, it's not worth installing one of the ^20,000 super-machines, but on the other hand, a simple queue-busting machine, able to issue tickets to say Oxford, Reading and London only, would allow those of us who know exactly what we want to buy a ticket with the minimum of fuss, allowing the ticket clerks to deal with the awkward squad - and I'm sure something similar would be handy at the other staffed Cotswold stations and further afield in the morning peak.

And before you ask, I need to buy a ticket each day, as I travel into work on the first train that Network and Cotswold Railcards are valid on, but get home too late to buy one in advance before the booking office shuts the previous evening.

More on the Passenger Focus/SWT research (link below.)
http://www.rmtbristol.org.uk/2008/10/passengers_prefer_people_to_ma.html#more

Why dont you do what I was doing - buy one from the TM on the way home the night before

Depending on how many days a week you travel have you considered a season ticket even with a rail card a quarterly or longer might still be cheaper, it would cetainly be more flexible?