Bristol Temple Meads travel centre (a little rant)

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

OK, so the lack of a decent G&T from a FGW^▸ (First Great Western) 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^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) being installed shortly. Needed I agree, but not as a replacement for the booking office.

[Timmer]

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^▸ (in my humble opinion) 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^▸ (South West Trains) have not been able to lease it out.

[johoare]

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^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI))? In which case, for once, Maidenhead station is such a better place for ticket buying :-)

[phile]

Although not FGW^▸ (First Great Western), Newport Travel Centre (ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)))) failed to resurface after the refurbishment at the station.

[JayMac]

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^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) being such a large part of the business these days, but there is still a need for these 'Travel Centres' at larger stations.

ATOC^» (Association of Train Operating Companies See - here) 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^▸ (Train Operating Company) pair down the ticketing provision provided by knowledgeable humans. SWT^▸ (South West Trains) 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.....

[johoare]

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 

[JayMac]

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^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI))? In which case, for once, Maidenhead station is such a better place for ticket buying :-)

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

Bristol Temple Meads (that's BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains), BTW^▸ (by the way)   ) has up to 5 ticket windows, 4 TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) 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^▸ (Ticket Issuing System used on board trains). The person armed with an Avantix is often just a TM^‡(resolve)/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!

[SapperPsmith]

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?

[grahame]

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.

[Tim]

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?

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. 

[SapperPsmith]

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^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) (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^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) in her handbag for when she uses TfL^» (Transport for London - about) and I am sure will use her ITSO (Bus pass) for rail tickets when  it is available in a couple of years.   

[eightf48544]

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^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) 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^‡(resolve) 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^▸ (British Rail(ways)) 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^» (Association of Train Operating Companies See - here) should run travel centres but they never could because the TOCS could never agree and it would show up the sham of TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) trying to compete.

[vacman]

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

That would never be practical for franchised TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s, you'd need about 10 ticket examiners on every train.

[Cornish Traveller]

While I agree 100% with the original poster, be thankful you are not in NXEA^▸ (National Express East Anglia) 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 !

[Timmer]

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