Ticket Office Closure Consultation

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

Don't know if this is at all relevant to the debate, but I went to Bristol Temple Meads today, and took these two photos - about 2 minutes apart:

[ChrisB]

yep, born out by the published data!

[PhilWakely]

Don't know if this is at all relevant to the debate, but I went to Bristol Temple Meads today, and took these two photos - about 2 minutes apart:

How many of those in the Queue were collecting tickets purchased online by PayPal or purchased by their employer - and thus unable to collect from a TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) ? Or, visiting the ticket office because they inadvertently purchased the wrong ticket online and needed to change it? 

[Yes, I know, I am playing Devil's Advocate as these ticket office visits were not included in DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) statistics]

[bobm]

You can collect tickets from a TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) after paying via PayPal. You just need a card registered in the same name as the PayPal account. 

[TaplowGreen]

You can collect tickets from a TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) after paying via PayPal. You just need a card registered in the same name as the PayPal account. 

I regularly collect tickets ordered via my company's Corporate account from a TVM.

[1st fan]

Don't know if this is at all relevant to the debate, but I went to Bristol Temple Meads today, and took these two photos - about 2 minutes apart:

Those new TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) are a right pain, I tried one on Friday at Paddington. Purchase tickets for travel from another station (Boundary Zone) proved to be impossible on it. I didn’t have time to go to the ticket office as my train was cancelled and the suggested replacement service to Reading was leaving shortly.

[TaplowGreen]

Don't know if this is at all relevant to the debate, but I went to Bristol Temple Meads today, and took these two photos - about 2 minutes apart:

Those new TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) are a right pain, I tried one on Friday at Paddington. Purchase tickets for travel from another station (Boundary Zone) proved to be impossible on it. I didn’t have time to go to the ticket office as my train was cancelled and the suggested replacement service to Reading was leaving shortly.

Genuine question - was there anything stopping you ordering the tickets online & collecting them from the TVM?

[Bmblbzzz]

I use TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) regularly – but either for a regular and simple journey, eg Bath or Gloucester, or when I've already looked up the possibilities online and know what ticket I want. But I was surprised to see how few people use them according to the stats in the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) document that was linked to somewhere earlier in this thread.* Or I suppose I should say how few tickets are sold from them, as number of tickets does not necessarily equate to number of unique passengers.

*What's perhaps surprising is that this seems to be the opposite of shopping in a supermarket, where I'm one of those who prefers to queue at a human-operated till while the automatic checkouts are the more popular option generally.

[Bmblbzzz]

Don't know if this is at all relevant to the debate, but I went to Bristol Temple Meads today, and took these two photos - about 2 minutes apart:

I'm trying to imagine what this queue might look like when it terminates not at a row of windows but at the same number of staff arranged somehow, we don't know how, on the station concourse. Perhaps we will have a number of parallel queues? Or perhaps the ticket-selling staff will be lined up outside the windows and the queue will be identical (in which case...)?

[grahame]

I use TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) regularly – but either for a regular and simple journey, eg Bath or Gloucester, or when I've already looked up the possibilities online and know what ticket I want. But I was surprised to see how few people use them according to the stats in the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) document that was linked to somewhere earlier in this thread. Or I suppose I should say how few tickets are sold from them, as number of tickets does not necessarily equate to number of unique passengers.

There are 4 measures and I suspect different ones get quote
- the number of sales transactions
- the number of tickets sold
- the number of journeys sold
- the total value of tickets sold

So I walk up the the ticket window in Trowbridge.  No - correct that - it's closed due to staff shortage. I walk up to the ticket window in Chippenham and I buy two off peak day returns for the following day, on senior railcards, for my wife and I, from Melksham to Bicester Village.
1 transaction
2 tickets sold (or is it 4?)
4 journeys sold
£26.10 ticket value

or I buy a one week season for myself from Melksham to Swindon:
1 transaction
1 ticket sold
10 journeys (notionally) sold
£49.30 ticket value

I would be very interested in comparative stats.  RDG^‡(resolve) talked about 12% of sales at the ticket office, but on Friday John Glen told us of 13% of revenue coming through ticket offices.  Is the difference just a rounding error, or an indication that higher value fares tend to be proportional higher at the ticket office?

[ChrisB]

I suspect justa mix up between revenue & sales & 12/13....

[grahame]

I suspect justa mix up between revenue & sales & 12/13....

There are very wide differences between the metrics at different ticket offices. I may all even out, but I rather suspect just a rounding error and wording mixup from the treasury

[Bmblbzzz]

The figures given look as if they probably relate to number of tickets. Or maybe number of transactions. Yes, those can be very different. They don't look like revenue anyway.

[ChrisB]

It'll be interesting to see if this legal challenge by Northern mayors gets traction

Train firms face legal action over devastating plan to close almost every ticket office
The Labour mayors for Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Liverpool City Region, South Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are preparing to go court unless train operators halt closures of 1,000 ticket offices across England

and

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham reveals that he and four other Labour mayors are set to challenge plans to shut almost 1,000 railway ticket offices across England

Care - it's the ad-riddled Mirror website, but worth the read.

[eXPassenger]

It'll be interesting to see if this legal challenge by Northern mayors gets traction

Train firms face legal action over devastating plan to close almost every ticket office
The Labour mayors for Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Liverpool City Region, South Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are preparing to go court unless train operators halt closures of 1,000 ticket offices across England

and

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham reveals that he and four other Labour mayors are set to challenge plans to shut almost 1,000 railway ticket offices across England

Care - it's the ad-riddled Mirror website, but worth the read.

This: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jul/18/labour-mayors-legal-action-train-ticket-office-closures-england
is from the Guardian.