I visited Peterborough station this evening to make some enquiries.  Out of
half a dozen enquiry / ticket sales points two were manned.  There was a
substantial queue.

As I approached the front of the queue a slightly built elderly gentleman
joined the end of the queue.  On seeing the situation he proceeded to vent
his opinion very loudly.  Essentially, the situation, according to him, was
a disgrace and that this was because we, as customers, were too accepting of
inferior service.

His tirade continued for some time and was, in itself, quite irritating.
That stated, his opinions were very valid.  I have missed some trains, and
even cancelled days out in the past because of the under-manning at
Peterborough station.  I believe that the station is run by GNER.  This poor
service at one of their main profit centres makes a mockery of GNER's claim
of superior service.

Dave Wilcox.

What is wrong with going online instead of forming a queue.  Force of habit 
or just an excuse to moan:-)

No mention of time of day or how far in advance your badly planned actions 
were.

"David Wilcox"  wrote in message 
news:dfnltl$51l$1@news8.svr.pol.co.uk...

>I visited Peterborough station this evening to make some enquiries.  Out of
> half a dozen enquiry / ticket sales points two were manned.  There was a
> substantial queue.
>
> As I approached the front of the queue a slightly built elderly gentleman
> joined the end of the queue.  On seeing the situation he proceeded to vent
> his opinion very loudly.  Essentially, the situation, according to him, 
> was
> a disgrace and that this was because we, as customers, were too accepting 
> of
> inferior service.
>
> His tirade continued for some time and was, in itself, quite irritating.
> That stated, his opinions were very valid.  I have missed some trains, and
> even cancelled days out in the past because of the under-manning at
> Peterborough station.  I believe that the station is run by GNER.  This 
> poor
> service at one of their main profit centres makes a mockery of GNER's 
> claim
> of superior service.
>
> Dave Wilcox.
>
> 

"C Smith"  wrote in message 
news:g5JTe.4213$zw1.2860@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net...

> What is wrong with going online instead of forming a queue.  Force of 
> habit or just an excuse to moan:-)
>
> No mention of time of day or how far in advance your badly planned actions 
> were.


If stations were staffed properly, it would not be necessary to plan ahead - 
badly or otherwise. If you have to buy your tickets in advance (as you'd 
have to online, unless they'd got a carrier pigeon that could do the journey 
from the ticket-issuing company to your house in five minutes), you've 
destroyed one of the main reasons advantages of the train - that you turn up 
and go.

Most of my journeys by train are for leisure rather than work, and so they 
are dependent on the weather that day and on how I'm feeling. If I had to 
take a gamble and book several days ahead, I'd either not go or else go by 
car.

I presume when you order tickets in advance to *do* have to say what day 
you'll be travelling.

On Wed, 7 Sep 2005 23:34:44 +0100 in uk.railway, "Martin Underwood"
 tapped out on the keyboard:


> 
> If stations were staffed properly, it would not be necessary to plan ahead - 
> badly or otherwise. If you have to buy your tickets in advance (as you'd 
> have to online, unless they'd got a carrier pigeon that could do the journey 
> from the ticket-issuing company to your house in five minutes), you've 
> destroyed one of the main reasons advantages of the train - that you turn up 
> and go.
> 
> Most of my journeys by train are for leisure rather than work, and so they 
> are dependent on the weather that day and on how I'm feeling. If I had to 
> take a gamble and book several days ahead, I'd either not go or else go by 
> car.
> 
> I presume when you order tickets in advance to *do* have to say what day 
> you'll be travelling. 
> 


There is often a long wait to buy tickets at Norwich too.  I am travelling today
as it happens but I went to the station specially to buy my tickets a few days
ago.  The trouble with buying online is that there are often so many options it
is helpful to speak to someone face to face, also quite often things are lost in
the post (AFAIK you cannot print the tickets on your own printer at home).

The reason that buying tickets is so slow is because of the complexity of the
fares structure.  It is ironic that the time advantage that rail has for many
journeys is being swallowed up in the time taken to buy tickets.

--
John Youles   Norwich   England   UK

David Wilcox wrote:

> On seeing the situation he proceeded to vent
> his opinion very loudly.  Essentially, the situation, according to him, was
> a disgrace and that this was because we, as customers, were too accepting of
> inferior service.



It would be interesting to see/hear his opinion of some of my local
supermarkets then.  At times, the queue can reach 2/3 the way down the
shop!

Is this gentleman in the "railways must be perfect at all times,
whatever may be acceptable elsewhere" school, or the "I would complain
just as much in any other retail situation" school?

PhilD

--
<><

David Wilcox wrote:

> I visited Peterborough station this evening to make some enquiries.  Out of
> half a dozen enquiry / ticket sales points two were manned.  There was a
> substantial queue.


Doesn't beat the situation at Canterbury West yesterday afternoon. 
Ticket office closed - no reason why. But they had RPIs on the door to 
the platforms, so rather than checking tickets that people had just 
bought at the ticket office, they had to actually issue the tickets. 
They don't have a machine to do this, so they have to check their fares 
manual. Woebetide you if you wanted an advance purchase ticket or a seat 
reservation or something else of that ilk.

I used the ticket machine on the platform, but because the interface is 
so badly designed, I ended up buying the wrong ticket (it offered me 
about 8 or 10 different tickets to London - how am I supposed to know 
which one is appropriate for my journey?). Luckily I was able to have my 
ticket excessed.

-- 
Jonathan Stott
Canterbury Weather: http://www.canterburyweather.co.uk/
Reverse my e-mail address to reply by e-mail

In message , at
00:00:29 on Thu, 8 Sep 2005, PhilD  remarked:

>It would be interesting to see/hear his opinion of some of my local
>supermarkets then.  At times, the queue can reach 2/3 the way down the
>shop!
>
>Is this gentleman in the "railways must be perfect at all times,
>whatever may be acceptable elsewhere" school, or the "I would complain
>just as much in any other retail situation" school?


Supermarkets don't generally have the local monopoly that railway
stations do. And GNER has a customer charter:

        We aim to serve you within 5 minutes. We publish peak and
        off-peak queuing times on posters outside each Travel Centre.
        Outside busy periods, our target is to serve you within 3
        minutes.

Has anyone ever seen one of those queueing time posters?? The
Peterborough one would be especially interesting at the moment.
-- 
Roland Perry

PhilD wrote:


> It would be interesting to see/hear his opinion of some of my local
> supermarkets then.  At times, the queue can reach 2/3 the way down the
> shop!
>
> Is this gentleman in the "railways must be perfect at all times,
> whatever may be acceptable elsewhere" school, or the "I would complain
> just as much in any other retail situation" school?
>
> PhilD
>
> --
> <><

The queue at Watford Junc is frequently longer than 10 minutes, nearer
15 or 20 at times so I NEVER buy a ticket in the morning. I don't see
why a wait of this length of time is acceptable or excusable under any
circumstances. Either the train operators get their acts together and
provide a service to the public or they get out into a business where
they don't actually have to provide a service. It would also be nice
having queued for goodness knows how long, that the staff can actually
sell the correct ticket at the correct price without having to resort
to an arguement, after all they only have to punch data into a
computer.

Kevin

kajr@mwfree.net wrote:


> The queue at Watford Junc is frequently longer than 10 minutes, nearer
> 15 or 20 at times so I NEVER buy a ticket in the morning.


It can take 15 or 20 minutes just to issue a ticket in some cases!

-- 
Jonathan Stott
Canterbury Weather: http://www.canterburyweather.co.uk/
Reverse my e-mail address to reply by e-mail

In article <RlZ$nDw3U+HDFAe2@donald.internetpolicynews.co.uk>, Roland
Perry  writes

>In message , at
>00:00:29 on Thu, 8 Sep 2005, PhilD  remarked:
>>It would be interesting to see/hear his opinion of some of my local
>>supermarkets then.  At times, the queue can reach 2/3 the way down the
>>shop!
>>
>>Is this gentleman in the "railways must be perfect at all times,
>>whatever may be acceptable elsewhere" school, or the "I would complain
>>just as much in any other retail situation" school?
>
>Supermarkets don't generally have the local monopoly that railway
>stations do. And GNER has a customer charter:
>
>        We aim to serve you within 5 minutes. We publish peak and
>        off-peak queuing times on posters outside each Travel Centre.
>        Outside busy periods, our target is to serve you within 3
>        minutes.
>
>Has anyone ever seen one of those queueing time posters?? The
>Peterborough one would be especially interesting at the moment.


Do they have any sort of automated machine?. Put your credit card in,
press what tickets you want etc, and do it that way?....
-- 
Tony Sayer

If the automated machines are anything like the FastTicket machines at
Sheffield, it is probabaly a gamble to rely on them.
Of the two at Sheffield, one is usually out of action completely, and
the other is quite likely to not provide what you want.
On separate occasions, it has failed to allow railcard discount; got
stuck on the choose destination screen; and returned a 'run-time
error', retaining my credit card in the process.

On Thu, 8 Sep 2005, Roland Perry  wrote:

>Has anyone ever seen one of those queueing time posters?? The
>Peterborough one would be especially interesting at the moment.


I'll be going through Pbo on Saturday morning, I'll take a look and if 
the queue's not too long, ask.

BTW The last time I was stuck in a long queue at Pbo travel centre it 
snaked all the way round their barriers for queue management and out of 
the travel centre blocking the main entrance. And before you ask, I had 
to buy my ticket in person because I was cashing in a voucher GNER had 
given me in compensation for poor service!
-- 
Howard

In message , at 13:25:14 on Thu, 8 Sep 
2005, tony sayer  remarked:

>>Has anyone ever seen one of those queueing time posters?? The
>>Peterborough one would be especially interesting at the moment.
>
>Do they have any sort of automated machine?. Put your credit card in,
>press what tickets you want etc, and do it that way?....


It's a couple of years since I was there, and at that time they had a 
kiosk type machine that sold (as far as I can recall) just GNER tickets. 
I used the machine when I knew what ticket I wanted, but few other 
people did.
-- 
Roland Perry

In message <PprV+tA68EIDFAEQ@locomotive.com>, at 15:48:26 on Thu, 8 Sep 
2005, Howard Fisher  remarked:

>>Has anyone ever seen one of those queueing time posters?? The
>>Peterborough one would be especially interesting at the moment.
>
>I'll be going through Pbo on Saturday morning, I'll take a look and if 
>the queue's not too long, ask.


The poster is supposed to be in plain sight, you shouldn't have to ask!
-- 
Roland Perry

On 8 Sep 2005 07:59:26 -0700, "Simon Reading"
 wrote:


>Of the two at Sheffield, one is usually out of action completely, and
>the other is quite likely to not provide what you want.


Sounds like poor maintenance.  The one at Milton Keynes Central is
working more often than it is not (though I won't pretend it's 100%),
and, assuming it wasn't showing out of order, has never failed to
provide me with what I wanted, with the exception of the occasion when
I wanted a SVR when restrictions were in place.

Neil

-- 
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
When replying please use neil at the above domain
'wensleydale' is a spam trap and is not read.

> Do they have any sort of automated machine?. Put your credit card in,
> press what tickets you want etc, and do it that way?....
> --
> Tony Sayer


Peterborough Travel Centre has recently been refurbished with a
single-queue arrangement. There are (I think) four Fastticket machines
in the TC and another one on the concourse.


>From my experience they do seem to be working most of the time. I used

them a couple of weeks ago to pick up a ticket booked via GNER's
website the pervious day. No hassles at all.

IMHO the biggest problems for booking offices are the plethora of
tickets for each journey from different TOCs. What is needed is a
return to a centralised marketing system, similar to that offered by
BR's sectors in the 90s  - for example, one set of tickets for
long-distance and another for local journeys.

Bring back the Blue Days!

Adam Warr

On 8 Sep 2005 13:12:09 -0700, Adam wrote in
, seen in
uk.railway:

[...]

> IMHO the biggest problems for booking offices are the plethora of
> tickets for each journey from different TOCs. What is needed is a
> return to a centralised marketing system, similar to that offered by
> BR's sectors in the 90s  - for example, one set of tickets for
> long-distance and another for local journeys.


ISTR the Bearded One telling the railway that there were too many
types of ticket and Something Should Be Done About It.

The problem was that it seemed he wanted everyone else to Do Something
whilst his own operation continued to increase the number of ticket
types available...

-- 
Ross, a.k.a.
Prof. E. Scrooge, CT, 153 & bar, Doctor of Cynicism (U. Life)
Hon. Pres., National Soc. for the Encouragement for Cruelty to Dogboxes
Proud to be the target of various trolls, sock puppets and other idiots

On 8 Sep 2005 00:00:29 -0700, "PhilD"  wrote:


>
>David Wilcox wrote:
>> On seeing the situation he proceeded to vent
>> his opinion very loudly.  Essentially, the situation, according to him, was
>> a disgrace and that this was because we, as customers, were too accepting of
>> inferior service.
>
>
>It would be interesting to see/hear his opinion of some of my local
>supermarkets then.  At times, the queue can reach 2/3 the way down the
>shop!
>

If I see a queue that long when I go into my local ASDA I just turn
round and walk straight back out again. If I am queuing for a rail
ticket I don't have that option.

If GNER are not capable of issuing a ticket within a reasonable time
they should not be allowed to surcharge that passenger if he has to
catch his train without a ticket. Perhaps the barrier staff should
have a book of vouchers to hand out telling the on train RPI's that
they must sell the full range of discounted tickets to the passenger..

David

Ross wrote:


> ISTR the Bearded One telling the railway that there were too many
> types of ticket and Something Should Be Done About It.
> 
> The problem was that it seemed he wanted everyone else to Do Something
> whilst his own operation continued to increase the number of ticket
> types available...


I am slightly curious that "Virgin Value" tickets have more 
recently started to be referred to has just "Value" tickets, both 
on the tickets themselves and on ticket-booking websites. Are 
there any other operators selling these tickets? It seems unlike 
Virgin to remove a bit of corporate branding.

On Thu, 08 Sep 2005 22:36:58 +0100, Tom Cumming 
wrote:


>I am slightly curious that "Virgin Value" tickets have more 
>recently started to be referred to has just "Value" tickets, both 
>on the tickets themselves and on ticket-booking websites. Are 
>there any other operators selling these tickets? 


Yes, the concept has been adopted by MML and GNER, and I believe
shortly fGW as well.  Also, the tickets are usually valid on
connections as required for the overall journey.


> It seems unlike 
>Virgin to remove a bit of corporate branding.


VT are not overbranded compared with, say, any First-owned TOC.  Look
at a Voyager and the only place you'll find their logo is on each side
of the outer ends of the train.  Pendolinos have it on the outer door
windows, but other than that it isn't prolific at all.  Compare with
the number of flying Fs on First sets!

Neil

-- 
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
When replying please use neil at the above domain
'wensleydale' is a spam trap and is not read.

>>I am slightly curious that "Virgin Value" tickets have more
>>recently started to be referred to has just "Value" tickets, both
>>on the tickets themselves and on ticket-booking websites. Are
>>there any other operators selling these tickets?


My latest (Half price offer) tickets are....

STD VALUE 14DY ADVANCE SINGLE

From BOLTON
To LONDON TERMINALS

Route VWC & CONNECTIONS.

KW.

On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 07:07:51, wensleydale@pacersplace.org.uk (Neil
Williams) wrote:

>>
>>I am slightly curious that "Virgin Value" tickets have more 
>>recently started to be referred to has just "Value" tickets, both 
>>on the tickets themselves and on ticket-booking websites. Are 
>>there any other operators selling these tickets? 
>
>Yes, the concept has been adopted by MML and GNER, and I believe
>shortly fGW as well.  Also, the tickets are usually valid on
>connections as required for the overall journey.


Also, there's been a "Central Value" around for about two years,
replacing their APEX tickets.  I don't know if there are plans to drop
the "Central" prefix (although it will have to go once the franchise
is split).

Paul Harley

-- 
Remove "eeek" to contact me!

On Thu, 8 Sep 2005, Roland Perry  wrote:

>In message <PprV+tA68EIDFAEQ@locomotive.com>, at 15:48:26 on Thu, 8 Sep 
>2005, Howard Fisher  remarked:
>>>Has anyone ever seen one of those queueing time posters?? The
>>>Peterborough one would be especially interesting at the moment.
>>
>>I'll be going through Pbo on Saturday morning, I'll take a look and if 
>>the queue's not too long, ask.
>
>The poster is supposed to be in plain sight, you shouldn't have to ask!


Come on, it's black-is-white-if-we-say-it-is GNER we're dealing with 
here. There is no poster in or around their travel centre. As I wanted 
to buy tickets not-from-Peterborough anyway I was happy to queue (less 
than 3 minutes) and speak to a clerk. When questioned she said that 
their passengers' charter only requires them to show their train 
performances statistics and they do indeed to that on the platform.

I now have a hard copy of the passengers' charter and the requirement is 
clearly there on page 8, so I'll ask again when I go through the station 
again tomorrow, booklet in hand.
-- 
Howard

In message , at 16:34:41 on Fri, 9 Sep 
2005, Howard Fisher  remarked:

>I now have a hard copy of the passengers' charter and the requirement 
>is clearly there on page 8, so I'll ask again when I go through the 
>station again tomorrow, booklet in hand.


Good luck. FWIW, I've *never* seen one of these mythical notices about 
queuing times at *any* station!
-- 
Roland Perry

On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 12:04:25 +0100, Paul Harley wrote in
, seen in uk.railway:

[...]

> Also, there's been a "Central Value" around for about two years,
> replacing their APEX tickets.  I don't know if there are plans to drop
> the "Central" prefix (although it will have to go once the franchise
> is split).


ITYM "if", not "once".

I suspect I'm more likely to be working for CT in 2009 than I am for,
say "One.Lincolnshire".

-- 
Ross, a.k.a.
Prof. E. Scrooge, CT, 153 & bar, Doctor of Cynicism (U. Life)
Hon. Pres., National Soc. for the Encouragement for Cruelty to Dogboxes
Proud to be the target of various trolls, sock puppets and other idiots

David Wilcox wrote:

> I visited Peterborough station this evening to make some enquiries.  Out of
> half a dozen enquiry / ticket sales points two were manned.  There was a
> substantial queue.
>
> As I approached the front of the queue a slightly built elderly gentleman
> joined the end of the queue.  On seeing the situation he proceeded to vent
> his opinion very loudly.  Essentially, the situation, according to him, was
> a disgrace and that this was because we, as customers, were too accepting of
> inferior service.
>
> His tirade continued for some time and was, in itself, quite irritating.
> That stated, his opinions were very valid.  I have missed some trains, and
> even cancelled days out in the past because of the under-manning at
> Peterborough station.  I believe that the station is run by GNER.  This poor
> service at one of their main profit centres makes a mockery of GNER's claim
> of superior service.
>
> Dave Wilcox.



In Penzance station, there are four sales points in the ticket office,
and most times I only ever see that one or two are manned, despite a
full complement of staff (seemingly on permanent coffee break!).
However, the system seems to work a little bit better than it sounds at
Peterborough, for although there are often queues, they tend to make
people booking advance bookings step aside so those after a train about
to leave or that day get priority. Fair's fair. Or fare's fare, if puns
are your game. (Sorry!)

"Roland Perry"  wrote in message 
news:bS3NKg+y2aIDFAly@donald.internetpolicynews.co.uk...

> In message , at 16:34:41 on Fri, 9 Sep 
> 2005, Howard Fisher  remarked:
>>I now have a hard copy of the passengers' charter and the requirement is 
>>clearly there on page 8, so I'll ask again when I go through the station 
>>again tomorrow, booklet in hand.
>
> Good luck. FWIW, I've *never* seen one of these mythical notices about 
> queuing times at *any* station!


Certainly never seen them at Newcastle, Darlington or York.

-- 
*** http://www.railwayscene.co.uk/ ***
Rich Mackin (rich-at-richmackin-co-uk)
MSN: richmackin-at-hotmail-dot-com

"David Harby"  wrote in message 
news:b6a1i1tvdki2cnjvk1cpu4qas7216fo95t@4ax.com...

> If GNER are not capable of issuing a ticket within a reasonable time
> they should not be allowed to surcharge that passenger if he has to
> catch his train without a ticket.


You're assuming they're going on a GNER service, or that the gripper on the 
service is aware of the nature of the queue at the Travel Centre.

-- 
*** http://www.railwayscene.co.uk/ ***
Rich Mackin (rich-at-richmackin-co-uk)
MSN: richmackin-at-hotmail-dot-com

Roland Perry wrote:


> In message , at 16:34:41 on Fri, 9 Sep 
> 2005, Howard Fisher  remarked:
>>I now have a hard copy of the passengers' charter and the requirement 
>>is clearly there on page 8, so I'll ask again when I go through the 
>>station again tomorrow, booklet in hand.
> 
> Good luck. FWIW, I've *never* seen one of these mythical notices about 
> queuing times at *any* station!


I have, but I can't remember where it was. It wasn't very big. A4 max.

-- 
http://gallery120232.fotopic.net/p9683712.html
(55020 (Class 121) at Oxford, 6 Aug 1982)

On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 20:54:45 GMT, Chris Tolley wrote in
, seen in uk.railway:

> Roland Perry wrote:
> 
> > In message , at 16:34:41 on Fri, 9 Sep 
> > 2005, Howard Fisher  remarked:
> >>I now have a hard copy of the passengers' charter and the requirement 
> >>is clearly there on page 8, so I'll ask again when I go through the 
> >>station again tomorrow, booklet in hand.
> > 
> > Good luck. FWIW, I've *never* seen one of these mythical notices about 
> > queuing times at *any* station!
> 
> I have, but I can't remember where it was. It wasn't very big. A4 max.


CT show the queuing times on their ticket office opening hours
posters, which should be near the main entrance. But they're A4 or
smaller, and the queuing times are only shown as  "we aim to serve
you", making them essentially meaningless.

-- 
Ross, a.k.a.
Prof. E. Scrooge, CT, 153 & bar, Doctor of Cynicism (U. Life)
Hon. Pres., National Soc. for the Encouragement for Cruelty to Dogboxes
Proud to be the target of various trolls, sock puppets and other idiots

In message , at 22:38:30 on 
Fri, 9 Sep 2005, Ross  remarked:

>> >>I now have a hard copy of the passengers' charter and the requirement
>> >>is clearly there on page 8, so I'll ask again when I go through the
>> >>station again tomorrow, booklet in hand.
>> >
>> > Good luck. FWIW, I've *never* seen one of these mythical notices about
>> > queuing times at *any* station!
>>
>> I have, but I can't remember where it was. It wasn't very big. A4 max.
>
>CT show the queuing times on their ticket office opening hours
>posters, which should be near the main entrance. But they're A4 or
>smaller, and the queuing times are only shown as  "we aim to serve
>you", making them essentially meaningless.


To qualify as being one of the notices in question, they need to give 
the hours of the day that the various aims (for busy vs not-busy) apply 
to. There are national, not local, "standards" for this (5 & 3 mins 
respectively). The passenger needs to know when to expect to buy a 
ticket within 3 minutes, and when it will take as long as 5.

[I assume, although it's never stated, that these times apply only to 
tickets for "travel today". If it also applies to Advance booking queues 
then the rail industry really is in trouble!]

GNER is going one step further [than most other ToCs I've researched] 
and is saying they will display the *actual* queueing times too. Of 
course, if these ever exceed 5 minutes they'll be a tad embarrassed 
(assuming GNER is capable of being embarrassed by poor service).
-- 
Roland Perry

PhilD wrote:

> David Wilcox wrote:
> 
>>On seeing the situation he proceeded to vent
>>his opinion very loudly.  Essentially, the situation, according to him, was
>>a disgrace and that this was because we, as customers, were too accepting of
>>inferior service.
> 
> 
> 
> It would be interesting to see/hear his opinion of some of my local
> supermarkets then.  At times, the queue can reach 2/3 the way down the
> shop!
> 
> Is this gentleman in the "railways must be perfect at all times,
> whatever may be acceptable elsewhere" school, or the "I would complain
> just as much in any other retail situation" school?


To be fair, the railways are far from the worst form of transport in 
this respect. Recently, a well known American airline I was unlucky 
enough to be travelling with had queues of 90 minutes to check in at 
their major US base. Between 6 and 8 out of 32 desks were open, and the 
building was not air conditioned despite 30C+ temperatures. There were 
no automatic check in facilities.

A major European airline recently kept me waiting for 40 minutes, with 2 
out of ~15 desks open.

I'm not defending bad service on the railways, but in my experience, 
anything the railways can do badly, airlines can do much worse.

And don't get me started on traffic jams....

A

In message , at 10:19:26 on Sat, 
10 Sep 2005, Anonymouse <anonymouse@withheld.nothing> remarked:

>To be fair, the railways are far from the worst form of transport in 
>this respect. Recently, a well known American airline I was unlucky 
>enough to be travelling with had queues of 90 minutes to check in at 
>their major US base. Between 6 and 8 out of 32 desks were open, and the 
>building was not air conditioned despite 30C+ temperatures. There were 
>no automatic check in facilities.
>
>A major European airline recently kept me waiting for 40 minutes, with 
>2 out of ~15 desks open.
>
>I'm not defending bad service on the railways, but in my experience, 
>anything the railways can do badly, airlines can do much worse.


Yes, but every airline check-in advice I've ever seen screams at you to 
check in early, allow two hours, etc etc.

Meanwhile the railways say they'll [aim to] sell you a ticket in 3 
minutes, or five if they are busy.

Well, either their aim is very poor, and they should revise that 
statement to be a bit closer to reality (a bit like Central Trains 
telling people to allow an extra two hours if you are going to 
Stansted).
-- 
Roland Perry

I have written to ATW about the lack of any self service facilities at
Neath station, where the queue is often long and only one ticket clerk
working. Therefore it is impossible to get tickets unless you book in
advance, and therefore willing to wait for delivery times, etc.

I also can't believe that Swansea station does not have a machine
either, and that is a busy station! ATW basically replied to say that
there were no plans to introduce a machine at Neath becuase there was
not enough demand. Well, I can't see that myself, especially as Weston
super Mare has just had one installed (albeit Wessex are trying to win
Greater Western franchise!)

I will keep moaning at them...

Adam

On 10 Sep 2005 06:17:19, "gogogadam"  wrote:


>I have written to ATW about the lack of any self service facilities at
>Neath station, where the queue is often long and only one ticket clerk
>working. Therefore it is impossible to get tickets unless you book in
>advance, and therefore willing to wait for delivery times, etc.
>
>I also can't believe that Swansea station does not have a machine
>either, and that is a busy station! ATW basically replied to say that
>there were no plans to introduce a machine at Neath becuase there was
>not enough demand. Well, I can't see that myself, especially as Weston
>super Mare has just had one installed (albeit Wessex are trying to win
>Greater Western franchise!)
>
>I will keep moaning at them...


Do!  The Shere fastticket machines at Cardiff Central and Newport are
due to be replaced by ones with "more bells and whistles", so there's
a chance the displaced machines could be cascaded to other stations.

Paul Harley

-- 
Remove "eeek" to contact me!

On Fri, 9 Sep 2005, Roland Perry  wrote:

>In message , at 16:34:41 on Fri, 9 Sep 
>2005, Howard Fisher  remarked:
>>I now have a hard copy of the passengers' charter and the requirement 
>>is clearly there on page 8, so I'll ask again when I go through the 
>>station again tomorrow, booklet in hand.
>
>Good luck. FWIW, I've *never* seen one of these mythical notices about 
>queuing times at *any* station!


The queue was too long on Saturday so I didn't enquire :-)

But I did this morning on my way through (2 mins in queue, during which 
time the 5 staff working appeared to see 1 person a minute, ie 5 mins on 
average per person.) I got as far as "I'm continuing the discussion I 
had with your colleague on..." before the very helpful young lady said " 
about the queuing. Yes, we found the part of the charter after you left 
and the manager's never heard of it before. He's bringing it up with the 
area manager today."

Apart from GNER's station manager never having read the passengers' 
charter, I suppose this is a positive result.
-- 
Howard

I had not seen this before I sent the original posting to someone I
know at GNER. that person said it had been forwarded to the relevant
employee at GNER toute's wuite.

Kester

In message , at 11:47:50 on Mon, 12 Sep 
2005, Howard Fisher  remarked:

>>Good luck. FWIW, I've *never* seen one of these mythical notices about 
>>queuing times at *any* station!
>
>The queue was too long on Saturday so I didn't enquire :-)
>
>But I did this morning on my way through (2 mins in queue, during which 
>time the 5 staff working appeared to see 1 person a minute, ie 5 mins 
>on average per person.) I got as far as "I'm continuing the discussion 
>I had with your colleague on..." before the very helpful young lady 
>said " about the queuing. Yes, we found the part of the charter after 
>you left and the manager's never heard of it before. He's bringing it 
>up with the area manager today."
>
>Apart from GNER's station manager never having read the passengers' 
>charter, I suppose this is a positive result.


Isn't it rather worse than that? This notice should be on their standard 
checklist of "things the station is supposed to have". So the area 
manager (or someone higher than that) has fallen down on the job. As has 
whoever is their internal auditor of the passengers charter, whose job 
it should be to make sure that simple things like this are carried out.
-- 
Roland Perry