Next round of Ticket Office closures......

[Deleted]

Funny story about the cheque acceptance.

The original start date for refusing cheques was published with a weeks notice in the traffic circular. No notices to the public, no posters nothing.

A SS I work with, took great offence at emailed the world and his wife - including the Toole myster himself and 24 hours later the original start date was postponed to "allow for greater publicity".

[Tomcakes]

I put in a complaint the other week about the lack of ticketing facilities at King's Cross, and got a reply today.

LU tell me that at the time I was at Kings Cross, there was a staff shortage, and that they do their best to run the service in an efficient manner.

(Hmm, it must have been a pretty bleddy severe staff shortage to close one ticket office and have one window open in the other - yet still have enough station assistants to mill around the gateline looking like lemons).

They "can confirm that we are proposing changes to ticket office staffing to reflect the impact of Oyster on ticket selling, because they must ensure that our staff are best placed to match changing customer use. Most of the lightly-used ticket offices will close, and others will see a reduction in ticket office hours. The majority of Oyster transactions can be done in advance online, alternatively you may phone our Oyster helpdesk. This will help you minimise any inconvenience caused due to ticket office closures".

(Right - so we should ring up and waste our money sitting for 6 months in a queue just so they don't have to employ ticket office staff? Plus what happens if you do not have a credit card? The whole Oyster thing is stupid, as you need a ticket office should anything go wrong. I can guess that the station assistants will be about as much use as they are at the moment - "Not my problem mate, ring the helpline, nowt I can do about it") (With no offence to the LU staff who probably hate it almost as much as the passengers).

[Deleted]

Relying too heavilly on Oyster, and the 'help desk' is just asking for trouble... Some pax vent their frustration out on me, [prods chest with much vigour] the innocent staff member whom has nowt to do with the ticketing side of the operation...

Sooner or later, the whole system will just collapse under the strains of the nember of people using it... And so, you're either gonna be locked in or out... And without a ticket office, I can see a lot of manual gates being booted off thier hinges.

[Deleted]

tombeevers said:

(Hmm, it must have been a pretty bleddy severe staff shortage to close one ticket office and have one window open in the other - yet still have enough station assistants to mill around the gateline looking like lemons)

...people milling around the gateline are generally not qualified to run a ticket office. Though they should possibly have been trying to help to get the queue down by helping people with machines.

(Unless they had one too many exchanges like this:

UG: "What ticket is it you want...?"
Customer: "Oh, just topping up my Oyster card.."
UG: "With debit card?" - *nod from the customer* - "Shall I show you how to do it using the ticket machine, I think they're going to be quite a while." [Foreign group of people trying to buy tickets.]
Customer: "No, I prefer real people."

...cue me wondering when I stopped qualifying as a real person. Another one "only wanted information" - when they finally got to the window it turned out to be confirmation of where they needed to change for the Central line. Guh!)

[Tomcakes]

If there are too many people hanging around the gateline, why are some not trained to work in the ticket office at busy times?

The problem is my transaction had to be done at a window, I had a journey refund voucher to exchange for Oyster credit. Thankfully I had enough credit already on to go to my destination station and add it on there. No doubt if I had not been able to travel, they would have said it was my fault, not theirs. Online access is fine, IF you have a credit/debit card, which I don't. I think the system has been written to try and avoid the ticket office, with things like refunds when their readers cock up having to be done by ringing up, can't be done at the ticket office. It would be much simpler if instead of issuing staff with cards with the helpline number on, they allowed them to process things like refunds, swap faulty cards etc etc on the spot.

[c5]

tombeevers said:

If there are too many people hanging around the gateline, why are some not trained to work in the ticket office at busy times?

This would cost LUL money, at the same time that they are reducing the numbers of Ticket Office staff.

TfL aren't interested in staffing,and providing really good service, they just like slagging off the Infracos. Maybe they should get their own house in order first though.

[Chris M]

It seems the main benefit of PPP has been to give the management someone to pass the buck to. When it was all in-house they couldn't have anyone else to blame so they had to sort it out themselves.

[Deleted]

Adding to the ticket office debate, this picture from the Victoria station upgrade plans:
www.tfl.gov.uk/resources/corporate/media/pressimages/rez-high/h-vsu-ticket-hall-view.jpg

For added fun, check out the map on the right, do they know something we don't?

[Chris M]

That is a very odd map - no Circle Line, no Met south of Baker Street, no Pic other than Arnos Grove - Cockfosters, No Bakerloo Line between Paddington and Piccadilly Circus. No Vic south of Highbury & Islington, full NLL to North Woolwich, full DR except HSK to Edgware Road, no Charing Cross branch of the Northern, and no Northern between Oval and Clapham North, full Central, full ELL to Shoreditch and full DLR except the King George V branch.

Was this perhaps what was running shortly after July 7th?

[Deleted]

tombeevers said:

If there are too many people hanging around the gateline, why are some not trained to work in the ticket office at busy times?

Because they haven't been? I'm not saying I particularly like the policy the way it is, but it's a bit like asking why drivers can't sub for station supervisors or something - LU have decided that Customer Service Assistants and ticket office staff are separate. You can't work the ticket office without becoming an SAMF, and (even without the knowledge that ticket offices are likely to be phased out) there are plenty of people who simply don't want to do that. My last job was in retail so I wouldn't have much trouble with the money side, but I'd still rather not leave the CSA role (dull though it can be) to be cooped up in the ticket office all day instead.

Not sure I'm making sense, blame it on a ten-and-a-half-hours shift.

[Deleted]

tombeevers said:

If there are too many people hanging around the gateline, why are some not trained to work in the ticket office at busy times?

The problem is my transaction had to be done at a window, I had a journey refund voucher to exchange for Oyster credit. Thankfully I had enough credit already on to go to my destination station and add it on there. No doubt if I had not been able to travel, they would have said it was my fault, not theirs. Online access is fine, IF you have a credit/debit card, which I don't. I think the system has been written to try and avoid the ticket office, with things like refunds when their readers cock up having to be done by ringing up, can't be done at the ticket office. It would be much simpler if instead of issuing staff with cards with the helpline number on, they allowed them to process things like refunds, swap faulty cards etc etc on the spot.

TC - you asked the question and then answered it in your next bit ;D

Also gateline staff do more than "hang around a gateline".

Lets simply remove this thaught that Oyster is anything else than a crude method of reducing or maintaining staff numbers. End of story.

The system was designed from day 1 to be a "sorry mate you need to call the Oyster help desk" (in fact when I was first trained that is exactly what I was told by my trainer to tell the public.

[c5]

Well this does sound like good news, even if it is just to keep things quiet during the May 2008 elections!

Taken from:
www.workersliberty.org/node/9202

Ticket Office carnage delayed

Management have put back the implementation date for the ticket office cuts and closures from March 2008 to 'at least' next Summer. This follows a letter from RMT demanding that unless LUL shelve the plans, the union would be in dispute. Well, if one stiff letter can cause a delay to the plans, then imagine what a concerted campaign could do!

Another possible reason for the delay is the Mayor and GLA elections in the Spring. Perhaps Mr Livingstone does not want this to be an election issue.

This delay can not be a signal to the unions to slow down their already slothful response. Instead, we should step up our fight and make sure that if Livingstone doesn't drop this plan, then it certainly will be an election issue.

[Colin]

Don't forget though, the RMT agreed to these plans as part of the shorter working week agreement for station staff.....

[Deleted]

Just to echo what Colin has said.

I'd be interested how RMT can be in dispute with a deal they agreed to.

I hope the stations functional council - both RMT & TSSA do the decent thing and resign and let some decent people do the job.

UPDATE 20/9

Received an email today that the claims the planned closures have now been put back to after the mayoral elections. The suggestion is Uncle Ken is rattled with Boris and wants no negative publicity pre-election. Nothing official nor confirmed.