York Station ticket office opening hours to be reduced (From York Press)
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York Station ticket office opening hours to be reduced
11:50am Tuesday 17th February 2009 in
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- By Richard Catton » richard.catton@thepress.co.uk
THE opening hours of the ticket office at York Station are to be reduced along with 11 other East Coast mainline stations, it has been claimed.
Passengers will be “short-changed” by the move, according to the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA). A TSSA spokesman claims National Express intends to cut the office’s opening times by six hours each week and a total of 103 hours will be lost from all stations on the line. The union said the reductions at the 12 stations were the latest cost-cutting moves by the company.
But a National Express spokesperson said: “We are proposing to make some minor changes to ticket office opening hours. In some places such as York and Peterborough, the ticket office will actually open 15 minutes earlier in response to commuters’ needs. The union has made some claims that are factually incorrect, including late-night revellers being unable to buy tickets at Kings Cross. The station is actually closed from 1am to 5am. The last train departs at 11.30pm and the proposed changes will see the ticket office closing at 11.30pm. The first train departs Kings Cross at 6am, and the ticket office will open at 5am.
“We are not ‘rationing water and biscuits’ as the union says. This is completely untrue, and tickets from ticket machines are not ‘more expensive’ than buying from the ticket offices. Any job losses which may result from these changes are already included in the previously announced 750 redundancies”.
But TSSA leader Gerry Doherty said: “This is death by a thousand cuts. First they cut jobs, then they close most of their restaurant cars and then they start rationing biscuits and water to their first class passengers. Now they are cutting back on ticket offices and forcing passengers to buy more expensive tickets from ticket machines. All these cuts are being made so National Express can pay Government a £1.4 billion premium for this franchise. If they cannot afford to provide a decent long distance service, they should simply hand the keys back and let ministers run it as a public service that puts passengers first.”
The stations hit by the cuts also include Newcastle, Durham, Darlington, Edinburgh, Newark, Grantham, Peterborough and Berwick.
Comments(16)
rogue84
says...
11:58am Tue 17 Feb 09
if there isn't anywhere to buy your tickets then they shouldn't charge you the maximum fare and should accept railcards etc. am sure that's correct.
Ozymandius_I
says...
11:58am Tue 17 Feb 09
It's no wonder everyone drives!
AngryandFrustrated
says...
12:15pm Tue 17 Feb 09
National Express couldn't lie staight in bed if they tried as evidenced by the above comments! They are full of sh**! The ticket machines only allow you to buy tickets for travel on that day or to collect tickets previously ordered on-line. They do not SELL advance tickets which have all the discounts applied and which are considerably cheaper than buying on the day.
Answer that National Express! Who is telling untruths now?
It is also an interesting development given that the said same untruthful orgainisation is wanting to install ticket barriers at York Station, citing fare dodgers as one of the reasons why.
Is it me? Lets spend loads of money in installing ticket barriers (which have nothing to do with enhanced security or fare dodgers and everything to do with trying to cut staffing numbers)at the same time as reducing the hours on the ticket desks. Anyone see a potential conflict in their thinking on this one?
Guy Fawkes
says...
12:17pm Tue 17 Feb 09
1. You can't buy your Grand Central (or insert name of other train operator here) ticket at the ticket office, because it's closed.
2. You can't buy it from the ticket machine, because it doesn't sell non-NXEC operator-specific tickets.
3. And you can't buy it on the train either, because their new ticket barriers will stop you getting to the train, even though there was no way for you to buy it at the station.
If these reduced opening hours to go ahead, that should surely scupper the barriers once and for all. GC would have a watertight case for anticompetitive practice - there's no way the rail regulator could let that system through.
Stevie D
says...
12:19pm Tue 17 Feb 09
rogue84 wrote:Yes, but they count a working ticket machine as an 'open ticket office' for that - it doesn't matter whether there are staffed windows, if you have the opportunity to buy a ticket you must do that or you'll be charged the Extortion fare.
actually i'm sure there is a guideline that says you only need to pay full fare on the train if you've 'walked past an open ticket office'. if there isn't anywhere to buy your tickets then they shouldn't charge you the maximum fare and should accept railcards etc. am sure that's correct.
That's OK if you trust the ticket machines to work (although with credit card machines it's less of a problem than the old cash-only ones) and if you know exactly what ticket to buy - but if you're going on a long journey or have more complex requirements, you may need to ask a real person rather than just go to a machine.
Where other train companies have been extending the opening hours of their ticket offices - a couple of years ago, Transpennine did that at many of their stations, and other operators have been doing likewise - it is absolutely typical of the penny-pinching approach of National Express to take this retrograde step and reduce the level of service to passengers.
old_geezer
says...
12:22pm Tue 17 Feb 09
Dunc
says...
12:23pm Tue 17 Feb 09
Ok I aknowledge there are effects on people who don't use the internet but the actual effect of this on the majority of train users is small - I'd rather see them do this than put fares up even more than they usually do.
ouseswimmer
says...
12:38pm Tue 17 Feb 09
Guy Fawkes
says...
12:41pm Tue 17 Feb 09
I haven't used a ticket office in about two years, just buy tickets online and then use fast ticket machines, then you can get the cheaper advanced tickets without having to cue or make two trips to the station - simple!
Not so simple if I get a phone call this afternoon asking me to be at a meeting in London tomorrow. If I have to travel at that short notice (and some people do), it's around £50 cheaper to travel on GC than it is on NXEC. Yet if NXEC implement this plan, I probably won't be able to.
THETELLEROFTALES
says...
1:27pm Tue 17 Feb 09
ITS A WINNER !
Heslingtonian
says...
1:32pm Tue 17 Feb 09
GC tickets are not available from NXEC machines, you have to buy a standard open ticket, costing about double the off peak GC fare.
GC probably have a case to take to ORR if the barriers and reduced opening hours mean that they cannot sell their own tickets.
boyracer
says...
2:11pm Tue 17 Feb 09
...And so does the real truth behind NXEC real plans!
"Ticket barriers will prevent fare-dodgers" and not selling tickets will help this?
Trying to put GC out of business, and cutting NXEC costs to a minimum by offering poor service seems to be the real plan.
bobby_spray
says...
9:40am Wed 18 Feb 09
scrappydo
says...
11:03am Wed 18 Feb 09
Which is the comment referring to Lord Adonis.
Lord Adonis is the person and his government department to send your complaints too.
"If they cannot afford to provide a decent long distance service, they should simply hand the keys back and let ministers run it as a public service that puts passengers first."
"The union is to urge Rail Minister Lord Adonis to reject the cutbacks which will need Government approval under the current franchise agreements."
Stripes999
says...
7:10pm Wed 18 Feb 09
topumpire1
says...
9:16am Thu 19 Feb 09
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York rail passengers face changes in ticket office hours
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