Almost every railway ticket office in England is expected to close over the next three years under controversial Government plans set to be announced tomorrow. The Rail Delivery Group is speeding up proposals to shut up to 1,000 offices in a move likely to prompt yet more strikes and further woe for passengers.
Because I doubt it's the passengers. Not all of them, anyway.
Rail officials said ticket office sales have fallen from 85 per cent in 1995, when the rules on selling tickets were last reviewed, to 12 per cent on average today.
Ministers say they want to get ticket office staff onto concourses - but critics warn closures could see job losses and will make life harder for the disabled and elderly.
This is exactly the same as the push to remove serviced tills from supermarkets and force everyone to use self-service tills instead. But there are people who - for whatever reason - can't or won't use them. And it's just the same with rail travel.
And you can trust the Tory government to make things even worse:
Conservative Greg Smith MP, chair of the Transport Committee, told The Sun: 'We need to have a realistic conversation about ticket offices, especially those that are simply not used.
'But when unions are unleashing maximum disruption, having this debate on ticket offices now is putting a rocket under union anger and will only bring more disruption for travellers.'
Buckle up, commuters. It's going to be a bumpy ride ahead.
9 comments:
To be added to an ever increasing list of members of the public being denied face to face encounters, police stations, council offices, Job Centres et al.
Puts tinfoil hat on, it seems that they are hiding all staff away, is it for something coming soon, that they know we won't like?
LFB
Whenever I have tried the self checkout things staff have had to come to my aid. All it would take is for a few oldies like myself to coordinate their arrival in the queue. Result; mayhem, angry young customers,frustrated staff. Add to that the natural politeness of us old 'uns, smiling and chatting away so further slowing the process. It won't make them change course but it would be fun.
I'm an oldie and I don't have a problem with the self checkout machines, I find them very easy to use. I make a judgement call on the length of the queues at the regular checkouts, generally the self checkouts are quicker. Packing bags is also easier because I scan the items in the order that I want to bag them.
The Supermarket I use in Dunedin,New Zealand has self scanning options.Check a portable scanner from the racks at the entrance, then away you go.Select item,scan barcode,pop item in your bag and continue round the store.It gives a running total as you go so you keep track of what you are spending.At the end,scan total into a till and pay by card. No more unloading for scanning and repacking at the tills,minimal waiting .There are staff available to help if needed,much better system.
I have a few friends/acquaintances who work in the “service sector” (supermarkets, banks and the rail industry) and … universally they say the same thing (as I observed in the ‘vaunted’ NHS).
‘None’ of these moves to rationalise, centralise, stream-line (call it whatever mealy-mouthed name they will) … ‘ever’ actually reduce the number of staff. What they do is (predictably) reduce the number of staff that ‘do the job’ whilst allowing an increase in ‘management/administration’ (as well as the perks they enjoy).
Check the actual numbers employed by your average supermarket that implemented the useless self-service ‘option’, and you’ll find no drastic drop in numbers overall. You, just like in the NHS, will see however a massive ‘shift’ of numbers from ‘the coal-face’ to ‘the back office’.
The ‘savings’ aren’t there to (Oh, you complete naif) ‘improve the service’ or [manic/hysterical laughter from the board-room] ‘reduce the cost of a ticket’, they are there to get rid of those costly (pensions and rights demanding) long-term workers, replace them with a couple of part-timers and … allow the management to hire a few new assistants (to manage the inevitable collapse in service) and get a new Mercedes.
When I started in the NHS I had two managers, when I left I had eight … layers (with multiple useless idiots in each), whilst the number of nurses on an average 20 bed ward declined from 8 (plus auxiliaries and students), to 4, to two plus health-care assistants.
A (middle-aged, female) friend working for a major supermarket is now, whilst stocking, operating a checkout as needed (and don’t get her started on the amount of work involved in self-check terminals, unless you enjoy watching a frothing-mouthed diatribe) is … required to unload the (large heavy pallets from) the delivery wagons too – they having ‘let go’ the three (expensive) burly men previously employed to do that job. Whilst … she has three new mangers who appear to spend most of the time on junkets or at head-office.
So Rail? SSDD.
John2008, I have a question to ask you.
Having done all that work on behalf of the supermarket, do you have a discount on the goods that you have bought?
Thought not.
As for paying with a card, no thanks, I prefer to use cash for train tickets.
DAD, No, any discounts are built into the prices which are generally lower than the other available supermarkets. The big saving for me is that I no longer have to wait in line at a Till while the queue in front has items removed from trolley,scanned and placed back in the trolley and then loaded into bags.
A far as paying by card, I dislike carrying wads of cash about with me
"To be added to an ever increasing list of members of the public being denied face to face encounters, police stations, council offices, Job Centres et al."
Spot on!
"Whenever I have tried the self checkout things staff have had to come to my aid. "
It's inevitable, even if nothing fails to scan, if you're buying alcohol (Reader: When aren't you nuying alcohol? Ed: Shhh!) they have to attend to certify you're over 21!
"Packing bags is also easier because I scan the items in the order that I want to bag them."
Yes, but surely you can also load the conveyor beslt in the order you want to pack? It baffles me watching some people fail utterly to do that...
"The Supermarket I use in Dunedin,New Zealand has self scanning options.Check a portable scanner from the racks at the entrance, then away you go."
Yes, most of our biggest local ones have that option too. I've never actually used it myself.
"‘None’ of these moves to rationalise, centralise, stream-line (call it whatever mealy-mouthed name they will) … ‘ever’ actually reduce the number of staff."
I never really doubted that! Though I have been known to be rather waspish about job prospects when an assistant sidles up and asks if I'd rather use the self-serve option while I'm waiting in a queue...
"As for paying with a card, no thanks, I prefer to use cash for train tickets."
Out of interest, why? What advantage does it confer?
"A far as paying by card, I dislike carrying wads of cash about with me"
Me too! I can count on the fingers of one hand (and still have a few left over) the services I pay cash for. My window cleaner, my hairdresser (who gave up her shop and is now mobile) and...err...that's it!
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