Southern ticket office closures - consultation ends this weekend

[Jimmy Come Lately]

Apologies if fixtures, but I haven't seen anything on here about SASTA's proposals for the closure or part-closure of 80 ticket offices. I only found out about it today, and the three-week "consultation" period is very nearly over.

To pick out some stations that will affect Sussex rail users:

• The ticket offices at Falmer, Lancing and Shoreham-by-Sea will close
• The ticket offices at Angmering, Burgess Hill, Chichester, Crawley, Eastbourne, Hassocks, Horsham, Hove, Lewes, Littlehampton, Polegate, Portslade and Worthing will only open during the morning peak on weekdays

The official line is that the ticket office staff will come out from behind the counter and be able to dispense tickets from the concourse, but I think we can safely assume that their numbers will dwindle over time until more stations only have those cumbersome ticket machines.

It doesn't affect me much personally because I only have to use a ticket office once a year, but it seems like a big reduction in service with very little consultation (or publicity).

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

getting a train at shoreham in the morning is gonna be fun- already long queues at the ticket machines

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

and yes, i think we're all aware that these 'roaming ticket offices' are a bit of a smokescreen- they're clearly just trying to get rid of a few members of staff here and there

 

[ferris_ferrit]

getting a train at shoreham in the morning is gonna be fun- already long queues at the ticket machines

How would someone get a ticket if the ticket machines were to fail? Assuming the guard is hiding in his little room or the train is sufficiently packed to not allow easy movement through the carriages, I guess they would just get a penalty fare on arrival at Brighton?

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

How would someone get a ticket if the ticket machines were to fail? Assuming the guard is hiding in his little room or the train is sufficiently packed to not allow easy movement through the carriages, I guess they would just get a penalty fare on arrival at Brighton?

quite

and of course if the barriers are up you only have ONE ticket machine available on the south side of the station which usually has a long queue in the morning

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Apologies if fixtures, but I haven't seen anything on here about SASTA's proposals for the closure or part-closure of 80 ticket offices. I only found out about it today, and the three-week "consultation" period is very nearly over.

To pick out some stations that will affect Sussex rail users:

• The ticket offices at Falmer, Lancing and Shoreham-by-Sea will close
• The ticket offices at Angmering, Burgess Hill, Chichester, Crawley, Eastbourne, Hassocks, Horsham, Hove, Lewes, Littlehampton, Polegate, Portslade and Worthing will only open during the morning peak on weekdays

The official line is that the ticket office staff will come out from behind the counter and be able to dispense tickets from the concourse, but I think we can safely assume that their numbers will dwindle over time until more stations only have those cumbersome ticket machines.

It doesn't affect me much personally because I only have to use a ticket office once a year, but it seems like a big reduction in service with very little consultation (or publicity).

Some of these stations I could perhaps understand either not having a ticket office, or only having one open at peak times, but the likes of Crawley, Horsham, Worthing, Eastbourne et al are all well populated towns with a lot of commuter traffic, so this is a bit of a kick in the teeth really.

 

[ofco8]

How would someone get a ticket if the ticket machines were to fail? Assuming the guard is hiding in his little room or the train is sufficiently packed to not allow easy movement through the carriages, I guess they would just get a penalty fare on arrival at Brighton?

You are quite right. I booked tickets on line when we went to the Cardiff match. Luckily I went to the station to collect tickets a few days before.
The machine did not recognise my credit card number so I ended up going into the ticket office to get it sorted. Not my fault but if I had left it until the day I bet I would have been fined for travelling without a ticket even though I had printed off purchase confirmations.

 

[studio150]

getting a train at shoreham in the morning is gonna be fun- already long queues at the ticket machines

Why not get a key card and purchase ticket on line and then validate at the key point at the station in seconds. No queue time and no need to use ticket machine or the ticket man.

 

[Barry Izbak]

"MODERNISING SOUTHERN"
What a dreadful spin on reducing the level of service that this will actually provide.

They ought to make it easier for the growing number of passengers to buy tickets, not make it harder.

I simply don't have the patience to use those machines (OK so that's my problem I accept) and I will queue to be able to speak to a person.

Everyone already knows that the machines don't offer the best value tickets, and the best way to work out the impossibly complicated way to get the best value ticket is to hand cash over to a knowledgeable person behind a ticket office counter.

I use the trains as infrequently as possible. This won't encourage me to use it more will it?

 

[Albumen]

I cant remember the last time I went to a staffed ticket counter, add more ticket machines please and make it easier to buy one on your mobile I say.

As for removing the ticket office at Falmer, wont that make it easier for the streams of people getting off the train to get to the bridge? Hope so.

 

[Gwylan]

As for removing the ticket office at Falmer, wont that make it easier for the streams of people getting off the train to get to the bridge? Hope so.

The last couple of times I've been from Falmer, the ticket machine wasn't working. On one of them, it took my money but didn't dispense a ticket. The guy behind the counter sorted it out, sounds like that won't be an option soon

 

[catfish]

"MODERNISING SOUTHERN"
What a dreadful spin on reducing the level of service that this will actually provide.

They ought to make it easier for the growing number of passengers to buy tickets, not make it harder.

I simply don't have the patience to use those machines (OK so that's my problem I accept) and I will queue to be able to speak to a person.

Everyone already knows that the machines don't offer the best value tickets, and the best way to work out the impossibly complicated way to get the best value ticket is to hand cash over to a knowledgeable person behind a ticket office counter.

I use the trains as infrequently as possible. This won't encourage me to use it more will it?

When I saw the poster at Worthing with that heading I had to laugh. MODERNISING = GETTING RID OF STAFF.

 

[Gullflyinghigh]

I have no issue using the machines, except for the drastic lack of them in some places and the astonishing frequency with which they seem to break.

Normally not an issue as the human element is there as back up. For now.

 

[Beach Hut]

To be fair the dynamics of buying a rail ticket are evolving as tickets can be all kind of media now and if the success of the Keycard is reached then the card holder controls their own destiny.

Remember LUL has done this and closed all ticket offices

 

[Luke93]

How would someone get a ticket if the ticket machines were to fail? Assuming the guard is hiding in his little room or the train is sufficiently packed to not allow easy movement through the carriages, I guess they would just get a penalty fare on arrival at Brighton?

There's a ticket office both side of the barriers at Brighton, I often buy there if the ticket machine is broken and the train hasn't got a guard. Half of the services I catch are often the three carriage trains which go all the way to Portsmouth. They already don't have toilet facilities and are often without guards. Disgusting service is getting worse, yet prices increase.

 

[Deadly Danson]

There's a ticket office both side of the barriers at Brighton, I often buy there if the ticket machine is broken and the train hasn't got a guard. Half of the services I catch are often the three carriage trains which go all the way to Portsmouth. They already don't have toilet facilities and are often without guards. Disgusting service is getting worse, yet prices increase.

Just as an aside - EVERY train that comes from the East and West will have a guard (even if they are hiding in the back cab) - at least for the moment. The 313 trains (without toilets) are indeed a disgrace. The closure of ticket offices are nothing more than a cost cutting measure - if anyone here cares about customer service they should make their feelings known to GTR asap. The guards are next for the chopping board as GTR want to maximise their profits - quite apart from the customer service and ticket checking side of things, the guard fulfills a vital safety role - in the event of an evacuation/incident/fight/assault etc the driver will be too busy to help - at least in the first instance. Don't let this happen.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

How would someone get a ticket if the ticket machines were to fail? Assuming the guard is hiding in his little room or the train is sufficiently packed to not allow easy movement through the carriages, I guess they would just get a penalty fare on arrival at Brighton?

And that is what you will get at no cost to Southern.

 

[Super Steve Earle]

I hardly ever take the train. So I need the friendly person in the ticket office to guide me to the best value ticket including The Tube. I haven't used a bus in London since they stopped taking cash. I stopped driving to Hove when I needed a Mobile to pay for parking. Not sure how I'll deal with this latest slice of modernisation.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Why not get a key card and purchase ticket on line and then validate at the key point at the station in seconds. No queue time and no need to use ticket machine or the ticket man.

When I last checked, the key card cannot be used for all ticket types.

 

[Steve in Japan]

Thank you to the OP who raised this, I was unaware. Have emailed GTR to complain, probably pointless but I can't see how EBN station will operate smoothly without a ticket office.