Quote:
Originally Posted by sean
Secondly, closing booking offices and replacing them with "alternative arrangments" I'm sorry this doesn't inspire confidence. Simply because the online booking system is not always a better option than the booking office, but also because TVMs don't issue all types of ticket and from what I've read here there's no onus on the passenger to use them.
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My mother was at a funeral in London last week going from Gatwick to Croydon by train. As she entered the station concourse in Gatwick, there was a queue of about 20 people for tickets. Seeing 4 older people together, a member of staff took them aside to the customer service desk and issued their tickets there. Even gave then a 2-for-1 deal. Thats what I'd like to see happen in medium to large stations (in terms of pasenger numbers) - Heuston or Galway or the bigger stations can keep a single ticket desk (or a few for major events), but Dublin suburban stations could mostly get away with 3 TVMs and a "platform / concourse supervisor". What you don't want is the ability of staff to hide from customers and trespassers. Shifting people away from single / return tickets onto season tickets is also important from cash handling, socio-economic and environmental grounds.
Now, I can't imagine such a customer service situation at Woodlawn, which sometimes has nobody boarding or alighting. However, it could have one* TVM and if its a complicated ticket or the person isn't comfortable using the technology, then a ticket checker can issue a ticket as people board.
* Strictly speaking you'd love to have two of more machines at every station, in case someone is slow using it or in the case of a fault. For Woodlawn, you just might get away with none.