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Eddie · 04-02-2013, 23:29

Completely agree with you James.

On a related point, I was going through Shankill station about 6.40pm last Friday, and the station was unmanned, and the gates left open, with the "No ticket required" sign or something similar.

As it was windy, I stayed around the ticket office area and noticed the ticket office opening hours sign and it said that it was manned something like 5.15am unil 00.15am.

I go through this station on a semi-regular basis at roughly peak hours, and I'd say its unmanned at least 30% of the time and it could be up to 50% or more during the afternoon / evening peak hours. I can't imagine it's better outside peak hours.

You could come to a number of conclusions as to why it's unmanned such a large proportion of the time:
- perhaps the sign is out-of-date
- perhaps there is a job vacancy
- perhaps there is staff sickness and no one to fill in
- perhaps there is someone due to be on duty but they just don't turn up because there's no monitoring system and they know they won't get caught

I don't think this is a one-off, affecting this station only. We've all been through unmanned stations, though I rarely check to see if the booth was supposed to be open, according to the adjacent sign. It would be interesting to know if Glenageary station which Scooby went through was due to be manned at the time. If it was, and as his intention was to buy a ticket, presumably he would have been able to pay with a €50 note, and avoid the fine.

Just for interest, what level of staff monitoring is there at stations, particularly at stations where there is only one member of staff due to be on duty?

04-02-2013, 23:29	#19
Eddie Really Regular Poster Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 258	Completely agree with you James. On a related point, I was going through Shankill station about 6.40pm last Friday, and the station was unmanned, and the gates left open, with the "No ticket required" sign or something similar. As it was windy, I stayed around the ticket office area and noticed the ticket office opening hours sign and it said that it was manned something like 5.15am unil 00.15am. I go through this station on a semi-regular basis at roughly peak hours, and I'd say its unmanned at least 30% of the time and it could be up to 50% or more during the afternoon / evening peak hours. I can't imagine it's better outside peak hours. You could come to a number of conclusions as to why it's unmanned such a large proportion of the time: - perhaps the sign is out-of-date - perhaps there is a job vacancy - perhaps there is staff sickness and no one to fill in - perhaps there is someone due to be on duty but they just don't turn up because there's no monitoring system and they know they won't get caught I don't think this is a one-off, affecting this station only. We've all been through unmanned stations, though I rarely check to see if the booth was supposed to be open, according to the adjacent sign. It would be interesting to know if Glenageary station which Scooby went through was due to be manned at the time. If it was, and as his intention was to buy a ticket, presumably he would have been able to pay with a €50 note, and avoid the fine. Just for interest, what level of staff monitoring is there at stations, particularly at stations where there is only one member of staff due to be on duty? Last edited by Eddie : 05-02-2013 at 07:01.