On Board Customer Service

[Jamie2k9]

The company’s corporate communication spokesman, Barry Kenny, declined to say which stations were being earmarked but it is understood about 37 are being examined countrywide.

Mr Kenny said it was hoped to deploy staff from stations to customer service on trains.

“With the availability of online booking, ticket vending machines for all customer — taxsaver commuter tickets, Leap Cards for example — customers are changing the way they engage with us,” he said, adding that 83% of all train tickets were now acquired through ticket vending machines, online booking, Leapcards, and Epurse products.

“Customers will still want and require customer service assistance, particularly onboard longer-distance services where many trains are currently driver-only,” he said.

Mr Kenny said staff redeployed from stations will be able to provide improved assistance for mobility-impaired customers, ensure seat reservations are observed, deal with onboard anti-social behaviour, and provide information during service disruptions, which would include arranging connections and transfers.

He hoped a new onboard service would be launched this summer but was unable to give a timeframe in relation to unmanned stations.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland...ns-444114.html

[James Howard]

I'm loath to agree with Barry Kenny on anything, but this is actually a pretty positive development. A staff-member is lot more use to the travelling public providing customer service on board two Sligo train runs than they are sitting in a ticket office in Edgeworthstown for 7 hours and I say this as somebody who uses Edgeworthstown - I would much rather see the staff on the train.

[JohnnyBoy]

Originally Posted by James Howard

I'm loath to agree with Barry Kenny on anything, but this is actually a pretty positive development. A staff-member is lot more use to the travelling public providing customer service on board two Sligo train runs than they are sitting in a ticket office in Edgeworthstown for 7 hours and I say this as somebody who uses Edgeworthstown - I would much rather see the staff on the train.

Eh... there's nobody in the Edgeworthstown ticket office for most of the day. It opens about ten minutes before a train arrives.

[Jamie2k9]

Eh... there's nobody in the Edgeworthstown ticket office for most of the day. It opens about ten minutes before a train arrives.

Unless the staff member lives next to the station it's just not true, ticket offices can close but station still be staffed. According to IE website (could be out of date) but:

06:00hrs-21:00hrs Mon-Wed
06:00hrs-15:00hrs Thur-Fri
08:30hrs-17:36hrs Sat
09:00hrs-21:00hrs Sun

if the on board train staff are ticket vendors then i suppose many of the problems of unstaffed stations can be neutralised, but you are still left with those who need assistance boarding/alighting.

there are many people who do not have the ability to book tickets on line or to use a TVM, they may not have a debit/credit card, they may not have internet access, they may have a difficulty like dyslexia or mobility issues.

as an organisation we represent all those people as well, so it is a valid issue for us to not just accept this as inevitable progress.

Represent all however ticket accessing is really splitting hairs here, no phone/internet, pass, annual ticket, debit/credit/cash. I mean we could be talking one or two in a thousand here. Staff should be able to supply tickets on board however it should not be a service that eliminates the current requirement to have a ticket to board if TMV is available. They would be in charge of getting people on/off who need help just like drivers today at unnamed stations.

eaving trains unstaffed has always seemed a very bizarre policy to me.

Not really, now that doesn't mean I support it but there was major waste for to many years. There just isn't a need for every train to be staff on the network. There are a lot of trains today that operate with more than just the driver.

On Waterford services you have some form of interaction with staff on a lot of services, there is 3/4 staff who operate on various services (usually one of peak morning/evening) and corresponding middle of day service and also two RPU staff who generally swap services en route. Cork are staffed with separate RPU and there is always a few staff staff who do Tralee/Limerick/Galway from time to time.

What the network needs is some staff and a proper transport police division who in most cases could deal with 90% of problems driver only trains cause.

The 45-60 minute wait for guards (not anyone's fault based on current set) is the core issue here and why to an extent, there is reluctance to get them unless it's really necessary.

I do get the impression the staffing could be a rather seasonal thing, a little like those customer service staff they took on last summer for assisting in stations such as Heuston.

[JohnnyBoy]

Originally Posted by Jamie2k9

Unless the staff member lives next to the station it's just not true, ticket offices can close but station still be staffed. According to IE website (could be out of date) but:
.

No idea where the staff live but there is nobody around and the office is locked except for 10-15 minutes before a train arrival. It's actually the schedule you posted that's just not true (imagine something like that from IE).

[Thomas J Stamp]

Originally Posted by Jamie2k9

Represent all however ticket accessing is really splitting hairs here, no phone/internet, pass, annual ticket, debit/credit/cash. I mean we could be talking one or two in a thousand here. Staff should be able to supply tickets on board however it should not be a service that eliminates the current requirement to have a ticket to board if TMV is available. They would be in charge of getting people on/off who need help just like drivers today at unnamed stations.

just rang templemore and thurles. the majority still use the booking office, not the machines. I can ring around more stations if you want.

here is an example - two neighbours of mine, in their 50's, went to templemore last week to get the 6.30 train. they couldnt use the TVM because the floodlights in the carpark glared out the screen. lucky the ticket office was open, otherwise they'd be getting a nice fine at Heuston as there was nobody selling tickets on the train.

[James Howard]

You'll always find anecdotal evidence to support any viewpoint. Most people will chose the familiar if the option is available. If they were offered a tenner off the ticket for using the TVM, you'd probably find they would deal with the glare issue. You should also consider who answered your phone call about TVM use. The guy selling the tickets is hardly motivated to tell you that his job is done just as well by the machine.

The whole point of this discussion is about moving staff from stations onto trains. So if this change was made, there would be somebody on the train selling tickets - so no problem.

Anyway, to repeat my question Is it not better that Irish Rail use what resources they have to properly staff trains rather than stations?

[comcor]

From the Rail Census, the four stations called out have usage of 166 (Charleville), 61 (Banteer), 151 (Millstreet) and 104 (Rathmore).

In contrast, in the Cork/Kerry area Midleton and Little Island are unmanned with 926 and 725 daily passengers respectively.

Manning has to be based on passenger need rather than what was in place historically.

And on those figures, Banteer is lucky to have a station at all.

[Inniskeen]

Mind you on a revenue basis, Millstreet probably matches Midleton !

There are down sides to demanning stations but a visible, active, presence on the trains is certainly more valuable than an underutilised member of staff at a quiet station.

[Thomas J Stamp]

Why cant we have both?

Loath to say, but there are plenty of people who dont have access to the online booking system.

Also the on-line system isnt really responsive to the actual as opposed to the imagined demand on a train, you can get a better discount at 23.59 the day before a service than at 00.01 the day of that service, even though nobody may have booked.

Ditto - say someone for some reason does not have online access, its a pity the ticket terminals at stations do not offer the same discounts as online. If they did so, and were able to accurately monitor ticket sales for the train you are booking, it would be better. Perhaps this upgrade will allow it.

The nature of the inter-city travel is one where there is always a healthy walk up portion of demand. What if someone who needs assistance turns up at the unmanned station (say with luggage as well?)

This was all flagged years ago when the 22k's came in and also when the ticket booths came in. Besides, how many staff will be able to move onto train services? How will it work for someone, say, in Thurles to work the Limerick/Dublin service? Will they have to drive to Limerick to start and finish the day? They'll want an allowance for that. Since they aren't being made redundant (straight away) you cant really see the costs savings in the short term, but you can see the trend in where the company is going.

[Jamie2k9]

Why cant we have both?

Cost?

Also the on-line system isnt really responsive to the actual as opposed to the imagined demand on a train, you can get a better discount at 23.59 the day before a service than at 00.01 the day of that service, even though nobody may have booked.

Ditto - say someone for some reason does not have online access, its a pity the ticket terminals at stations do not offer the same discounts as online. If they did so, and were able to accurately monitor ticket sales for the train you are booking, it would be better. Perhaps this upgrade will allow it.

You can purchase by phone or online.

The nature of the inter-city travel is one where there is always a healthy walk up portion of demand. What if someone who needs assistance turns up at the unmanned station (say with luggage as well?)

I would hope that un manning stations will get the level of investment required such as PIS, Emergancy and Information Point. The WRC and Oranmore are just some of un manned rural stations with them.

Walk up is largely for local routing, if you checked a train load and strip out annual, online, pass, weekly/monthly etc I don't think there would be major numbers left.

This was all flagged years ago when the 22k's came in and also when the ticket booths came in. Besides, how many staff will be able to move onto train services? How will it work for someone, say, in Thurles to work the Limerick/Dublin service? Will they have to drive to Limerick to start and finish the day? They'll want an allowance for that. Since they aren't being made redundant (straight away) you cant really see the costs savings in the short term, but you can see the trend in where the company is going.

Personally I don't think they need to travel the full line/service, I can't see why boarding at for example Thurles would be a problem. The RPU lads are are mobile on services so why would this be any different.
_____

The key thing here is staff actually doing the job they are asked to, that doesn't mean walking through train once and hide away in the cab for the rest of the journey.

[James Howard]

The person on the train should be in a position to provide assistance to people who need it at stations if they aren't hiding in the cab.

As for walk-up tickets - this would have to apply only to stations that have ticket machines which should sort that problem out. A large portion of the people who would have difficulties with ticket machines would be on free-travel passes anyway. In terms of pricing, why should a ticket machine be any different to buying from a person - I wouldn't expect to get an on-line discount for using a ticket machine. It's a walk-up ticket just the same.

It might be worth either manning stations or allowing on-board ticket purchases on Saturday mornings when there would tend to be a lot more walk-up business.

To me it's a no-brainer when resources are limited to move staff from stations to trains. Hopefully, Irish Rail's customers spend more time on trains than in stations, so it makes perfect sense to ensure that there is somebody there to provide assistance on trains. In an ideal world, we could go back to the 1940s when rural stations had a stationmaster, a ticket-clerk and two porters and every intercity train had a driver, a stoker, a cook, a barman, a steward, a guard and a ticket checker but personally, I can't afford 100 euro return tickets from Edgeworthstown to Dublin.