South West Trains

6rdfar90 · Post by **6rdfar90** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:29 pm

Are in trouble again with the media and public. The Times Newspaper on Monday made claims that South West Trains had told many of it's guards to initiate a "no ticket, no excuse full fare" regime on its services. These included instances where booking offices were full and people were going to miss their trains. A Spokeswoman for South West Trains however said that Guards were still able to use discretion in boarding without tickets and buying on the train, and that all South West Trains Guards had pagers that informed them of queues at stations. So apart from people being told that they have to pay 20% more on a lot of South West Trains' services, they are also being told that there is no excuse for them to travel without a ticket - queues or not. Bit unfair isnt it?

andylloyd · Post by **andylloyd** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:53 pm

Naughty naughty SWT. Will all these gadgets work then?

Reagrds

Andy

6rdfar90 · Post by **6rdfar90** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:05 pm

No idea, they're "already working" but some Guards obviously dont
a) check them enough
b) are just wanting to bleed money out of people
c) dont care what goes wrong
South West Trains are also putting in a load of Self Service ticket machines - in my experience, nearly three quarters of them havent worked at Leeds - whats it going to be like down there where thousands of people use them?

andylloyd · Post by **andylloyd** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:09 pm

going by experience, i've used the new ones at Waterloo. They do seem to be a lot better and reliable as is the new on that was installed at chessington north last time i was at home.

AlistairW · Post by **AlistairW** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:19 pm

6rdfar90 wrote:South West Trains are also putting in a load of Self Service ticket machines - in my experience, nearly three quarters of them havent worked at Leeds - whats it going to be like down there where thousands of people use them?

lol its not like Leeds is a rural back water station! Thousands of people go though there too!

Not really had a problem with ticket machines although I do agree they don't seem particually reliable!

6rdfar90 · Post by **6rdfar90** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:31 pm

Never said Leeds was a rural station - its huge, and has more people going through it in Yorkshire than I would like to think - im merely pointing out that a much larger percentage of people will pass through London Waterloo then Leeds, and if Leeds' self service ticket machines are out of order due to high usage, then what will happen to the ticket machines in Waterloo with a larger usage?

andylloyd · Post by **andylloyd** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:40 pm

I dread to think.

Andy

arabiandisco · Post by **arabiandisco** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:37 pm

They have made no secret of this. It's in their on-board magazine, posters and so on. If passengers still wish to chance it, then I have no sympathy when they get caught. At Waterloo the guards announce that they will only be able to sell full price open returns/ singles. There's no excuse. If the queues are too long, then you should arrive in good time to get a ticket, rather than rock up with 2 minutes to go.

I paid SWT £3108 in February for my season ticket, and that is a lot of money. I don't object to that, but I will not stand for my money to subsidise freeloaders. The rules are clear and publicised, if you then choose to break them then you deserve to be hit with full fare.

allypally · Post by **allypally** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:45 pm

You can arrive 30 minutes early at some stations and still not get through the queues - Virgin at Wolves have taken to getting train managers on 'spare' turns to stand in the ticket office with avantix machines during busiest periods.

enotayokel · Post by **enotayokel** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:59 pm

It would be twice the price of a standard, all of the SWT network (apart from West of Salisbury) is a Penalty Fare Zone

AlistairW · Post by **AlistairW** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 10:42 pm

allypally wrote:You can arrive 30 minutes early at some stations and still not get through the queues - Virgin at Wolves have taken to getting train managers on 'spare' turns to stand in the ticket office with avantix machines during busiest periods.

Smart thinking! Why don't more operators do it as stations ALWAYS have busy periods and if they're not selling tickets they can be helping passengers with queries etc. A small cost for what could easily give a high return.

arabiandisco · Post by **arabiandisco** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:43 am

AlistairW wrote:
allypally wrote:You can arrive 30 minutes early at some stations and still not get through the queues - Virgin at Wolves have taken to getting train managers on 'spare' turns to stand in the ticket office with avantix machines during busiest periods.
Smart thinking! Why don't more operators do it as stations ALWAYS have busy periods and if they're not selling tickets they can be helping passengers with queries etc. A small cost for what could easily give a high return.

SWT do that at Basingstoke and Waterloo. I don't use their other stations much, but I have seen it at Woking, too.

richard222 · Post by **richard222** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 2:17 pm

Yep, whenever there is a major event on, Woking has the following options available

3 ticket booths
2 ticket machines
1 Travel Centre (Can book tickets)
and 2 Guys with portable things

and thats only on one side

gswindale · Post by **gswindale** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 3:38 pm

Personally I've found the new self-service ticket machines a lot more reliable than the old ones that they had (although at my local station they've gone from having 1 on each platform to just having 1 by the ticket office).

richard222 · Post by **richard222** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 6:24 pm

Have to admit, no ticket machines are reliable. The new ones are good because you can order tickets to anywhere, but personally, the best thing to do is go at a quiet time and prebook tickets in person.