Forum Topic

Closing the ticket office almost completely at Acton Central

Front page story that the ticket office will only be open Monday - Friday, 0730 - 1000 is really troubling.It's just another way of reducing the people staffing the station. It certainly won't help passengers. Especially as the machines seem to be - at best - temperamental.And as TfL can't even make the upcoming trains board work after over a month, if there is no-one to ask, it's quite hard to know what is going on.Anyone else annoyed?Maybe we should say so.At least the timetable was amended this time after huge protests from lov=cal residents, our MP and the like. But for every forward step, there seems to be one back.

Sara Nathan ● 2272d7 Comments

Unionism, dontcha love it!Lost its way long ago.

Rosco White ● 2267d

Probably a union issue. The ticket staff and the platform staff may have different contracts and it won't be a simple matter to get one to take on the responsibilities of the other.

Kevin Howard ● 2268d

If Overground stations are still going to be 'staffed' throughout their hours of operation, then why can't those staff sell the occasional ticket as and when required? 'Ring buzzer for service'? If a separate person used to sit in the ticket office all day and do nothing else, I can see how uneconomical that must have been.

Peter Evans ● 2270d

CITYMAPPER! I always get that wrong!

Susan Kelly ● 2271d

It's great! Not so hot when the machines aren't responsive - they dont always like train ticket pick-ups for some reason.It's just another reduction of service though, isnt it, when we should be making public transport easier, quicker and more supportive to wean people from their cars sitting spewing fumes at us on the road outside the station....

Sara Nathan ● 2271d

If the train boards aren't working, then the Cityplanner App will probably help.

Susan Kelly ● 2271d

Not sure I am that troubled by the reduction of hours in itself. I did use it occasionally for things like renewing railcards. It has to be recognised that with falling revenues and rising costs TfL needs to think carefully about the cost benefit of each service that it provides.The problem for me is that is clearly a politically driven decision rather than a service one. Ken Livingstone pledged not to close ticket offices and he did, Boris Johnson pledged not to close ticket offices and he did. With an election looming Sadiq Khan is rendering ticket offices just about useless but he can claim that he hasn't actually closed any so this arrangement is entirely for his benefit. At the same time we see from another report on this site that his PR budget is expanding significantly. This is essentially the further party politicisation of the way public funds are spent.

Andy Jones ● 2271d