continue...
As well as ensuring that everyone pays their way, this will bring added benefits. For example, all new ticket gates will be manned by our new customer service assistants, so there will be extra staff available at the entry to platforms. In fact, Dave’s new revenue protection team is 25% bigger than before, with 100 extra staff.
 |
We're asking that everyone pays the correct fare but we recognise we have to do our bit to make ticket buying quicker and easier |
 |
We plan more joint operations between revenue protection staff, TravelSafe Officers and the British Transport Police to improve security, similar to Operation Christopher, which patrolled every late-night train on the network over a weekend. This, together with the increased presence of revenue protection staff generally, will create a greater deterrent against anti-social behaviour on board.
“We ask that everyone pays the correct fare, but we recognise we have to do our bit to make ticket buying quicker and easier,” concludes Dave. “It’s part of our franchise plans to improve the comfort, safety and convenience of our passengers’ journey experience from the moment of arriving at the station to reaching their destination.”
Just the ticket
We’re working hard to make ticket buying faster, easier and more convenient for you
Ticket vending machines
We’ve already installed 259 new ticket machines in 148 stations and will install at least 100 more by 2009. In fact, all our stations will have at least one machine by September 2008. The new touch screen machines, are simpler to operate and they take credit and debit cards, so you don’t have to use cash. They are proving very popular with passengers—more than twice as many tickets are sold through the new machines than were sold via the old ones.
Queue busters
Long term, we plan to eliminate ticket queues by measures such as smartcard ticketing and online booking. In the meantime, our “queue busters” will patrol the worst queues during busy times, with mobile ticket machines helping to speed things up. As part of our franchise commitments, we are working with Passenger Focus and London TravelWatch to improve our queuing systems at busy times.
Coming soon
Smartcards
We are also committed to introducing Oyster Pay As You Go and our smartcard ticketing, which will offer passengers convenience and flexibility for travel across the network.
Ticket on Demand
We are looking at the possibility of introducing a facility similar to the Fastticket system operated by GNER and Virgin, which would allow you to book tickets and collect them from a ticket machine using a debit or credit card when you arrive at the station to catch your train.
page 3 of 3