Graham, Tom and Ian

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Keith reports back from meeting with Northern Rail

by Lib Dem team on 4 December, 2015

Keith and the Lib Dem team have been very pleased to support the Gatley Village Partnership campaign on Northern Rail. There have been a number of issues with the way Northern Rail are treating law-abiding passengers who have not been able to buy a ticket, as we detailed here.

This week Keith attended a meeting with Gatley Village Partnership and Northern Rail to look at the problems. As a result of the campaign, and the meeting, Northern Rail have made a number of commitments. These are

Northern Rail have said they will:

– check from ticket sales when ticket office is not selling tickets close to train arrivals. Ensure that there is someone manning the ticket office at Gatley at key times so passengers don’t turn up to find an “open” ticket office with no member of staff to buy tickets from.

– aim to get an extra ticket seller on the platform at busiest times to reduce queues

– again at peak times get an extra member of staff on train to open doors make announcements etc so the conductor can concentrate on checking and selling tickets

– discuss with the Revenue Manager the attitude of the Piccadilly station staff and ensure they recognise that they are part of the travel team and do not insult passengers. Also increase places where passengers can purchase tickets

Longer term when the new franchises are in place the expectation is that Gatley and every other station will have ticket machines. But it will taken six months or more to go through the whole process.

Northern Rail said they are keen to get involved will local groups like GVP. If these changes are carried through, it’s very positive news for the campaign so Keith will be monitoring the situation closely.

   2 Comments

2 Responses

  1. Alan Gent says:

    What NR deem to be ‘extra’ measures is just sound business practice to anyone else.
    Ah well they’ve had men in the platform before – let’s see how this one lasts.

  2. Gill says:

    This is all very well but doesn’t really address the problem for anyone travelling south to Wilmslow and beyond. It’s even harder to buy a ticket going south without completely going out of your way. Northern Rail should allow anyone travelling South from Gatley to buy a ticket from the destination station 100% of the time until a ticket machine has been put in place on the south bound platform. No extra staff would be needed, as this provision has already been made.

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