A happy new year to all Tubeworker readers. The new year brings a little unhappiness, though, to those of our "customers" who have to renew their annual ticket online because they can't do it on the POMs and there are no ticket offices. Finding this out when they turn up to the station planning to renew their ticket does not put a smile on the face of your average commuter - which then leads to grief for staff as well.
All management seem to be able to suggest is that we point them to one of the Visitor Information Centres which are supposed to substitute for our lost ticket offices. The shortcoming of that suggestion, though, is that there are only a handful of them, at big stations only, and they are not open in the early morning or late evening.
This is yet another consequence of the ridiculous decision to close ticket offices. Customers do not want fake 'modernisation' that disguises cuts - they want services. World class? We think not.
