Govia, the company behind the Great Northern and Thameslink brands, is planning to close ticket offices at Palmers Green and other stations where average ticket sales are low. Instead, a station "host" will be available on the "concourse", selling a limited range of "popular" tickets. However, the plans do have a positive aspect - there would be a Host at the station from first to last train every day.
According to Govia's "Stakeholder Manager" (PR person?), these plans would only be implemented after consultation with London Travelwatch and Transport Focus and will require approval by the Department Transport.
The affected stations (which presumably exclude non-staffed stations such as Crews Hill) will be allocated to one of three "models" depending on the number of tickets currently sold per hour.
Palmers Green, Alexandra Palace and Enfield Chase are all "Model 1" stations, Hornsey, Gordon Hill and Winchmore Hill "Model 2". No other local stations are mentioned in the information supplied by Govia.
Model 1 stations
Fewer than 12 tickets per hour are sold from the ticket office at these stations. The majority of customers use ticket machines and smartcard technology so there is minimal need for a ticket office
At these stations we propose to close the ticket office windows and move people out onto the concourse as ‘Station Hosts’
Station Hosts will be
- visible and available from first service until the last, which is longer than current ticket office hours in many cases
- trained in customer service
- able to sell the most popular tickets and provide information using a new handheld device
- helping passengers use the ticket machines
So the ticket office at Palmers Green, which was completely refurbished only recently, is likely to close.
Model 2 stations, where more tickets are sold, will have a slightly different arrangement:
"At these stations we propose to relocate the ticket selling equipment to a station hosting point so the staff are available on the concourse, able to sell tickets for longer than today."
No information is available about the difference between a "station hosting point" and ticket office or about which types of tickets will be available - for instance, whether it will be possible to book advance tickets for longer distance journeys.
Govia's track record so far
Regular travellers on Great Northern don't need me to tell them that cancellations and delays remain the order of the day. The shortage of drivers inherited from First Capital Connect continues to cause cancellations during school holidays and delays are a daily occurrence. And information about problems is not always supplied on the website, at stations or on trains - as was the case with the signal failure during the evening peak on Tuesday.
London Travelwatch has published some comments and a graph relating to Govia's punctuality record:
Performance of the Thameslink, Great Northern and Southeastern franchises in the London & South East area
The performance of Southern, Thameslink and Southeastern franchises is closely linked to, but not exclusively dependent on the rebuilding programme of London Bridge station and associated track works as a result of the Thameslink programme.
The chart below shows the percentage of RTA in 2014/15, from periods 6 to 10 September to December. These are compared to the national and London & South East (L&SE) averages. It shows a decline in the operators’ right time performance overall and when compared to the averages.
Sources:
