Brilliant was a fun watch and great to see the team together doing something other than football. Shout out to Dan Neil for braving another year.
Plans to close all ticket offices have been scrapped https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67263931 This is great news for those who would struggle because of disability to buy train tickets. For once they have been heard, and not pushed to the bottom of the priority list
Wasn't this one of the issues the train unions were striking about? Perhaps this'll move them a bit closer to getting back to work.
please log in to view this image WTF! Andrei Kapkanets, 31, and his wife Natalia, 29, were among the nine victims MYKHAILO ROHOZA Maxim Tucker Tuesday October 31st 2023, 8.15pm, The Times "An entire family, including two young children, in occupied eastern Ukraine were murdered while celebrating a birthday after apparently refusing to hand over their house to Russian soldiers. Two Russian soldiers have been arrested, and Russian investigators said that the male suspects, who were from the country’s far east, were contracted to the military and had killed the entire family during a “domestic conflict”. Russian and Ukrainian news media reported that the two men behind the attack, who are in their thirties, rode up to the house in the occupied Ukrainian town of Volnovakha at night on a motorbike, entered the house and killed each of the nine family members with silenced assault rifles. The nature of the murders has shocked both warring countries, with the deaths intensifying ethnic division inside Russia after an antisemitic attack on an airport by Muslims from Dagestan, which neighbours Chechnya. Ukraine, which has begun its own investigation into the deaths, said that a pair of Chechen men in military uniforms without insignia had killed the family after they refused to hand over their house." https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...5?shareToken=fb472f951f9124539fe96b5034b05987
Always struggled with this one. Probably my own ignorance or naivety - but what disability stops you from flicking on a laptop or a smart phone but does allow you to travel X miles to a cold train station to buy a ticket over the counter.... Assume these are advanced/discounted tickets that people buy in these situations (thus necessitating 2 trips to the station) as the on the day purchases can just be made on the train OK, so I have an ulterior motive here - I used to work for LNER and my chief role at the time was to reduce the reliance on ticket offices and move to online sales. I AM curious though.....
usually the travel will include a carer or family member, there are various reasons why some struggle with computers/phones etc, our lass has to use the train quit eoften with her brother who is wheelchair bound and most of the time they need to see his chair to realise that 'just sticking him at one end or the other' only creates a blockage which also means she has to stand so she can move him around when needed. companies simply want to be able to sack more workers, it does not make things 'far more efficient' it makes them more profit, same with these self service tills at the big stores now, everywhere is trying to lose workers...where the hell are they meant to go, i saw the horrendous dole queues going nowhere after the pits were forced to close and thousands left signing on for year after year plus the loss of plenty of skill these people had, i hope something like that never happens again and that people fight together to keep jobs safe.
Surely you're not suggesting blind people can't use technology..... seems a bit sweeping OR are you thinking some people are dogs?
I'm not 'suggesting' anything, just giving a clear answer to your question ... ... what disability stops you from flicking on a laptop or a smart phone.
I wasn't talking about your uncle. "THE ROYAL National Institute for the Blind have welcomed the scrapping of controversial plans to close ticket offices. The institute’s chief executive says the organisation are delighted the ‘voice of blind and partially sighted people has been heard’ after the sweeping closures would have reduced disabled people’s access to rail services at hundreds of stations around the country."
The fact of the matter is that people (like you presumably) who don't like things to change end up using minority groups to try and further your agenda So, in this case people saying that the closure of Ticket Offices would stop blind, elderly disabled people travelling is hugely patronising to those groups, many of whom have overcome their disabilities to lead largely normal lives and don't need people using them as examples why progress should be halted.
You presume absolutely wrong, I latch onto any change that's quicker and easier. I went to a concert last night with e-tickets I booked online, used my phone's satnav to find the venue & parking then paid for our meal & drinks with my NatWest phone app. It's you who's being patronising. The RNIB aren't being patronising either, they're representing the concerns of the people they represent. I don't have an agenda, another incorrect assumption. You asked a question to which I responded with a totally reasonable answer. You're now bringing in a relative I don't know, assumptions and semantics. Sorry, not interested, you win.
Inevitably we had idiots out on a pier whilst huge winds and waves lashed over it. One adult taking a kid there, another female wiped off her feet and lucky not to be washed over.
Progress is not necessarily positive on this front from a customer efficiency perspective. Some examples I've experienced, buy a smart card with 10 journeys from East Lothian to Haymarket, tap in and at each barrier to get through with a change at Waverley. System doesn't work and terminates journey at waverley and then won't let you through to train from Waverley to Haymarket. Get guy to let you through who implies you haven't tapped in East Lothian when you have, nice start to the day. Return journey, Haymarket to Waverley, no problem then barrier to get on East lothian train doesn't let you through guy lets you through after minor similar discussion, tap out at East Lothian and welcome to your new journey, net result is 3 tickets used for 2 journeys and sometimes can't tap in again in morning because evening Journey hasn't tapped out because it didn't happen aaaargh!!!! This happened many tomes and no-one at station, challenging me or on phone to Scotrail could ever tell me what I was doing wrong but Scotrail could see I was using tickets weirdly when just going to work and back like everyone else. Had to give it up to reduce stressful arguments, spending more money than standard and wasting time. Next innovation Qr code tickets sold on train, don't work to get through barriers in middle of journey at Waverley so have to queue up until someone lets you through. Old school cardboard tickets work perfectly. None of this has been fixed in over a year. Not more efficient in my experience. SAFC e tickets, took ages to buy my ticket and one for my elderly dad and two kids none of who have email or smartphones. No turnstile number on these new improved tickets and stewards didn't know either. Only 3 of the 4 tickets would scan, guy begrudgingly let me in rather than send me to ticket office leaving dad and kids inside, fair play to him, not more efficient or improved in my experience. Talking to parents neighbour before match and his 85 year old pal had been going to eppleton to watch the reserves since played there. One day turns up and told his money is no good and needs to buy tickets online. Doesn't have computer or smartphone and doesn't want one, told go to ticket office and talk to them. Nice, not more efficient and convenient for him. Brother trying to buy tickets for reserves for him and kids, total cost £6. Got error messages that buying for wrong age group. Had selected under 16 and they are 12. messaged whoever at ticket office and told select U14. He said not an option, told yes it is, said no it isn't, said ah should be there now, no it isn't, try again now etc. etc. no apology, assumed he was wrong throughout, took 7 emails from him over 2 days. Not more convenient or efficient in my opinion. Just 3 examples where efficient for the company but with little thought for the customer and fine to have snags but sticking with it and not fixing things as they arrive because presumably it only affects 5 percent of luddite numpties. Again not correct in my opinion. Slightly longer response than I anticipated but I've not gone looking for these examples and they are all recent. Am I and those I speak of thick, unwilling and deserving of poor service and hassle or is it as I think that these things are not built with a customer lens in the current parlance?
