Wolverhampton Metro extension gets go-ahead

[Busboy105]

The Metro extension cannot open until the second phase of the Wolverhampton station redevelopment is complete.  The first phase opened last month and this means that the existing station building (including the old booking office) can now been demolished and rebuilt.  The location of the tram stop will be part of this building site and will be inaccessible to the general public until phase 2 is completed and the new station fully opened.  This is now scheduled for early 2021.

Was that pushed back because of COVID?

[Pat]

Was that pushed back because of COVID?

Yes, because all construction work across the country stopped for 2 months.

[mikestone]

The Metro extension cannot open until the second phase of the Wolverhampton station redevelopment is complete.  The first phase opened last month and this means that the existing station building (including the old booking office) can now been demolished and rebuilt.  The location of the tram stop will be part of this building site and will be inaccessible to the general public until phase 2 is completed and the new station fully opened.  This is now scheduled for early 2021.

None of the publicity said anything about the new building including a ticket office - only machines. And needless to say the plan on the NRE site is no help.

[Pat]

None of the publicity said anything about the new building including a ticket office - only machines. And needless to say the plan on the NRE site is no help.

Wouldn't surprise me if there wasn't a ticket office.  Reminds me of when the new Wood Lane station in West London opened.  LU didn't include a ticket office, as they were closing all ticket offices across the network.

[Busboy105]

Wouldn't surprise me if there wasn't a ticket office.  Reminds me of when the new Wood Lane station in West London opened.  LU didn't include a ticket office, as they were closing all ticket offices across the network.

I don't know why the ticket offices were closed. Hundreds of people have lost their jobs and tourists are gonna struggle when they wanna access the network.

[Pat]

I don't know why the ticket offices were closed. Hundreds of people have lost their jobs and tourists are gonna struggle when they wanna access the network.

They would have got other roles, so wouldn't have lost their job.  Also, tourists seem to be able to use the machines easily and quickly and there is always a staff member on hand to assist at busy stations.  The machines are much quicker than using the ticket office.  They basically shut them to save money.

[mikestone]

Wouldn't surprise me if there wasn't a ticket office.  Reminds me of when the new Wood Lane station in West London opened.  LU didn't include a ticket office, as they were closing all ticket offices across the network.

I wasn't meaning to suggest there was no ticket office - clearly there will be a franchise commitment to have one - but that the existing one was presumably still in use.
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As far as London is concerned I have found the roving staff much more on the ball than booking office staff ever were.

[Pat]

I wasn't meaning to suggest there was no ticket office - clearly there will be a franchise commitment to have one - but that the existing one was presumably still in use.
;
As far as London is concerned I have found the roving staff much more on the ball than booking office staff ever were.

They've always got staff helping customers on the machines at Victoria.  It's the same at the Avanti machines at New Street.  I never see many people queueing at the ticket office at New Street, instead using the machines.

[Roy]

It was stated that, once phase 1 of the new station building was complete, the existing station buildings alongside platform 1 would be closed and demolished to enable the second phase of buildings to be built.  Thus the old booking office would be demolished in phase 2.  A fly through of the new building which was posted before work started on phase 1 stated that the new station would have a "New Street style" ticket office with ATMs.  Looking at the planned route for the Wolverhampton Metro extension on the Midland Metro Alliance website, it shows that it passes through the old booking office area.  https://metroalliance.co.uk/projects/wolverhampton-city-centre-extension/   

[Busboy105]

They would have got other roles, so wouldn't have lost their job.  Also, tourists seem to be able to use the machines easily and quickly and there is always a staff member on hand to assist at busy stations.  The machines are much quicker than using the ticket office.  They basically shut them to save money.

If you've been to some Underground stations (especially Euston), the queues are usually long for the machines and there's usually only one staff member who helps with people with the machines and that's a problem at peak times when there are multiple people who need help with the machines and there's only one guy to help them.

[Ian Hardy]

Wouldn't surprise me if there wasn't a ticket office.  Reminds me of when the new Wood Lane station in West London opened.  LU didn't include a ticket office, as they were closing all ticket offices across the network.

The reason why LU closed the ticket offices was that following the introduction of the Oyster card, very few people were actually going to the ticket offices to buy tickets (the only places where lots of people did was at the LU stations at National Rail London termini & Heathrow Airport). Especially as Oyster fares are cheaper than buying a ticket from the machine e.g Heathrow to Kings Cross St Pancras is £6.00 cash single (both peak & off peak) but the contactless / Oyster fare is only £3.10 off peak and the peak fare is £5.10.

Therefore most of the time, the ticket office clerks were doing nothing so LU decided to move these people outside into the concourse where they were more accessible to the public. The staff have a special log on for the ticket machines which enables them to do transactions that the public cannot e.g. adding a National Railcard discount to an Oyster card.

Now that lots of people use Contactless rather than Oyster there is even less reason for the ticket offices to exist as the staff cannot sort out problems on a credit / debit card.

[Pat]

If you've been to some Underground stations (especially Euston), the queues are usually long for the machines and there's usually only one staff member who helps with people with the machines and that's a problem at peak times when there are multiple people who need help with the machines and there's only one guy to help them.

I've never had to queue at Euston.  Only ever had to queue at Victoria, but only for about 5 minutes.  There's usually 2 station assistants on the machines.

[Tony]

I've never had to queue at Euston.  Only ever had to queue at Victoria, but only for about 5 minutes.  There's usually 2 station assistants on the machines.

And has been said, I never need to use ticket office or machines, just touch my bank card on the barriers which is always the cheapest way of travelling, and for a couple of odd tickets is actually cheaper than Oyster

[the trainbasher]

Call me a luddite, but I prefer to speak to a person in a ticket office, rather than go to a machine when it comes to buying travel tickets, especially when splits or seat reservations are involved. I would also rather have a paper ticket than a mobile ticket - a paper ticket never gets a flat battery.

I don't get the obsession with contactless anyway. It just hastens the demise of cold hard cash (cash never gets declined for shopping when the bank computer systems are down - such as the big Visa card problems a couple of years ago, plus you can feel the money being spent with cold hard cash - much easier to budget)

Plus with contactless in London you can't get railcard discounts on the daily cap compared to a paper ticket or Oyster.

[Busboy105]

Call me a luddite, but I prefer to speak to a person in a ticket office, rather than go to a machine when it comes to buying travel tickets, especially when splits or seat reservations are involved. I would also rather have a paper ticket than a mobile ticket - a paper ticket never gets a flat battery.

I don't get the obsession with contactless anyway. It just hastens the demise of cold hard cash (cash never gets declined for shopping when the bank computer systems are down - such as the big Visa card problems a couple of years ago, plus you can feel the money being spent with cold hard cash - much easier to budget)

Plus with contactless in London you can't get railcard discounts on the daily cap compared to a paper ticket or Oyster.

I see what you mean by that.