How to make your protest about the ticket office closure

Wed 27 Sep 2023, 15:36

Interestingly the return tickets Alice and I bought on-line (from D Bahn) from Brussels to Berlin and back cost about the same as a peak return ticket from Charlbury to Paddington. And it automatically included the CIV guarantee!  

Wed 27 Sep 2023, 12:06

Alice, I don't understand your post. We will be in the Banbury constituency for the next General Election. The main fight will be between Labour and the Conservatives. It is not the Labour Party who need to wake up to the need for tactical voting. But those who want to vote for an alternative if they want to get this government out. As for the suggestion we should vote Conservative as a way of punishing the Tories, good grief! It punishes all of us if we we vote again for this dysfunctional government who evidently don't care about climate change or anything except staying in power. 

Wed 27 Sep 2023, 08:28

I'm not sure I need luck.  I need just one person with a brain to understand that the machines in the station currently do not replace people.  There must be other roles and responsibilities carried out by ticket office staff that I don't know about that will stop the minute they are gone.

My point is that the Government run the railways and decide how much funding is spent on them.  GWR have no choice over closing ticket offices - they are gone.  The consultation was a costly sham.  The social function they fulfilled is not valued by Conservatives.   It's just another costly, unpleasant thing that is going to happen around election time so the flack will fall on the next Government.  

I'm beginning to think we should all vote Conservative because people who smash things should take responsibility for the chaos they cause !  Tactical voting and tactical candidate placement is the only way - wake up Labour Party.

Tue 26 Sep 2023, 18:58

"I shall write to Mr. Courts again."  Good luck with that Alice!

Tue 26 Sep 2023, 15:02

I needed to buy 2 return CIV tickets Charlbury-St. Pancras to link with Eurostar for a journey.  

Knowing that they are not sold on the online ticketing system I checked the opening hours of the Oxford ticket office.  It told me it was open until 8pm.  I got a lift into Oxford yesterday and walked into the station at 5:45pm.  The ticket office was closed.  The staff on the front desk were unable to access the ticket system and they were also unable to say when the office would be open in that the staff numbers have been reduced so much that it's not possible to ensure it will be open.  The staff were lovely and distraught.  They gave me a voucher to travel back to Charlbury on the train for no charge given that I had a completely wasted journey.

I went to the GWR website this morning and sent them 1. a complaint and 2. a WhatsApp message asking whether the ticket office would be open today.  The complaint will be responded to in 4 weeks.  The WhatsApp message got a quick response saying "The ticket office should be manned from now on until 20:00".

I learnt from Stephen that I could get CIV tickets online through trainsplit.com but they are paper tickets and have to be sent to your house.  Too late for that but OK if you are able to plan well in advance.

Today I went back to Oxford, bought my tickets and learnt that all GWR managed ticket offices including Oxford will be closed by December 2024.  It is the Government forcing these changes on railway companies by not including the increased costs of running them in forward budgets.  I shall write to Mr. Courts again.

Fri 21 Jul 2023, 09:32

The Cotswold Line Promotion Group (CLPG) has published some excellent tips on how to make your views known about the planned closure of our station's ticket office. Go to the following link - but hurry, as there is only one week left in which to protest.

https://clpg.online/2023/07/closure-of-ticket-offices/