bhamtrainfail's posterous

From a Birmingham #trainFAIL contributor:

If you value having a manned ticket office at your train station, please avoid using automated ticket machines.

My local train station is under threat of a reduction in ticket office hours, and I recently signed up to the staff's petition. I received a letter from Passenger Focus that states:

"Under the guidance governing ticket office opening hours, a train company can reduce opening hours if an office is lightly used. Less than 12 ticket sales per hour is the cut off point."

Having a manned ticket office helps you to get the ticket you need (for example, automated machines on London Midland can't issue day passes or season tickets), provides advice and guidance, and contributes to crime reduction and a safer environment for rail passengers. Additionally station staff help passengers with access and maintain the facilities.

Last night's Channel 4 Dispatches programme exposing Train Journeys From Hell spurred on hundreds of angered tweets to the #trainfail and #trainpain hashtags. Did the expose really tell the true story of the state of the country's train services? We think so.

As regular commuters using cross-city services in Birmingham, we know all too well the regular failings and poor services which travellers regularly put up with in attempts to get on with their daily lives. But in reality, what can we do? In the last week many service delays and cancellations have been put down to the continued discussions between the service providers and the train drivers' union ASLEF - let's be clear, we're with the staff on this one.

Problems are clearly down to how services are run across Birmingham. How can services see it acceptable that trains can be so frequently delayed, cancelled or simply disappearing. Of course it doesn't just stop there; schedulled peak-time services are often over-crowded and unreliable. Along side the impending cost-cutting measures seeing the closure of ticket offices across Birmingham, it really isn't a good look for the city's rail network.

Speaking to the London Midland press office today, we've been told that in "the last few weeks" due to "ASLEF not making an agreement" that 1.5% of daily services have been delayed or cancelled - it certainly feels like a lot more than 1.5% of trains. Whilst we're not commenting on the ongoing discussions between service providers and the unions, what we are saying is that the poor quality of services isn't acceptable.

Are you on board in our fight for better cross-city services in and around Birmingham? Let's not put up with irregular, unreliable, late, cancelled and over-crowded trains any longer! There are ways and means to express your disatisfaction to the providers, starting with the #trainFAIL hashtag.