MP's plea for better travel services
A barrage of complaints over the closure of a travel centre in Lincoln has prompted city MP Gillian Merron to appeal for better services.
The Echo reported in April that East Midlands Trains had decided to close the specialist centre, but promised the closure would not impact on overall service.
-
Lincoln Central Station
The public has now lashed out after being assured by rail bosses the remaining ticketing office at Lincoln Central Station would be able to deal with complex queries.
Passengers have lobbied Ms Merron to intervene, saying long queues are causing them to miss vital connections, as often only one of the two tickets windows are open.
"I have received complaints that since the travel centre closed, people have missed trains or given up entirely on journeys due the long queues at the ticket office," said Ms Merron who branded the decision to shut the travel centre at the time as "ill-judged" and "a real blow".
"I have called on the managing director of East Midlands Trains to review their ticketing arrangements to improve the situation, both for passengers travelling to and from our city, and Lincoln Central's hard working staff."
Ms Merron has proposed EMT open both windows at all times, so that one can be used for immediate travel and one for renewing railcards, advanced tickets and information.
A spokeswoman for East Midlands Trains said: "We are aware that some customers may have experienced difficulties recently when purchasing tickets at Lincoln Central Station. However, this is a temporary situation which we expect to be remedied soon. We are currently recruiting and training five members of staff to fill vacancies at the ticket office to allow both windows to be open more of the time. Once this process is complete, it should help reduce waiting times for passengers.
"In addition, to help minimise queues at the ticket office, we have installed an additional self service ticket machine at the station. We will also shortly launch our new East Midlands Trains website which includes new features to make it easier for customers to find the cheapest fares and purchase tickets online in advance of their journey."
For more on the travel centre, see Thursday's Echo.
7 Comments
by Anonymous Coward, Lincoln
Thursday, August 13 2009, 11:05AM
“Maybe while Gillian is at it she could campaign to get some of those direct services to useful places like Birmingham, Cardiff, Shrewsbury etc restored.
Oh I forgot she was responsible for getting rid of them while she was railways minister - thinking of her constituants as normal.
Lets hope our next MP does a better job than just writing letters. Like not letting the services that she is directly in control of get cut in the first place. She could have had the travel centre as part of the franchise commitment - remember she was railways minister when this franchise came up to tender!”
by Karl McNotniceanddim, Lincoln's prospective conservative nuMPty
Thursday, August 13 2009, 10:14AM
“Latest update folks!!!
I've now sorted it!!!
East Midlands Trains have agreed to reinstate the specialist office!!!
Also horse racing is coming back to the West Common!!!
See, empty promises do cost nothing!!!
Wizard prang! Arf arf!”
by Karl McNotniceanddim, Lincoln
Thursday, August 13 2009, 10:01AM
“Yes here I am folks!
Well if I can bring horse racing back to the West Common I'm jolly well sure I can use my magic wand at the Railway Station.
Oh yes, empty promises are my speciality doncha know?
Anyways must dash, I hear there's another envelope opening I must attend. Tweeds and all!
Toodle pip!”
by Kev, Lincoln
Thursday, August 13 2009, 8:48AM
“It's clear something needs to be done about this. We currently have a ridiculous situation where the ticket office staff are having to give travel advice, and this is holding up people who need to buy tickets in a rush.
The other day I was queuing to buy a ticket for a train due to leave in 5 minutes time, and found myself stuck behind someone asking about train times for a trip to Leeds next month! There needs to be some system for filtering out non-immediate enquiries and giving priority for those of us actually needing a ticket!”
by Emma Wasp, Lincoln
Thursday, August 13 2009, 7:53AM
“Well said, Fat Controller! Nice to see that Merron's blatant bandwagon hopping is fooling less and less people :)
No doubt the usual culprits will be along to defend the indefensible; I especially look forward to the oh-so-hilarious Tim Nice But Dim rip-off and endless references to horse-racing that they're so fond of.”
by John Shepherd, Market Rasen
Thursday, August 13 2009, 7:52AM
“I have used this Travel Centre many times in the past,and its criminal that this great facility, with wonderful staff, is closing.What on earth is the logic in this? What with the Tourist Information Office closing as well,what kind of message is this sending out to visitors and residents. The people concerned with this madness,should hang their heads in shame.”
by The Fat Controller, Lincoln
Thursday, August 13 2009, 7:33AM
“Miss Merron once again claims to be doing 'something' - basically writing another letter! - and the Echo duly prints it as a major story to show what a 'serious player' our MP is.. how often does Miss Merron, the City's MP, use the station in Lincoln and queues herself to buy a ticket, or renew her taxpayer funded first class season ticket...? - oh whoops... Harold and Thomas just reminded me - she doesn't live in the City... and all these letters are written by her staff that taxpayers pay for, with postage paid for by taxpayers and then she tells us about it using taxpayers money... and the Echo prints this drivel.
Serious point though - the Travel Centre should have remained and front-line staff levels maintained - as a former Unison Union Rep. one would have expected more upfront and candid Campaigning for other people's jobs and the maintenance of a service for her electors from Miss Merron on these two fronts, or is she too busy relaxing on her (TAXPAYER FUNDED) £700 chair and watching her £700 TV? whilst eating £400 a month of taxpayer funded food?”