Shutters down on TVMs on Maynooth line?

n97 mini

I've been travelling frequently on the Maynooth line in the evenings in the last while, mostly between Leixlip and Coolmine and Castleknock, usually after 18.30.

The last 4 or 5 times I travelled the shutters have been down on all the TVMs in all the above stations. Last night we made 3 journeys, and all were free as it wasn't possible to buy tickets.

I got onto Irish Rail about it who just replied "buy your ticket at the destination". When I replied that the shutters were down there too I got silence back.

Does anyone know what's going on? Is it a case of someone new in the office is hitting the wrong button before they go home? Or is it IE trying to fudge usage statistics on the Maynooth line ("look, virtually no-one is using the line in the evenings aside from a few Leap card holders")?

irishgeo

n97 mini wrote: »

I've been travelling frequently on the Maynooth line in the evenings in the last while, mostly between Leixlip and Coolmine and Castleknock, usually after 18.30.

The last 4 or 5 times I travelled the shutters have been down on all the TVMs in all the above stations. Last night we made 3 journeys, and all were free as it wasn't possible to buy tickets.

I got onto Irish Rail about it who just replied "buy your ticket at the destination". When I replied that the shutters were down there too I got silence back.

Does anyone know what's going on? Is it a case of someone new in the office is hitting the wrong button before they go home? Or is it IE trying to fudge usage statistics on the Maynooth line ("look, virtually no-one is using the line in the evenings aside from a few Leap card holders")?

and they are wondering why they are losing money

Hilly Bill

Its due to vandalism.

Del.Monte

Hilly Bill wrote: »

Its due to vandalism.

Should close down the entire railway so. Do you ever give up making excuses for CIE?

Hilly Bill

Del.Monte wrote: »

Should close down the entire railway so. Do you ever give up making excuses for CIE?

No excuse, its the reason why they are closed. No need to exaggerate del monte.

end of the road

Hilly Bill wrote: »

Its due to vandalism.

well surely in that case they need to do something else that can allow the purchase of tickets. have the RPU lads go on and have them sell tickets. simply forgoing revenue is completely ridiculous.

Infini

This is the reason why they should never have been taking lads out of the booking offices. Atm the company is aggressively trying to get rid of station staff and only leave machines to buy tickets. Theyre trying to treat the rail like its a bloody luas system and not like an actual rail network. Alot of the vandalism and anti-social behaviour over the last few years is because they leave the stations unmanned. That and the fact that they changed the security from the reliable staff that would physically eject them from the station by force to "observe and report" and you wonder why the scrotes have the run of the place nowadays.

end of the road

yup. basically it's management from the uk implementing britain's failed before they have even got going methods onto the irish railway. that is why you have no staff in stations or on board long distance trains. slowly but surely stretching out around the uk network in the coming years.

Victor

end of the road wrote: »

yup. basically it's management from the uk implementing britain's failed before they have even got going methods onto the irish railway. that is why you have no staff in stations or on board long distance trains. slowly but surely stretching out around the uk network in the coming years.

I'm not sure about this. Any train I have been on in the UK has had a fairly conscientious ticket checker at minimum.

Zaph

n97 mini wrote: »

Does anyone know what's going on? Is it a case of someone new in the office is hitting the wrong button before they go home? Or is it IE trying to fudge usage statistics on the Maynooth line ("look, virtually no-one is using the line in the evenings aside from a few Leap card holders")?

It's not just evenings that the shutters are down. I haven't been using the train for the last month, but for a few weeks before that the shutter was down on the machine on the platform in Coolmine at 7.15am. I'm pretty sure there was someone in the ticket office on the other side of the track.

ArmaniJeanss

Victor wrote: »

I'm not sure about this. Any train I have been on in the UK has had a fairly conscientious ticket checker at minimum.

Well the ongoing Southern Rail strike is over plans to make their trains driver only, no other staff.
Obviously they are only one of many operators but their catchment area compromises about 8M people afaik.

Jamie2k9

Infini2 wrote: »

This is the reason why they should never have been taking lads out of the booking offices. Atm the company is aggressively trying to get rid of station staff and only leave machines to buy tickets. Theyre trying to treat the rail like its a bloody luas system and not like an actual rail network. Alot of the vandalism and anti-social behaviour over the last few years is because they leave the stations unmanned. That and the fact that they changed the security from the reliable staff that would physically eject them from the station by force to "observe and report" and you wonder why the scrotes have the run of the place nowadays.

Come on, vandalism is vandalism, un manned Luas stations don't see any major problems. There is no need for all stations to have staff 24/7. In this day and age even station staff wouldn't do a lot to deal with the problem.

When stations are staffed you can still pass via the open barriers and board a train for free!

It's a repeated problem because IE don't deal with it, i.e prosecute those and make an example.

Why don't each and every TMV have CCTV mounted on front of them of them?

Why are control not monitoring the station property as the chances are those who come are hanging around for a period of time before they cause damage. If it required an extra staff member then it would be worth it.

Like anything it's happen because it's allowed to happen, IE are just taking the easy way out by closing them early.

Infini

Jamie nearly every luas stop is on a street or next to one. They're also smaller stations and have a tram every few minutes most of the time so if any shenanigans are going on a luas driver actually will see it and report it. Most IR machines on the other hand are in isolated locations out of the way and easy prey for vandalism. It's better having someone around rather than noone as it gets reported to the coppers who will get them far quicker.

wench

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Well the ongoing Southern Rail strike is over plans to make their trains driver only, no other staff.
Obviously they are only one of many operators but their catchment area compromises about 8M people afaik.

Did you read your own link?

The bitter row has centred on Southern's desire to turn guards into on-board supervisors.

ArmaniJeanss

wench wrote: »

Did you read your own link?

Did you read to the end before replying?
The relevant bit is

The deal* includes details of circumstances when a train can be operated as driver-only, without an on-board supervisor.

* with one union but not yet the other union.

i.e., some trains will run with only a driver.

devnull

Indeed, the train company wants a provision that in situations where a supervisor is not available, they can still run a train that carries passengers to and from work, home and school.

How dare a company not cancel the train and betray the staff by siding with the public.

n97 mini

Infini2 wrote: »

This is the reason why they should never have been taking lads out of the booking offices. Atm the company is aggressively trying to get rid of station staff and only leave machines to buy tickets. Theyre trying to treat the rail like its a bloody luas system and not like an actual rail network. Alot of the vandalism and anti-social behaviour over the last few years is because they leave the stations unmanned. That and the fact that they changed the security from the reliable staff that would physically eject them from the station by force to "observe and report" and you wonder why the scrotes have the run of the place nowadays.

A lot of NIR commuter stations are unmanned and have no ticketing facilities... because every train has a ticket inspector/conductor on board. These people do the equivalent of 3 people on IE: revenue protection, ticket selling and customer information.

Additionally IE spent a fortune on staff-centred stations on the Maynooth line (most of which have no customer facilities whatsoever) which now spend a large part of their day locked up.

But the bigger question is what is Irish Rail's long term strategy, because at the moment everyone travels for free in the evenings.

Jamie2k9

Infini2 wrote: »

Jamie nearly every luas stop is on a street or next to one. They're also smaller stations and have a tram every few minutes most of the time so if any shenanigans are going on a luas driver actually will see it and report it. Most IR machines on the other hand are in isolated locations out of the way and easy prey for vandalism. It's better having someone around rather than noone as it gets reported to the coppers who will get them far quicker.

I fully agree they are totally different but IE are taking the easy way out here probally because it's most cost effective one.

end of the road

wench wrote: »

Did you read your own link?

who (going on what happened at gatwic express) are likely to be got rid of as soon as possible. that dispute is actually over de-staffing, not a job title change, the government engineered it via the company as they have a de-staffing agenda. they have even spent about 70000000 on the whole dispute. find the speech by a chap called peter wilkinson for the full game plan.

devnull wrote: »

Indeed, the train company wants a provision that in situations where a supervisor is not available, they can still run a train that carries passengers to and from work, home and school.

How dare a company not cancel the train and betray the staff by siding with the public.

this isn't about running the train for the benefit of the public, but you know this. the company don't care as they get paid their management fee regardless and get away with all else because they are doing the governments dirty work. i hear that a hell of a lot of trains are all ready running without these onboard supervisors as it is, that hardly gives one confidence in this new roll lasting. the company doesn't employ enough drivers and never will dispite their claims of recruiting drivers, so trains will still be canceled on a large scale. the company and this whole thing is a basket case caused by incompetents and a basket case government who only care about agendas rather then the public.

n97 mini

A twist. I bumped into a very nice chap today who works in Revenue Protection on the Maynooth line. I asked him about the shuttered TVMs. He said it's not vandalism but faulty machines being shuttered. Now I'm not sure that's true because I've seen machines open during the day but shuttered in the early evening.

As regards vandalism he said it's not a huge problem, and that he knows of only one machine in the last 6 years on that line being put out of service by being interfered with. And that was robbery not vandalism.

devnull

n97 mini wrote: »

A twist. I bumped into a very nice chap today who works in Revenue Protection on the Maynooth line. I asked him about the shuttered TVMs. He said it's not vandalism but faulty machines being shuttered. Now I'm not sure that's true because I've seen machines open during the day but shuttered in the early evening.

The ticket machines and the validators are the same base Scheidt & Bachmann machines that are used by the LUAS system however there is differing arrangements for maintenance and for the upkeep and maintenance.

LUAS contracted Scheidt & Bachmann themselves, whilst Irish Rail contract Quaestor who also are responsible for the upkeep of all Irish Rail passenger information systems (aside from the 8100s) including the on board maps that haven't worked for years.

Quaestor are also responsible for the ticket machines on Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann as well and the rolling out of the devices and the ongoing maintenance of them and ticket gates and validators.