« on: November 22, 2009, 01:57:26 AM »
This is a comment on discourteous behaviour, a complaint and a suggestion all in one.
I’ve been travelling to Leeds for the last 4 months and have always shown my monthly season ticket to the staff at the barriers, who have let me pass with no problem. However, recently one operator has been saying that I should remove my pass from its wallet and put it through the machine. I don’t want to do this, as over time the printing on the pass can be become faded and through general ware and tear the pass could get damaged.
The operator claimed that it’s not his job to let people with passes through and that he is there to let people who haven’t got ticket onto the platform. I found this odd, since surely their job is to refuse people entry who don’t have a ticket and send them to the ticket office? Surely their job is to assist the public? The last time I experienced this problem it was quite late in the evening and the two barrier operators were standing around like stuffed dummies with nothing to do, so I really can’t see the problem in letting passengers through. The operator was impolite and arrogant.
Has anybody else had similar problems?
Was the operator right that it’s not his job to let passengers with passes through the barriers?
In connection with the above, wouldn’t it be better to introduce barriers that could read a code on the tickets? This way, we wouldn’t need to take our tickets out of their wallets and things would be much easier. At the moment, I don’t see why, when I’m paying over £100 a month for a season ticket, I should shove it through a machine and risk it being damaged or deformed.
