Significant progress has been made at stations along the West Coast Main Line as part of our £20m investment programme aimed at improving the customer experience.
Automatic Ticket Gates
Gates are now in place at eight of our stations, namely Stockport, Crewe, Birmingham New Street, Birmingham International, Coventry, Rugby, Stoke-on-Trent and London Euston (Platforms 1-3).
The remaining platforms under our control at Euston will follow later next year along with Manchester Piccadilly. One hundred new Welcome Hosts have been recruited to oversee the gates’ operation whilst assisting with customer enquiries.
The feedback has been extremely positive, particularly around our Welcome Hosts, with passengers also commenting they feel safer. All stations have shown a marked increase in ticket sales, highlighting the extent of ticketless travel.
Ticket Vending Machines
We are a long way down the programme of works to introduce 127 new TVMs at our 17 stations as well as at a number of stations operated by Network Rail. This is to reflect our customers’ changing buying patterns that have seen a doubling of those wanting to collect their tickets at the station in the past five years.
A new look for Crewe
The old ticket office / travel centre area at Crewe Station has been transformed into a much more customer friendly, open plan design that incorporates both TVMs and ATGs. The £1m plus investment was formally opened last month by Edward Timpson MP and is the first of several schemes that will come online in early 2016.
Work is well underway at Stafford, with customers at Stoke-on-Trent set to benefit from a new ticket hall on Platform 2. Contractors are now onsite at Coventry on a scheme that is due to finish in March.
Tackling the Euston Surge
From December, we will be introducing a series of initiatives to improve the boarding experience at Euston Station. The new look passenger information screens will include information such as reservation levels per coach to show where unreserved seating is available, an expected boarding time, times for calling points, and, during disruption, suggested alternative services if a train is cancelled or delayed.
We will be the first TOC to introduce this level of detail for passengers.
