On 5 Jan, 10:12, Patrick Osborne wrote:
Every year it's the same, and this year was no exception. The queues
at Lewisham this morning had to be seen to be believed; they were so
long that they were seriously affecting the ability to enter the
station itself. Presumably this scene was re-enacted across the
network.

Is there a reason why people queue up for ages on the first working
day of the year to renew their season ticket, when you can easily
purchase it online or by phone weeks beforehand, and at the old price
too? Or, if you insist on purchasing it face-to-face, why not buy it
a couple of weeks early, or make it so that it runs Feb-Feb rather
than Jan-Jan?

Are people really so stupid that they'll happily queue for half an
hour in the cold, or is there a reason for this annual craziness?


I can't see any reason for anyone to get embroiled in this annual
mayhem apart from inertia and the lack of forward planning. It's a
blindingly obvious point but nonetheless I'll make it anyway - many
people don't relish the return to work (even if they broadly enjoy
it), so the avoidance of dealing in advance with their season-
ticketing requirements is perhaps just an example of them not wanting
to let the realities of what's to come intrude on their holidays.

By the by, I found a little trick out on New Years Day -
Southeastern's Scheidt & Bachmann (S&B) ticket machines allow one to
purchase 'tickets for tomorrow' after 4pm (though only when 'tomorrow'
is a weekday), and also include the option of renewing one's last
monthly season ticket - obviously one needs to be on the Southeastern
season ticket database (which I am), but then all you have to do is
enter your photocard number and then your post code.

The system presents you the option of your 'renewal' (which despite
the terminology doesn't have to dovetail with the end of your last
monthly) and allows you to select whether it is to start 'today' or
'tomorrow' (I think the latter only being available after 4pm) - it's
worth noting that t only allows you to buy a monthly renewal of your
last ticket that's on their records, not a new ticket with a different
validity.

I therefore pressed the + (plus) option to advance it by a day and
voila, the system offered to sell me a monthly season ticket starting
on 2 January - the first day of the new fares - at the old 2008 price!
Just a little something that's worth bearing in mind for next year
perhaps! It might also work on the ticket machines of other TOCs - SWT
for example use S&B machines as does London Midland. I'm not sure
whether Shere machines (used by Southern amongst others) has this
'quirk' - it may well be specific to the S&B machines.

I should add that I also looked up to see what happened when one tries
to buy either normal (i.e. non-season) tickets or weekly seasons
staring 'tomorrow' (i.e. 2 Jan), and in both cases the machine
correctly presented the new 2009 prices.