"One in 20 dodging train fares"

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

I suspect the café owner wouldn't be interested - simply because the amount of admin work involved outweighs their available free time (in not serving their own customers / accounting for money taken & all that involves versus 9% of the ticket price.

[grahame]

As the rules stand at the moment, running a ticket agency / selling tickets has a significant annual overhead and training requirement, and in relatively recent years the commission rate payable to the selling agent has been slashed, with no contractual guarantee that I saw that it would't be slashed further.    

Five years ago there were cases that were seriously worth looking at, but with current figures I would be surprised to find more than a handful of places it would make business sense to sell tickets.    Whether the change was made by ATOC^» (Association of Train Operating Companies See - here) as a response to perceived high profits by agencies, or whether it was done to protect the market from being flooded with new businesses looking to sell tickets is a question I have been asked, and I don't know the answer.  As I understand it, there is no sliding scale of commission rates for independent sellers, so no real incentive to set up to service the smaller stations.    We're long past the days where there was a sign at Dilton Marsh Halt that said something like "Buy your tickets from Mrs Smith at No. 9 - 3rd on the right just up the hill".

I suspect the café owner wouldn't be interested - simply because the amount of admin work involved outweighs their available free time (in not serving their own customers / accounting for money taken & all that involves versus 9% of the ticket price.

It's nothing like 9% any more, Chris!

[ChrisB]

My argument is therefore strengthened then!

[johnneyw]

I'm still of the opinion that the peak time sales kiosks used in places like Filton Abbeywood can be used more widely, with a bit of management's imagination and efforts. After all, that's what revenue management is supposed to do.

[Chris from Nailsea]

I suspect the café owner wouldn't be interested - simply because the amount of admin work involved outweighs their available free time (in not serving their own customers / accounting for money taken & all that involves versus 9% of the ticket price.

It's nothing like 9% any more, Chris!

My argument is therefore strengthened then!

I agree with both of you.

Years ago, there was a lady with a mobile kiosk at Nailsea & Backwell, trying to sell coffee, tea and morning newspapers to Bristol (and elsewhere) commuters.  She gave up, quite understandably, because it just didn't pay its way.

Similarly, the official ticket office on the platform above was, and apparently remains, fairly neutral as to whether it's even worth opening, some mornings.

Even if you combined those two operations, I can't see that there would be any realistic business case.

By the way, the footfall for Nailsea & Backwell for 2014/15 was 450,510. 

[ChrisB]

Over 260 working days/year, that's just 1750 a day - and it would definitely be fewer than that, because there is definitely a weekend footfall too.

With the advent of the Metro paper, I suspect that well less than 50% would even frequent that facility.

[simonw]

Nailsea & Backwell station has seen a 100% increase in use over 10 years, so what might not of worked 10 years ago, may work now.

The presence of the Strawberry Cafe at the station, would not have helped a commercial competitor though.

[grahame]

Years ago, there was a lady with a mobile kiosk at Nailsea & Backwell, trying to sell coffee, tea and morning newspapers to Bristol (and elsewhere) commuters.  She gave up, quite understandably, because it just didn't pay its way.

But the coffee bicycle at Montpelier is working?

Catering / retail is a tough business; many fall but there may be opportunities.  With ticket sale commission rates set for the big, automated, online sellers such as the Trainline, and a high cost entry and annual cost, it's pretty tough for the small localised personal service to make anything like break even, even if the presence of a ticket seller and advise would generate far, far more rail business than the cost of such provision.

[Bmblbzzz]

I think you mean the coffee tricycle at Redland. 

[ChrisB]

Which won't be paying any form of business rates/Council tax, so far more likely to be profitable

[Richard Fairhurst]

Kookaburra Coffee appears to be successful at Charlbury, especially now that it's (finally) moved into the station building. But I suspect it's paying minimum wage to its staff, and rail tickets are so complex that - even if you could sort the commission structure out - you need someone skilled to sell them without fouling up. Ultimately, I fear, TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) are the way forward.

Yes, and I see so many coffee carts/vans these days I refuse to believe that a train station exists where one cannot exist.

Not so sure one would succeed in Finstock or Combe, let alone Sugar Loaf, Barry Links or Denton...

[Chris from Nailsea]

The presence of the Strawberry Cafe at the station, would not have helped a commercial competitor though.

Erm, sorry, simonw, but are you referring here to the Strawberry Line Cafe at Yatton Station?