Automation is causing many casualties. Technology marches on, but there’s a yearning for moments of precious connection, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff
It’s a valid argument regardless of the base price.
Machines are generally cheaper than people. People like saving money more than they like talking to people. If given the choice they will almost always choose the machine, when they have to pay the price.
You also have to figure in what the savings actually are. For the railways in England, the staff costs (all of them - from signallers to drivers, maintenance workers, cleaners, guards, ticket office staff) are 20% of the cost of running the railway. Getting rid of a relatively small number of the worst paid staff on the railway will not do much to reduce the cost of running the railway - certainly not £5 per ticket’s worth, and the very small overall savings will not get passed on to the customers anyway.
Getting rid of a relatively small number of the worst paid staff on the railway will
Still save a significant chunk of money because people are still very expensive and ticket staff work 24/7.
certainly not £5 per ticket’s worth, and the very small overall savings will not get passed on to the customers anyway.
They almost certainly will be in one form or another. Even if the railroad keeps every dime the extra productivity in the economy you get from people not working as ticket staff will lead to improvements across the board.
Ticket staff in the UK don’t work 24/7. I used to work at a very large railway station in the UK and the ticket office was only open for 12 hours a day and only fully staffed at peak times, and employed the lowest paid staff in the station. (I’m guessing because you talk of railroads and dimes you probably don’t live in the UK, we’d be talking about railways and pennies here). The proposal is not to remove ticket staff at major stations, but at the minor ones, and there just aren’t that many staff at all the minor stations put together. Allied with the penalty fare system and the general unreliability of the ticket machines, and neither ticket machines nor guards on trains taking cash any more, having the busier smaller stations unstaffed is going to take mobility away from the most vulnerable.
Many ticket machines are not fit for use either - some of the ones on GWR for instance (of which lamentably I have first hand experience) have some of the buttons so close together on the touch screen they are a challenge to operate even by a young person with perfect eyesight and eye/hand coordination.
The drop in the ocean saved won’t lead to any meaningful improvements.
They aren’t sitting there twiddling their thumbs for 12 hours, they are providing a service which evidently people value. “Savings are savings” is the kind of argument an accountant who knows the cost of everything but the value of nothing would make.
We’re talking about the cost a human being sitting around selling tickets to people. You can value that service all day long, but if the human being is wasting their life doing something a machine could do you’re literally wasting human life.
If a job can be killed. Replace it. This isn’t about money, money is a proxy for what actually matters. Time and resources.
Human potential far surpasses selling you tickets, and any human potential wasted in this way is a tragedy.
The ticket office staff don’t merely sell tickets - and I know because I’ve done the job - much of the job is assisting people in a way a machine still cannot.
When i’m doing the standard thing I always do I prefer the machines. There are more of them so no lines and thus faster. When things get weird though a human can figure out what I really need and serve me faster.
This so much, nine times out of ten I know what I want and need and the ticket machine is best. But if I am doing something a bit strange the ticket office is used to make sure I get the right (and cheapest) option.
We already have some of the most expensive trains in Europe. I don’t think this really a valid argument.
It’s a valid argument regardless of the base price.
Machines are generally cheaper than people. People like saving money more than they like talking to people. If given the choice they will almost always choose the machine, when they have to pay the price.
You also have to figure in what the savings actually are. For the railways in England, the staff costs (all of them - from signallers to drivers, maintenance workers, cleaners, guards, ticket office staff) are 20% of the cost of running the railway. Getting rid of a relatively small number of the worst paid staff on the railway will not do much to reduce the cost of running the railway - certainly not £5 per ticket’s worth, and the very small overall savings will not get passed on to the customers anyway.
Still save a significant chunk of money because people are still very expensive and ticket staff work 24/7.
They almost certainly will be in one form or another. Even if the railroad keeps every dime the extra productivity in the economy you get from people not working as ticket staff will lead to improvements across the board.
Ticket staff in the UK don’t work 24/7. I used to work at a very large railway station in the UK and the ticket office was only open for 12 hours a day and only fully staffed at peak times, and employed the lowest paid staff in the station. (I’m guessing because you talk of railroads and dimes you probably don’t live in the UK, we’d be talking about railways and pennies here). The proposal is not to remove ticket staff at major stations, but at the minor ones, and there just aren’t that many staff at all the minor stations put together. Allied with the penalty fare system and the general unreliability of the ticket machines, and neither ticket machines nor guards on trains taking cash any more, having the busier smaller stations unstaffed is going to take mobility away from the most vulnerable.
Many ticket machines are not fit for use either - some of the ones on GWR for instance (of which lamentably I have first hand experience) have some of the buttons so close together on the touch screen they are a challenge to operate even by a young person with perfect eyesight and eye/hand coordination.
The drop in the ocean saved won’t lead to any meaningful improvements.
That’s still plenty of time. “It won’t save much compared to…” Is almost always a bad argument. Savings are savings and labor is expensive.
The ticket machines not being up to the task is a reasonable argument though. I can’t comment on that.
They aren’t sitting there twiddling their thumbs for 12 hours, they are providing a service which evidently people value. “Savings are savings” is the kind of argument an accountant who knows the cost of everything but the value of nothing would make.
We’re talking about the cost a human being sitting around selling tickets to people. You can value that service all day long, but if the human being is wasting their life doing something a machine could do you’re literally wasting human life.
If a job can be killed. Replace it. This isn’t about money, money is a proxy for what actually matters. Time and resources.
Human potential far surpasses selling you tickets, and any human potential wasted in this way is a tragedy.
The ticket office staff don’t merely sell tickets - and I know because I’ve done the job - much of the job is assisting people in a way a machine still cannot.
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When i’m doing the standard thing I always do I prefer the machines. There are more of them so no lines and thus faster. When things get weird though a human can figure out what I really need and serve me faster.
This so much, nine times out of ten I know what I want and need and the ticket machine is best. But if I am doing something a bit strange the ticket office is used to make sure I get the right (and cheapest) option.