That's all planned months in advance, the same service should depart from the same platform every day which is why you see commuters standing on an empty platform without a service advertised in the exact spot where the doors should be. You can see the platforms services should be in during the...
Nope, card must be present for ticket sales, or it certainly was when I sold them.
Don't know if its been mentioned or not but this would have been so much easier had the Railway Operator service still been in existence, unfortunately they scrapped that a few years ago, always handy when I had...