On 05/02/2014 17:59, Neil Williams wrote:

On Wed, 5 Feb 2014 13:36:13 +0000, Roland Perry wrote:
Have you really failed to notice the queues at the 'original' TfL
ticket office at Kings Cross (and much the same at the Western
ticket hall which is in St Pancras). Every time I've been to
Euston (most recently a couple of months ago) the queue for
the TfL ticket office was huge.

Gateway stations are to retain a presence. But even so, most are
probably buying tickets available from machines, if MKC is anything to
go by. Give a man a fish...

I don't think MKC is anything to go by.

Lots of tourists (domestic and overseas) arriving at central London
stations, not knowing quite what they want, but knowing they don't just
want a single ticket. Other punters wanting to use a ticket office for
all the various reasons Paul C suggests elsewhere on this thread. Ticket
machines, however well designed their UI, can still be bamboozling, and
furthermore don't offer the extra bits of advice that a knowledgeable
human does.

Those using ticket machines at MKC are likely to be au fait with the
system already (i.e. regular enough rail travellers), and are probably
wanting something fairly straightforward (Day Return to London,
outboundary Travelcard, or other day or period return ticket).

Plus, I'm going to throw it out there and suggest that the clientèle of
MKC station are not representative of the wider population at large.
(That's not meant as a derogatory comment BTW, but don't get too smug
about it either!)