London Banter - View Single Post - Next round of Ticket Office closures announced

Colin Rosenstiel · May 20th 07, 04:05 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article ,
(Richard J.) wrote:

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:
In article ,
(Richard J.) wrote:

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:
In article ,
(Richard J.) wrote:

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:
In article ,
(Paul Terry) wrote:

In message
,
Colin Rosenstiel writes

There are no shops on my way from my mother's to the
station.

IIRC, Eats & Bits, almost opposite East Putney station, is an
Oyster Ticket Stop (or am I thinking of the wrong station?).

Since opposite East Putney Station is the wrong side of the
South Circular Road and an office block, I don't know where
you mean. On the forecourt maybe but they seem to have limited
opening times and I've not noticed Oyster signs.

Eats & Bits at 120 Upper Richmond Road, SW15 2SP, is an Oyster
Ticket Stop. I think you'll find it's in the row of shops
between the railway bridges and Oxford Road.

In other words on the other side of the South Circular Road from
my route to East Putney station.

So what? There's a pedestrian crossing there, for heaven's sake.

I can see you're not a regular user of that crossing if you're not
aware of how inconvenient it would be to use as an alternative to
the ticket office, especially if the only reason for going there
is because a ticket machine is broken or the queues are excessive.

The scenario you originally raised was "how can I put an arbitrary
(small) amount on my Oyster if I don't have change", in the event
of the ticket office at East Putney being permanently closed.
We've established that there's a ticket stop just across the road.
If that's so awfully inconvenient for you, you should make sure you
always have change on you, or think ahead and top up during the
arrival leg of your journey, or save time and hassle by topping up
less frequently with larger amounts. It's not rocket science.

It's not "just across the road". It's some way along the road too, and
the other side of a very busy main road which is hard to cross, signalled
crossing or not.

Given that there are shops in the station entrance way, closing the
ticket office without arranging for one of them to sell tickets is a
serious anti-customer action.

--
Colin Rosenstiel