"Scott" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 29 Mar 2015 11:27:26 +0100, Clive Page
wrote:

TfL recently sent me an email message to tell me that:

quote
I am writing to let you know that after Easter, we will be carrying out
improvement work at King's Cross St. Pancras Tube station; this is part
of our plans to modernise the Tube. As a result, we are making changes
to the ticket hall and the ticket windows will be permanently closed.
end quote

Well we all knew of TfL's desire to do away with all these pesky ticket
windows, but on Saturday I happened to walk past the western ticket
office at King's Cross twice. Both in the morning and in late afternoon
the queue for the ticket windows was so full that it didn't all fit in
the zig-zag barriers, there must have been 30 or 40 people waiting each
time. The queue noticeably lengthens soon after a train from Paris or
Brussels arrives.

I don't quite know why those in these long queues don't try to use the
ticket machines (but they often have long queues as well) but I suppose
that if I were just arriving in a foreign city for the first time I
might reckon it easier to get the right ticket from a human than from a
machine, given the complexity of the system. Some of these newly
arriving visitors might even, like me, have had unpleasant experiences
in using ticket machines in foreign cities before.

Whatever the reason, there are going to be a lot of unhappy customers
there after Easter. And TfL shows no signs at all of opening the
refurbished enquiry office near the western ticket hall which was closed
a few months ago.

I don't know all the ins and outs, not living in London, but I
understood the plan was to redeploy staff to the passenger areas to
assist passengers. I assume there will be staff to assist visitors
and others in operating the machines.

and (in theory) twice as many machines

tim

On 29/03/2015 11:27, Clive Page wrote:

that if I were just arriving in a foreign city for the first time I
might reckon it easier to get the right ticket from a human than from a
machine, given the complexity of the system.

Depends.

For city transport, I tend to head for the machines these days. They are
likely to speak a language I can understand (English-speakers have an
advantage with this), be more tolerant of phase-book usage, and in many
cases will spell out the various options.

Also, experience suggests a machine is likely to admit the existence of
singles, returns and travelcards (or even better 24 h tickets), rather
than push me towards some kind of all-inclusive touristic ticket which
involves paying for admission to museums I don't want to go to and
discounts at restaurants I won't be eating at.

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

In message , at 11:27:26 on Sun, 29
Mar 2015, Clive Page remarked:
TfL recently sent me an email message to tell me that:

quote
I am writing to let you know that after Easter, we will be carrying out
improvement work at King’s Cross St. Pancras Tube station; this is
part of our plans to modernise the Tube. As a result, we are making
changes to the ticket hall and the ticket windows will be permanently
closed.
end quote

I got an email today saying that they are now closed.
--
Roland Perry

On Thu, 9 Apr 2015 11:52:37 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 11:27:26 on Sun, 29
Mar 2015, Clive Page remarked:
TfL recently sent me an email message to tell me that:

quote
I am writing to let you know that after Easter, we will be carrying out
improvement work at King’s Cross St. Pancras Tube station; this is
part of our plans to modernise the Tube. As a result, we are making
changes to the ticket hall and the ticket windows will be permanently
closed.
end quote

I got an email today saying that they are now closed.

I went along this morning and found:
- Western office closed, new visitor centre open
- Northern office, two windows open, long queue
- Main office, one window open, long queue

I also noticed separate posters promoting both Oyster and contactless
cards. I wonder if that confuses visitors?

Here's a few pics I took this morning:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/reclin...7651787464546/

On Thu, 09 Apr 2015 14:13:10 +0100
Recliner wrote:
I went along this morning and found:
- Western office closed, new visitor centre open
- Northern office, two windows open, long queue
- Main office, one window open, long queue

I also noticed separate posters promoting both Oyster and contactless
cards. I wonder if that confuses visitors?

Here's a few pics I took this morning:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/reclin...7651787464546/

I wonder if a new mayor can come in fast enough to put a stop to this
nonsense or whether its took late?

--
Spud

On 2015-04-09 13:19:00 +0000, d said:

I wonder if a new mayor can come in fast enough to put a stop to this
nonsense or whether its took late?

I don't agree that it is nonsense.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

On Thu, 9 Apr 2015 19:08:47 +0100
Neil Williams wrote:
On 2015-04-09 13:19:00 +0000, d said:

I wonder if a new mayor can come in fast enough to put a stop to this
nonsense or whether its took late?

I don't agree that it is nonsense.

Well if the only criteria is saving money then no, I suppose its not. But
closing ticket offices and forcing people to either queue for a long time or
use a machine they might not understand is hardly helping the customer is it.
But then "Screw the paying customer, we don't care" has been Boris and TfLs
mantra for quite a while now.

--
Spud

In message , at 14:13:10 on
Thu, 9 Apr 2015, Recliner remarked:

I got an email today saying that they are now closed.

I went along this morning and found:
- Western office closed, new visitor centre open
- Northern office, two windows open, long queue
- Main office, one window open, long queue

OMG!!! TfL speak with forked tongue.

Is there no-one who can be relied upon any more...
--
Roland Perry

In article ,
(Recliner) wrote:

On Thu, 9 Apr 2015 11:52:37 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 11:27:26 on Sun, 29
Mar 2015, Clive Page remarked:
TfL recently sent me an email message to tell me that:

quote
I am writing to let you know that after Easter, we will be carrying out
improvement work at King’s Cross St. Pancras Tube station; this is
part of our plans to modernise the Tube. As a result, we are making
changes to the ticket hall and the ticket windows will be permanently
closed.
end quote

I got an email today saying that they are now closed.

I went along this morning and found:
- Western office closed, new visitor centre open
- Northern office, two windows open, long queue
- Main office, one window open, long queue

I also noticed separate posters promoting both Oyster and contactless
cards. I wonder if that confuses visitors?

Here's a few pics I took this morning:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/reclin...7651787464546/

Pity you didn't take any pictures of the ticket machine queues. How long
were they?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

wrote:
In article ,
(Recliner) wrote:

On Thu, 9 Apr 2015 11:52:37 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 11:27:26 on Sun, 29
Mar 2015, Clive Page remarked:
TfL recently sent me an email message to tell me that:

quote
I am writing to let you know that after Easter, we will be carrying out
improvement work at King’s Cross St. Pancras Tube station; this is
part of our plans to modernise the Tube. As a result, we are making
changes to the ticket hall and the ticket windows will be permanently
closed.
end quote

I got an email today saying that they are now closed.

I went along this morning and found:
- Western office closed, new visitor centre open
- Northern office, two windows open, long queue
- Main office, one window open, long queue

I also noticed separate posters promoting both Oyster and contactless
cards. I wonder if that confuses visitors?

Here's a few pics I took this morning:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/reclin...7651787464546/

Pity you didn't take any pictures of the ticket machine queues. How long
were they?

Short in the western hall. In the other two, it was hard to separate the
queues for the machines and the ticket office open window(s) as they seemed
to run into each other. Basically, the ticket halls were almost full of
queuing people, or their travelling companions waiting for them. So I can't
be sure how long the queues for the machines were.

I'm also unclear if the new visitor centre also sells Tube tickets.