In message , at
06:39:38 on Thu, 9 Apr 2015, Offramp remarked:

What's needed is a flyer, available in multiple languages, explaining the
basics of the system:

No I didn't. That was David Jackman.

--
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.

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.

In article

rg, (Recliner) wrote:

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.

It's usually fairly clear which sort of queue is which IME.

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

Did you see staff hovering near ticket machines?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

wrote:
In article

, (Recliner) wrote:

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.

It's usually fairly clear which sort of queue is which IME.

The ticket office queue snaked round the machines. I suppose that, had I
been trying to join one or other of the queues, I would have been able to
find the right one to join, but from where I was standing, it wasn't
obvious.


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

Did you see staff hovering near ticket machines?

There were staff around, but I was concentrating more on finding somewhere
to stand where I could see the full length of the ticket office queue,
without getting in the way. As so much of the ticket hall floor space was
taken up by the snaking queue, it didn't leave much of a corridor for
people to get hurry past. As I hadn't planned this as a photography
expedition, I hadn't brought along a camera with a wide angle lens, and was
just using a pocket camera, so it was hard to find somewhere where I could
get the whole queue into view.

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

On Thu, 09 Apr 2015 10:33:21 -0500,
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?

I've managed to find another picture from the Northern ticket hall,
which shows the ticket machines behind the snaking ticket office
queue. The machines seem to have a much shorter queue than the office:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/reclin...4546/lightbox/

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 13:34:49 +0100
Recliner wrote:
I've managed to find another picture from the Northern ticket hall,
which shows the ticket machines behind the snaking ticket office
queue. The machines seem to have a much shorter queue than the office:

Probably because the machines can't answer questions. A large proportion of
the people in that queue look like travellers who at a guess arn't familiar
with the tubes ticketing system.

--
Spud

In message , at 13:34:49 on
Fri, 10 Apr 2015, Recliner remarked:
I've managed to find another picture from the Northern ticket hall,
which shows the ticket machines behind the snaking ticket office
queue. The machines seem to have a much shorter queue than the office:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/reclin...4546/lightbox/

We have to remember that all these passengers aren't regulars, and thus
when they don't find a ticket window open in the Western Ticket Hall
simply trudge off to find a ticket window elsewhere in the complex.

And don't just give up and try to battle with the ticket machines in the
Western Ticket Hall, where queues will be quite sensitive to whether a
flight of two E*'s arrived most recently ten minutes or an hour ago.
--
Roland Perry