In article , (Mizter T) wrote:

On 17/10/2015 18:38, wrote:
[...]
I've only seen it "calm" once in recent treks through the place. It
was always busy, that's inevitable, but now it's just appalling in
terms of how people are handled. It was so bad that even the National
Rail ticket machines and ticket office at St Pancras all had queues at
them too. Usually people don't twig that NR machines can do some
Oyster based transactions.

Oh, can they? Interesting. How about the Thameslink ticket office?

The NR ticket machines cannot do setting a Railcard discount on
Oyster - they can do Oyster topups and buying weekly Travelcards on
Oyster.

I *think* the Thameslink ticket office at St P is Oyster equipped, in
which case it should be able to set Railcard discounts on Oyster.

which can only be done by staff of course.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In article , (Mizter T) wrote:

On 17/10/2015 10:03, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Sat, 17 Oct 2015 09:51:17 +0100, Clive Page
wrote:

On 16/10/2015 21:02, Paul Corfield wrote:

It is definitely the case that a member of LU staff should sign on to
one of the passenger machines to set the discount for you.

Ah, so I have to queue up to get the attention of the appropriate
member of staff, and then we *both* join the queue to access a wall-
mounted ticket machine, is that it?

Yep - that's the brave new concept of customer service. I suspect you
queue in a single queue and then hope to attract the sole member of
staff's attention and then you both go to a free machine and he signs
on and does the necessary. I don't know what happens if the member of
staff says "sorry I have to manage the queue"!!

I think, but can't be certain, that the "Visitor Centre" at the
western end of the Circle / Met ticket hall (near the doors into St
Pancras) can also process railcard discount setting.

That was exactly what I was going to say - yes they can do it.

Ticket offices at London Overground and TfL Rail (Shenfield line
route) stations can also do it, a (very) few NR ticket offices can do
it, and at least theoretically Oyster Ticket Stops (aka
newsagents/convenience stores) are supposed to be able to do it...

Can you point to anything which claims that railcard discounts can be loaded
at Oyster Ticket Stops? I've not seen that from anywhere.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 19:01:42
on Mon, 19 Oct 2015, remarked:
My recollection of the current configuration is also not clear,
Roland. If they have indeed moved all the machines to one side of
the gateline that is hardly convenient to people coming from King's
Cross/Euston Road rather than St Pancras who all now have to walk
past the gateline to access any ticket machines.

Those from Kings Cross will have walked past machines in the
original ticket hall. Almost no-one enters the Western ticket hall
from the street outside. In any case, it's only a few mote feet, and
if we are to have foot patrols by helpers, isn't it better to have
all the machines close to each other.

Not if they followed the signage on the square to the entrances near
Euston Road either side of the junction with Pancras Road.

None of them do. Everyone makes straight for the entrance closest to
the main shed. And if they enter by the eastern of those two, the
ticket machines are almost straight ahead of them when they get to
concourse level.

Not my observation, especially from platforms 9-11.

They'll head for the Northern ticket hall (lots of machines) then
down the corridor to the original ticket hall (lots of machines) if
going towards the subsurface TfL station.

Not if they have any sense they won't. The only escalator seems to be
up-only.

It's supposed to be tidal-flow.

As easy to walk down Pancras Road.

Depends on the weather - I'd walk inside.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 00:05:33 on Tue, 20 Oct
2015, Mizter T remarked:
[...]
Those from Kings Cross will have walked past machines in the original
ticket hall. Almost no-one enters the Western ticket hall from the
street outside. In any case, it's only a few mote feet, and if we are to
have foot patrols by helpers, isn't it better to have all the machines
close to each other.

If you stand outside or inside at street level you'll see plenty of
people enter the Western ticket hall from outside. But I have no take
on the (re)positioning of ticket machines therein.

What do you call "plenty"? When the hall is seething with passengers
it's quite common for the stairs down at the eastern end to be devoid of
any people going down. It's a bit like the nearby staircase up to the
kissing statue, very few people use it.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 23:59:44 on Mon, 19 Oct
2015, Mizter T remarked:

The withdrawal of a straightforward central London day ticket (z1&2 TC)
does seem kinda user unfriendly.

A stealth price rise
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
19:01:42 on Mon, 19 Oct 2015, remarked:
My recollection of the current configuration is also not clear,
Roland. If they have indeed moved all the machines to one side
of the gateline that is hardly convenient to people coming from
King's Cross/Euston Road rather than St Pancras who all now have
to walk past the gateline to access any ticket machines.

Those from Kings Cross will have walked past machines in the
original ticket hall. Almost no-one enters the Western ticket
hall from the street outside. In any case, it's only a few mote
feet, and if we are to have foot patrols by helpers, isn't it
better to have all the machines close to each other.

Not if they followed the signage on the square to the entrances
near Euston Road either side of the junction with Pancras Road.

None of them do. Everyone makes straight for the entrance closest to
the main shed. And if they enter by the eastern of those two, the
ticket machines are almost straight ahead of them when they get to
concourse level.

Not my observation, especially from platforms 9-11.

They'll head for the Northern ticket hall (lots of machines) then
down the corridor to the original ticket hall (lots of machines) if
going towards the subsurface TfL station.

Not if they have any sense they won't. The only escalator seems to be
up-only.

It's supposed to be tidal-flow.

Rarely seems to be going down when I would want it. If it isn't, of course
you want straight to the entrance east of Pancras Road.

As easy to walk down Pancras Road.

Depends on the weather - I'd walk inside.

The weather in this country is good enough most of the time. And much of the
way is under cover.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 04:29:44
on Tue, 20 Oct 2015, remarked:
from platforms 9-11.

They'll head for the Northern ticket hall (lots of machines) then
down the corridor to the original ticket hall (lots of machines) if
going towards the subsurface TfL station.

Not if they have any sense they won't. The only escalator seems to be
up-only.

It's supposed to be tidal-flow.

Rarely seems to be going down when I would want it. If it isn't, of course
you want straight to the entrance east of Pancras Road.

If I'm going that way I'll cross Pancras Road somewhere near the taxi
queue and enter via the stairs on the corner of StP station. That's how
I know almost no-one else uses those stairs!
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
04:29:44 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015, remarked:
from platforms 9-11.

They'll head for the Northern ticket hall (lots of machines) then
down the corridor to the original ticket hall (lots of machines) if
going towards the subsurface TfL station.

Not if they have any sense they won't. The only escalator seems to be
up-only.

It's supposed to be tidal-flow.

Rarely seems to be going down when I would want it. If it isn't, of
course you want straight to the entrance east of Pancras Road.

If I'm going that way I'll cross Pancras Road somewhere near the taxi
queue and enter via the stairs on the corner of StP station. That's
how I know almost no-one else uses those stairs!

That is one of the "entrances near Euston Road either side of the junction
with Pancras Road" that I was referring to earlier and which you have been
arguing furiously about ever since! Get back under your bridge!

By the way, you may think there are "lots of machines" in the original
ticket hall but there is more than enough demand for them to make queues
longer than those in the western ticket hall.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On 20/10/2015 01:16, wrote:

In article , (Mizter T) wrote:
wrote:
[...]
I've only seen it "calm" once in recent treks through the place. It
was always busy, that's inevitable, but now it's just appalling in
terms of how people are handled. It was so bad that even the National
Rail ticket machines and ticket office at St Pancras all had queues at
them too. Usually people don't twig that NR machines can do some
Oyster based transactions.

Oh, can they? Interesting. How about the Thameslink ticket office?

The NR ticket machines cannot do setting a Railcard discount on
Oyster - they can do Oyster topups and buying weekly Travelcards on
Oyster.

I *think* the Thameslink ticket office at St P is Oyster equipped, in
which case it should be able to set Railcard discounts on Oyster.

which can only be done by staff of course.


I kinda regarded that as a given... unless you want to try and get
yourself into the ticket office, behind the counter, logged onto the
ticket issuing system etc!

In message , at 13:52:15
on Tue, 20 Oct 2015, remarked:
from platforms 9-11.

They'll head for the Northern ticket hall (lots of machines) then
down the corridor to the original ticket hall (lots of machines) if
going towards the subsurface TfL station.

Not if they have any sense they won't. The only escalator seems to be
up-only.

It's supposed to be tidal-flow.

Rarely seems to be going down when I would want it. If it isn't, of
course you want straight to the entrance east of Pancras Road.

If I'm going that way I'll cross Pancras Road somewhere near the taxi
queue and enter via the stairs on the corner of StP station. That's
how I know almost no-one else uses those stairs!

That is one of the "entrances near Euston Road either side of the junction
with Pancras Road" that I was referring to earlier and which you have been
arguing furiously about ever since! Get back under your bridge!

I've not denied those entrances exist, but was merely observing that
they get very little use.

By the way, you may think there are "lots of machines" in the original
ticket hall but there is more than enough demand for them to make queues
longer than those in the western ticket hall.

You were worried about the extra distance to walk, not the length of the
queues.
--
Roland Perry