I have just renewed my Senior Railcard. I now have the problem of
loading the discount on to my Oyster card. The Senior Railcard website
says "take it to any London Underground ticket office" ignoring the fact
that these are closing down faster than one can count.

Are there any left in central London, and if not how can one get this done?

--
Clive Page

In message , at 14:36:52 on Fri, 16
Oct 2015, Clive Page remarked:
I have just renewed my Senior Railcard. I now have the problem of
loading the discount on to my Oyster card. The Senior Railcard website
says "take it to any London Underground ticket office" ignoring the
fact that these are closing down faster than one can count.

Are there any left in central London, and if not how can one get this done?

You are supposed to be able to get this done by approaching one of the
invisible helpers lurking around the ticket machines, who replace the
lurking invisible helpers who used to be behind a window.
--
Roland Perry

On 16/10/2015 14:47, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 14:36:52 on Fri, 16
Oct 2015, Clive Page remarked:
I have just renewed my Senior Railcard. I now have the problem of
loading the discount on to my Oyster card. The Senior Railcard
website says "take it to any London Underground ticket office"
ignoring the fact that these are closing down faster than one can count.

Are there any left in central London, and if not how can one get this
done?

You are supposed to be able to get this done by approaching one of the
invisible helpers lurking around the ticket machines, who replace the
lurking invisible helpers who used to be behind a window.

Thanks for the tip. I'll look out for an invisible helper next time I
pass through a tube station. Though if they exist at King's Cross St.
Pancras my guess is that they get overwhelmed by the all-too-visible
tide of arrivals from Belgium/France/oop north who need help using
unfamiliar ticket machines.

I notice that the authorities have given up on making the Senior
Railcard machine-readable: my old one had a barcode on the back, though
just carrying a serial number I think. The new one has an empty space
were it was. There are no signs that it carries an RFID chip either.
So registering discounts still has to be done by a human for the
foreseeable future.


--
Clive Page

In message of Fri, 16 Oct
2015 21:02:55 in uk.transport.london, Paul Corfield
writes
On Fri, 16 Oct 2015 17:57:58 +0100, Clive Page
wrote:

On 16/10/2015 14:47, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 14:36:52 on Fri, 16
Oct 2015, Clive Page remarked:
I have just renewed my Senior Railcard. I now have the problem of
loading the discount on to my Oyster card. The Senior Railcard
website says "take it to any London Underground ticket office"
ignoring the fact that these are closing down faster than one can count.

Are there any left in central London, and if not how can one get this
done?

You are supposed to be able to get this done by approaching one of the
invisible helpers lurking around the ticket machines, who replace the
lurking invisible helpers who used to be behind a window.

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.

Thanks for the tip. I'll look out for an invisible helper next time I
pass through a tube station. Though if they exist at King's Cross St.
Pancras my guess is that they get overwhelmed by the all-too-visible
tide of arrivals from Belgium/France/oop north who need help using
unfamiliar ticket machines.

I notice that the authorities have given up on making the Senior
Railcard machine-readable: my old one had a barcode on the back, though
just carrying a serial number I think. The new one has an empty space
were it was. There are no signs that it carries an RFID chip either.
So registering discounts still has to be done by a human for the
foreseeable future.

Last time I went through Kings Cross it was utter chaos at the main
Tube and Northern ticket halls. Huge queues of people, staff shouting
at passengers to come forward to a free machine and the crowds were
backed up to the gateline in the Northern ticket hall. I've never
seen such a mess at that ticket hall and I've seen it busy before.

I had similar experience with the "Tube" ticket hall.

Euston Square seems serviceable.
M-F 07:45-20:30 Sat 08:45-18:45 Sun 09:30-16:45

Warren Street is unreliable.
M-F 07:45-21:15 Sat 08:45-19:00 Sun 09:00-17:45
I found it shut when the station was no entry.

The Station information saying it is exit and interchange only between
0730 - 1000 until 23 October was untrue on Tuesday, 13 October. I
reported it on Wednesday, but it seems impossible to get TfL to correct
its website.
For other examples, look at the 100 bus towards Shadwell or 76 towards
Totenham Hale.

I am told St. James's Park works.
Palmer Street Shut Park & Broadway M-F 08:15-19:15 Sat 09:00-15:30 Sun
09:45-13:00

Moorgate works.
Main M-F 07:00-21:00 Sat 10:15-14:15 Sun Shut Metropolitan Shut

Tfl used to have quite a useful dynamic tube map, which had Office
Hours. I grabbed them.
--
Walter Briscoe

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Fri, 16 Oct 2015 17:57:58 +0100, Clive Page
wrote:

On 16/10/2015 14:47, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 14:36:52 on Fri, 16
Oct 2015, Clive Page remarked:
I have just renewed my Senior Railcard. I now have the problem of
loading the discount on to my Oyster card. The Senior Railcard
website says "take it to any London Underground ticket office"
ignoring the fact that these are closing down faster than one can
count.

Are there any left in central London, and if not how can one get this
done?

You are supposed to be able to get this done by approaching one of the
invisible helpers lurking around the ticket machines, who replace the
lurking invisible helpers who used to be behind a window.

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.

Thanks for the tip. I'll look out for an invisible helper next time I
pass through a tube station. Though if they exist at King's Cross St.
Pancras my guess is that they get overwhelmed by the all-too-visible
tide of arrivals from Belgium/France/oop north who need help using
unfamiliar ticket machines.

I notice that the authorities have given up on making the Senior
Railcard machine-readable: my old one had a barcode on the back, though
just carrying a serial number I think. The new one has an empty space
were it was. There are no signs that it carries an RFID chip either.
So registering discounts still has to be done by a human for the
foreseeable future.

Last time I went through Kings Cross it was utter chaos at the main
Tube and Northern ticket halls. Huge queues of people, staff shouting
at passengers to come forward to a free machine and the crowds were
backed up to the gateline in the Northern ticket hall. I've never
seen such a mess at that ticket hall and I've seen it busy before.

Agree, Paul. King's Cross St Pancras is a total disaster area. I also saw no
staff to help at ticket machines in the main tube ticket hall (and just one
leaflets rack buried amongst the queues) and just one person in the midst of
a huge queue in the western ticket hall. I couldn't see anyone at all but
asked the considerable number of gateline staff who couldn't help but did
point the staffer out in the queue. I declined to join it.

I almost never use the northern ticket hall as it's almost always out of the
way for my routing.

My advice is to find a quieter station. The staff at Harrow-on-the-Hill were
most helpful in showing me that my railcard was correctly recorded with its
correct expiry date. They couldn't print anything out though.

Clive will need to get the railcard flag loaded before using the tube. Maybe
take a bus or walk to another station nearby? If you arrive in London at
Liverpool St the ticket office there was still open this week and they have
a tourist office which might also be able to do railcard registration.

I have to say the way TfL is treating railcard holders is shameful.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

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?

Last time I went through Kings Cross it was utter chaos at the main
Tube and Northern ticket halls. Huge queues of people, staff shouting
at passengers to come forward to a free machine and the crowds were
backed up to the gateline in the Northern ticket hall. I've never
seen such a mess at that ticket hall and I've seen it busy before.

I pass through KX-St.Pan quite frequently at various times of day and it
is never less than full of people queueing for ticket machines. Until
quite late at night the term "utter chaos" is pretty accurate, in my
experience.


--
Clive Page

In article ,
(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.

If they can do so the gateline staff in that ticket hall didn't seem to know
about it when I was last there. They only suggested the man by the ticket
machines queue. Helpfully they have also removed some ticket machines in
that ticket hall (those on the left of the gateline). Why on earth have they
done that?

Last time I went through Kings Cross it was utter chaos at the main
Tube and Northern ticket halls. Huge queues of people, staff shouting
at passengers to come forward to a free machine and the crowds were
backed up to the gateline in the Northern ticket hall. I've never
seen such a mess at that ticket hall and I've seen it busy before.

I pass through KX-St.Pan quite frequently at various times of day and it
is never less than full of people queueing for ticket machines. Until
quite late at night the term "utter chaos" is pretty accurate, in my
experience.

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?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 12:38:28
on Sat, 17 Oct 2015, remarked:
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.

If they can do so the gateline staff in that ticket hall didn't seem to know
about it when I was last there. They only suggested the man by the ticket
machines queue. Helpfully they have also removed some ticket machines in
that ticket hall (those on the left of the gateline). Why on earth have they
done that?

Did they move them to the right of the gateline where the windows used
to be? This is what it looked like soon after opening:

http://www.perry.co.uk/images/stp-western-queue.jpg

With only two, or possibly three, machines; on the far right.
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
12:38:28 on Sat, 17 Oct 2015, remarked:
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.

If they can do so the gateline staff in that ticket hall didn't seem to
know about it when I was last there. They only suggested the man by the
ticket machines queue. Helpfully they have also removed some ticket
machines in that ticket hall (those on the left of the gateline). Why on
earth have they done that?

Did they move them to the right of the gateline where the windows
used to be? This is what it looked like soon after opening:

http://www.perry.co.uk/images/stp-western-queue.jpg

With only two, or possibly three, machines; on the far right.

That picture is not clear to me but I think there were more than 2 or 3
machines. I didn't get that close to the machines.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 18:30:11
on Sun, 18 Oct 2015, remarked:
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.

If they can do so the gateline staff in that ticket hall didn't seem to
know about it when I was last there. They only suggested the man by the
ticket machines queue. Helpfully they have also removed some ticket
machines in that ticket hall (those on the left of the gateline). Why on
earth have they done that?

Did they move them to the right of the gateline where the windows
used to be? This is what it looked like soon after opening:

http://www.perry.co.uk/images/stp-western-queue.jpg

With only two, or possibly three, machines; on the far right.

That picture is not clear to me

In the middle distance are four windows, each with a ?pink light above
them. There's a single queue using a classic blue-tape zigzag.

In the foreground running from right to left are two separate ad-hoc
queues for ticket machines (which are themselves just out of shot).

What I'm not sure about is whether there's a third machine just in shot,
with a group of ladies and a girl with a pigtail milling around in
front.

but I think there were more than 2 or 3 machines. I didn't get that
close to the machines.

--
Roland Perry