On 28/09/2016 11:43, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 11:17:21 on Wed, 28
Sep 2016, Neil Williams remarked:

Those places are designed to sell theatre/attractions tickets, and
are virtually nothing to do with tube ticketing.

No they are not. They are intended to sell TfL tickets as well. The
sale of other tickets is to make them more financially viable.

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payment...buy-tickets/vi
sitor-centres?cid=visitor-centres

They may wish to spin it as somewhere to buy tube tickets, but in
practice the huge queues mode at glacial speed, and there's virtually
nothing to see from outside which makes it look like other than a place
designed to sell theatre/attractions tickets.


Though I think you'll find the ones at the airports have a different
character.

They are all designed to give advice on and sell ticketing products.
However the exterior signage does seem to rely on people recognising and
realising what the roundel stands for (i.e. public transport in London.)

I am however not demurring from your underlying point about ticket
offices (or rather, the lack thereof) at main termini.

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Tue, 27 Sep 2016 22:21:59 -0700 (PDT), Offramp
wrote:

Khan is reviewing the decision to close every ticket office on the Tube.


http://www.standard.co.uk/news/mayor...-into-boris-jo
hnsons-tube-ticket-office-closures-a3338791.html

The TfL home page says nothing about this. I think that the management
would be devastated if the decision were reversed.
Also, the Tube management has done an extraordinary "damned memory"
job on the old ticket offices; in most stations it is impossible to
tell that a ticket office was ever there, it's just perfect tiling.

"Perfect tiling" is the last thing it is at Blackhorse Road. A bloody
ghastly incoherent mess is what it is.

London Travelwatch are conducting the review and I expect they will
take a pretty robust view on all this. They don't like reductions in
customer facing facilities.

My limited use of the tube usually has few or no staff visible in
ticket halls and certainly no help at ticket machines. All that has
happened is that staff numbers have reduced considerably and the
ability to assist the public has reduced. Just look at the Period 5
Financial Report in the most recent Board Papers and look at the drop
in FTE numbers. Huge reduction in LU as a consequence of the policy to
close ticket offices.

Not my experience at Tottenham Hale. I found staff easily enough when I got
overcharged on a trip to there, with backup from the office as needed. In
the end I had to go to the Oyster helpline but they sorted it.

--
Colin Rosenstiel