In article ,
(Sky Rider) wrote:

As you have gathered LCR have gone for an upmarket theme at StP,
but there will be some High-Street brands coming on stream over the
coming year (2008). Most of those units are in the Circle (located
adjacent to the domestic ticket office and currently hoarded off)
and are being fitted out.

Here are the maps of StP if you're interested:
Street level - http://tinyurl.com/yqtmxv
Platform level - http://tinyurl.com/2zebvy

Where's the royal opening plaque gone? It was clearly temporarily mounted
near the Eurostar taxi drop off when I was there for the Integrated
Volume Testing but it seems to have gone from there.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 23:34:21
on Tue, 18 Dec 2007, Duncan remarked:

I think that it's also rather silly that there are signs for "UK rail
tickets" - and two totally separate ticket offices next door to each
other. One for East Midlands and one for FCC. I guess SET will get one
of their own too when they start!

I wondered that when I was there yesterday. The FCC ticket office had
quite a queue building up even with all the ticket windows open, but the
EMT ticket office next door was empty. There appeared to be no clear
guidance over which ticket office to use, so I expect most people were
just using the first one they came across. I assume there is no
incentive for FCC to direct some of their customers to the EMT office as
they will lose the commission on the sale.

Is this the only station with more than one company operating a ticket
office (excluding the Eurostar ticket office for a moment)?

There isn't an obvious place on the plans for a SET ticket office,
though.

The whole station still seemed unfinished to me.

It *is* unfinished. After all the fuss about deadlines in the "800
million station" TV documentary, they seem to have completely lost their
momentum.

I can't understand why a lot of the retail units have still not been
fitted out. If WHS and M&S can manage by the opening, why are others
struggling weeks later?

The platform level WHS opened "early" because that part of the concourse
was accessible from Platforms 1-4. M&S is actually SSP, of course, so
they may have had a bit of an inside track seeing as how they will be
operating so many units inside the station.

Personally I think there are too many fancy shops. Most of the
passengers there, e.g. domestic travellers, I'm sure will just want
snacks and something to read on the journey. Those retailers that have
been allowed in, such as WHSmith, have units far too small for the
number of passengers trying to use them.

The shops I've been in are very small (M&S last Friday was so full you
literally couldn't get through the door). The WHS is in a part of the
station where the structure only allows a small footprint per shop.
Maybe the master plan is a bit broken?
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 00:51:57 on
Wed, 19 Dec 2007, Sky Rider remarked:
And credit to LCR for deciding not to introduce an entry fee either
(the income from retailers is helpful in that respect), although with
NR in charge of station operations that may change.

It's good that the toilets are free, but the ladies has a huge queue
(20+ people in the corridor) every time I've been there. You might just
be able to squeeze a unisex charge barrier in to the corridor, I
suppose, but not much scope for separate male/female ones.
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:

snip

The shops I've been in are very small (M&S last Friday was so full you
literally couldn't get through the door).

In contrast, the M&S Circle unit is currently a rare breed in that it is
*never* busy, mainly because hardly anyone walks along Pancras Road to
get to Euston Road these days. On occasion M&S do give out
leaflets/vouchers in order to boost awareness but they could do more.

The WHS is in a part of the station where the structure only allows a
small footprint per shop. Maybe the master plan is a bit broken?

There will be a sizeable WHSmith unit in the Circle when it opens next
year. From that point it will be interesting to see how many visitors
use the Circle until:
1) Southeastern move into StP (it will have been 4.5 years since Govia
last ran services to/from the station, although you can't compare
Thameslink to this ;-) );
2) The Northern Ticket Hall at KXSP opens for service.

In message , at 23:48:58 on
Tue, 18 Dec 2007, Sky Rider remarked:

Incidentally, I was very surprised not to find any domestic ticket
machines in the vicinity of the Eurostar booking office. The domestic
booking office is a long way off the beaten track for EMT customers if
you've just arrived on E*, or from the tube station out front.

Given the number of visitors that use StP nowdays, you'd have to think
quite carefully where to put any additional ticket machines (if we're
talking about the Arcade or other public Eurostar walkways). Would
Eurostar allow domestic operators to install ticket machines in their
areas I wonder?

There's plenty of space in the "secret room" from the tube concourse,
but beyond that you might struggle to find an obvious place due to the
retail clutter (including Xmas trees and so on at the moment).

I went into the "reverse Tardis" [it's smaller on the inside than it
looks from the outside] Eurostar ticket offices because they weren't
obviously Eurostar-only (and that's with me being a St-Pancras watcher!)

What struck me was that inside it was divided up into various sections,
many of which had their external doors locked. If they aren't making
full use of the whole lot, then one section could have been a domestic
ticket office for those people who don't want to walk all the way past
the escalators up to the EMT platforms to a ticket office you'd never
find if you didn't know where to look; then come half the way back just
to be able to go up to platform level.

But the whole Platform 1-4 thing still feels very poorly thought
through. No bar or seating, no toilets, and no booking facility;
anywhere in the immediate vicinity.

There is some basic seating on the MML concourse (unless it's been
removed recently), but I think they could fit a couple of ticket
machines in the area without much work. The lack of facilities in the
immediate vicinty is a shame but personally I'm not too bothered by
that (admittedly I am one of the few who see it that way).

Now that the station is fully open it's even more apparent what a
stupid idea it was not to have some escalators down from the P1-4
concourse to (eg) the same place as the FCC escalators go down.

Some parts of StP are still closed off - various units in the Arcade
and Rendezvous (including the Brasserie, which is possibly on a par
with the M&S Circle store in terms of floorspace), the Market proper,
most of the Circle, escalators/stairs to the CTRL-DS concourse/CTRL-DS
platforms/KXSP Northern Ticket Hall, and the CTRL-DS concourse/platforms.

Yes, what I meant was "fully open for Platforms 1-4, A&B, and the
various ways to get between them and the front of the station". Although
perhaps the doors to Midland Rd aren't full in use yet, but just for
bus/taxi access?

The Arcade is so off my beaten track now, I wasn't even considering it.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 09:03:04 on
Wed, 19 Dec 2007, Sky Rider remarked:
Roland Perry wrote:

snip

The shops I've been in are very small (M&S last Friday was so full
you literally couldn't get through the door).

In contrast, the M&S Circle unit is currently a rare breed in that it
is *never* busy, mainly because hardly anyone walks along Pancras Road
to get to Euston Road these days. On occasion M&S do give out
leaflets/vouchers in order to boost awareness but they could do more.

That description fits me well. Despite doing what I took to be a
complete tour of the station on Friday looking for somewhere to buy
food, I didn't make it as far as the Circle. The previous week I did
have to use the "tunnel" to the rear toilets, and the Circle seemed to
be very much "work in progress".

The WHS is in a part of the station where the structure only allows a
small footprint per shop. Maybe the master plan is a bit broken?

There will be a sizeable WHSmith unit in the Circle when it opens next
year. From that point it will be interesting to see how many visitors
use the Circle until:
1) Southeastern move into StP (it will have been 4.5 years since Govia
last ran services to/from the station, although you can't compare
Thameslink to this ;-) );
2) The Northern Ticket Hall at KXSP opens for service.

At the moment the Circle seems a bit out in the wilderness!
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote

Is this the only station with more than one company operating a ticket
office (excluding the Eurostar ticket office for a moment)?

Doesn't Gatwick Express operate a small ticket office at Victoria, as well
as the main ticket office run by Southern?

Peter

In message , at 09:35:58 on
Wed, 19 Dec 2007, Peter Masson remarked:
Is this the only station with more than one company operating a ticket
office (excluding the Eurostar ticket office for a moment)?

Doesn't Gatwick Express operate a small ticket office at Victoria, as well
as the main ticket office run by Southern?

I was wondering about that, but I think they do ticket sales on the
train now. Does HEx have a separate ticket office at Paddington?

Of course, neither is strictly comparable to the twin FCC/EMT ticket
offices at StP.
--
Roland Perry

"Peter Masson" wrote in message
...

"Roland Perry" wrote

Is this the only station with more than one company operating a ticket
office (excluding the Eurostar ticket office for a moment)?

Doesn't Gatwick Express operate a small ticket office at Victoria, as well
as the main ticket office run by Southern?

.... and similarly Heathrow Express have a ticket desk at Paddington.
--
David Biddulph

Roland Perry wrote in uk.transport.london on Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:29:16
+0000 :

Is this the only station with more than one company operating a ticket
office (excluding the Eurostar ticket office for a moment)?

Just next door at Kings Cross, shirley?

--
hike
- a walking tour or outing, esp. of the self-conscious kind
Chambers 20th Century Dictionary