"Recliner" wrote in message
...
"tim......" wrote:
"Recliner" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 23 Jan 2014 18:36:30 +0100, "tim......"
wrote:


"Recliner" wrote in message
...
From
http://railnews.mobi/news/2014/01/23...en-during.html

TWO strikes on London Underground called in protest at plans to close
the
system's ticket offices will be met by the deployment of hundreds of
'Ambassadors', Transport for London said.



I really do think that TfL are being somewhat premature with this plan.

They could get an awful lot of egg on their face if they dispense with
hundreds of ticket office staff only to find that punters don't change
their
habits and switch to the "automatic" alternative with queues at the
ticket
machines becoming so catastrophic that they have to open them again

Whatever happened to the concept of a *trial*

We've has a 'trial' for several years now. Outside central London,
most ticket offices are *already* closed for most of the time anyway.
You still don't see queues at the ticket machines.

what about the ones in the centre which are busy

Some of those will still have an open travel info office.

I think 8 or 9 "gateway" stations will have fully functioning TOs

One of which is Heathrow. Noticing (as I do) the mega queues at KX and
Victoria, even at the most obscure off peak times, they will undoubtedly be
included, but apparently not all of the Mainline termini will

I'm not sure how
much the peripatetic staff with iPads will be able to do.

Not sue what they are supposed to do. I doubt actually issuing tickets is
on the remit