London Banter - View Single Post

[email protected] · August 4th 16, 03:29 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
16:33:08 on Wed, 3 Aug 2016, remarked:

And there was me thinking that ticketing was one bit that wasn't meant
to be so fragmented after privatisation.

It had to be a bit fragmented to deliver pricing competition (as you
know from your jaunts via Liverpool St).

That their machines won't, it seems, sell you tickets for until it's too
late not to miss the train.

Are you referring to buying a ticket for the first off-peak train?

Yes.

At least these days most booking office clerks will sell you one
ahead of time, having first made enquiries about when you intend
travelling. Back in the day they wouldn't.

Yes, I know but we were caught out by an expected queue to the door in the
ticket office and the people, unlike the machines, wanting to see my wife's
railcard while she was caught in the maze that is the bike park at present.

When I lived near Surbiton it was impossible to catch the first
off-peak train to London (if it was on time) because it left only one
or two minutes after they'd started selling tickets for it.

If we'd known there would all of a sudden be silly ticket office queues at
10:45 on a Tuesday morning we'd have bought on the web of course. The
machines (which didn't have queues) would have give us TOD (or I could have
used an m-Ticket; my wife doesn't have a suitable phone).

--
Colin Rosenstiel