In message , at 09:20:11 on Wed, 1 Jan
2020, Bryan Morris remarked:
In message , Roland Perry
writes
In message , at 20:36:36 on Tue, 31 Dec
2019, Bryan Morris remarked:

The booking office didn't ask me which train company I wanted they
just give me the tickets

JOOI, which ticket office was it - the Thameslink vs EMR at St
Pancras, or somewhere else?

Aah Just noticed restrictions are weekends (which it was) only

It was the National Rail office at the station.

There are two at St Pancras, if that's the station in question.

I find St Pancras difficult to navigate and just follow a sign to
Tickets - don't know which one . sorry (Is there a difference?)

Historically there were two ticket offices, one belonging to FCC
situated adjacent to the barrier line to the low level platforms. The
other belonging to EMT, not very far away, but couldn't be accused of
being adjacent to anything of much use, least of all the high level EMT
platforms.

I see that EMT refurbished their ticket office at the end of 2016, and
perhaps that also subsumed the FCC (now Thameslink) office.

I know there is a Eurostar office
Yes St. Pancras International.

No problems at Bedford with acceptance of tickets of course as there is
just one set of gates to enter or exit all the platforms whereas at St.
Pancras the EMR & Thameslink trains arrive at/depart from different
parts of the station.

BTW not my concern but I wonder how the 2 railways share the revenue
(St Pancras I assume from the entry gates but as I said leaving Bedford
there is no way of telling what train I'm going to catch)

It's done by a scheme called ORCATS, which models the availability of
seats on the flows in question, and makes various assumptions about
which trains people will get. Alterations to the timetable (especially
in the peaks[1]) will literally change the equations.

[1] I see there's no longer any non-Thameslink morning service from
Bedford to StP until 10:13, for example; or between 16:23 and
19:23 on the way back.
--
Roland Perry