wrote to uk.transport.london on Thu, 24 Mar 2005:

What are suggesting, that I drive to say St Albans and start my journey
there because Thameslink aren't as uselss as Silverlink. If I live in
Watford and start my journey in Watford then surely I should expect to
be able to buy a ticket without queuing for 20 minutes. As it happened
I didn't but lots of people obviously did. Not much use in considering
rail travel if you have to add an indeterminate amount of time to your
journey to cover the purchase of a ticket.

But how often is there (a) a very long queue and (b) ticket machines out
of order?

If I know I'm going to travel, and suspect there will be a queue at the
time of day I wish to go, I usually try to buy my ticket earlier in the
day, or even the previous day. And, of course, for many journeys,
buying in advance is a very great deal cheaper!
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 20 March 2005