d wrote in uk.transport.london on Wed, 11 Jan 2006 11:07:34 GMT
k:

wrote in message
oups.com...

Why can't the ticket office staff being redeployed (presumably outside
peak hours) be equipped with portable machines like National Rail
travelling ticket inspectors who seem to be able to sell any
combination of tickets on their portable machines for any date up to
364 days in advance, and accept credit cards as well?

That's an excellent idea.

Well, apart from severely increasing the risk of robbery from what
would, in effect, be mobile unprotected cash machines, these staff
wouldn't have an interface with Oyster. There does appear to have been
a significant increase in the number of face-to-cafe enquiries at
ticket offices about Oyster card problems.

The only time I have to use a ticket office is
when I need to buy a Silverstink ticket from Highbury & Islington - and I'm
usually stuck in the queue behind 10 people all wanting something they can
get from the ticket machines. Absolutely ridiculous. Something clearly has
to be done with the organisation of the ticket offices on the underground -
there seems to be something seriously awry with the amount of staff and the
amount of service. Ridiculous.

You're losing me here; people want to use ticket offices rather than
machines, but we should have less ticket offices?

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