Issued by
London Underground Stakeholder Communications
55 Broadway London SW1H 0BD
1 June 2007
Ticketing strategy - changes to operations
London Underground (LU) continually reviews its services to ensure
that we can best meet our customer needs, and accordingly will make
some changes to its ticket office operations in March 2008.
These changes are necessary in order to have more staff available in
customer facing positions to provide direct assistance and
reassurance, be visible to help address security issues, and for our
upgrades programme.
The introduction of Oyster has provided LU customers with a faster,
easier and more convenient means of ticket purchase. Oyster currently
represents nearly 69% of all journeys on the Underground network.
The use of Oyster Pay As You Go (PAYG) has more than quadrupled -
from 5% of all journeys in December 2005 to 22% of all journeys in
December 2006. In comparison, single and return magnetic tickets
accounted for 5% of journeys in December 2006. This has meant
significantly reduced transaction levels at LU's ticket offices.
Accordingly, LU is proposing to move more staff from some station
ticket offices where demand is very low into better suited positions
across the network.
This will be happening at stations where ticket office demand is very
low. The changes will not be introduced until new Oyster-compatible
self-service ticket machines have been deployed (350 new machines
in total) which will ease the strain on existing machines and offer a
broader range of tickets.
We would like to reassure you that this will not result in any LU
staff
losing their jobs, and LU will continue to maintain a safe staffing
level
at all stations.
There are nearly 2,500 Oyster Ticket Stops where customers can buy
and top up their Oyster card - and this will grow to over 3,500
locations
during summer 2008.
We continue to provide information to Londoners about Oyster through
a range of marketing initiatives and we are also increasing awareness
of Oyster to visitors to London.
Issued by
London Underground Stakeholder Communications
55 Broadway London SW1H 0BD
Oyster is now available from Visit Britain (or via its international
shops)
and on Gatwick Express, and Transport for London is negotiating with
other train operating companies to provide a similar service.
The list of planned ticket machine-only LU stations is below.
The combined transaction levels at these ticket offices is less
than that of Victoria, Heathrow 123, King's Cross or Paddington
individually.
This list is currently being discussed across the organisation and
with
trade unions. Once it is finalised towards the end of the year,
information about the changes will be available at the appropriate
stations and on our website.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss further, please
contact my Stakeholder Communications team via email at
or phone on 0207 918 3517.
Lucy Webster
Head of Stakeholder Communications
Barkingside
Becontree
Boston Manor
Buckhurst Hill
Canons Park
Cannon Street
Chesham
Chiswick Park
Chorleywood
Croxley
Debden
East Putney
Fairlop
Hornchurch
Goldhawk Road
Ickenham
Latimer Road
Mansion House
Mill Hill East
Moor Park
North Ealing
North Harrow
Northwood Hills
Park Royal
Perivale
Ravenscourt Park
Regent's Park
Royal Oak
Ruislip
Ruislip Gardens
South Ruislip
Sudbury Hill
Temple
Totteridge & Whetstone
Upney
West Acton
West Finchley
West Harrow
West Ruislip
Wimbledon Park

(Again, as I have said repeatedly, will the former ticket seller at,
say, Becontree be redeployed at platform level enforcing the smoking
ban , or in the ticket hall preventing youths, beggars or touts
congregating? The answer surely is "no" as both that grade and
position at this location, and all the others, will have been
abolished.)