In message , at 23:48:58 on
Tue, 18 Dec 2007, Sky Rider remarked:

Incidentally, I was very surprised not to find any domestic ticket
machines in the vicinity of the Eurostar booking office. The domestic
booking office is a long way off the beaten track for EMT customers if
you've just arrived on E*, or from the tube station out front.

Given the number of visitors that use StP nowdays, you'd have to think
quite carefully where to put any additional ticket machines (if we're
talking about the Arcade or other public Eurostar walkways). Would
Eurostar allow domestic operators to install ticket machines in their
areas I wonder?

There's plenty of space in the "secret room" from the tube concourse,
but beyond that you might struggle to find an obvious place due to the
retail clutter (including Xmas trees and so on at the moment).

I went into the "reverse Tardis" [it's smaller on the inside than it
looks from the outside] Eurostar ticket offices because they weren't
obviously Eurostar-only (and that's with me being a St-Pancras watcher!)

What struck me was that inside it was divided up into various sections,
many of which had their external doors locked. If they aren't making
full use of the whole lot, then one section could have been a domestic
ticket office for those people who don't want to walk all the way past
the escalators up to the EMT platforms to a ticket office you'd never
find if you didn't know where to look; then come half the way back just
to be able to go up to platform level.

But the whole Platform 1-4 thing still feels very poorly thought
through. No bar or seating, no toilets, and no booking facility;
anywhere in the immediate vicinity.

There is some basic seating on the MML concourse (unless it's been
removed recently), but I think they could fit a couple of ticket
machines in the area without much work. The lack of facilities in the
immediate vicinty is a shame but personally I'm not too bothered by
that (admittedly I am one of the few who see it that way).

Now that the station is fully open it's even more apparent what a
stupid idea it was not to have some escalators down from the P1-4
concourse to (eg) the same place as the FCC escalators go down.

Some parts of StP are still closed off - various units in the Arcade
and Rendezvous (including the Brasserie, which is possibly on a par
with the M&S Circle store in terms of floorspace), the Market proper,
most of the Circle, escalators/stairs to the CTRL-DS concourse/CTRL-DS
platforms/KXSP Northern Ticket Hall, and the CTRL-DS concourse/platforms.

Yes, what I meant was "fully open for Platforms 1-4, A&B, and the
various ways to get between them and the front of the station". Although
perhaps the doors to Midland Rd aren't full in use yet, but just for
bus/taxi access?

The Arcade is so off my beaten track now, I wasn't even considering it.
--
Roland Perry