On Nov 9, 1:10*pm, wrote:
In article , (Roland





Perry) wrote:
In message , at
10:22:32 on Sat, 8 Nov 2008, Paul Corfield
remarked:

irregular travellers and tourists may struggle

Talking of which, I went through T123 Underground station earlier
today, and the automatic barriers were taped off, with everyone
having to take a scenic tour of the booking office to get to the
escalators. It wasn't clear why, and the station employee I asked
looked at me as if was talking Swahili.

The thing that may have confused "irregular users and tourists" was
the lack of an obvious Oyster ad to touch in. It was recommended we
lean over the tape and use one of the pads on the inoperative gates.

Yes, I saw that yesterday when meeting my brother on his way through
London overnight at our mothers on his way from India back home to the US..

Our mother has had to give up driving so we were using the tube to meet
him for the first time for many years. She has a freedom Pass of course
and I had a day travelcard as I was in London for other proposes earlier
in the day.

I got my brother an Oyster card (£1 to Zone 2 instead of £4 cash fare) at
the ticket office then realised when we reached the platform that there
was no Oyster reader anywhere near the route from ticket office to
platform and had to dash back upstairs for him to touch it in. No
apologies for the confusion from staff at all.

Maybe they are following the example of much of the DLR.