In message
, at
02:57:01 on Thu, 20 Nov 2008, Mr Thant
remarked:
On 19 Nov, 13:01, Roland Perry wrote:
Which reminds me, I haven't had a reply from them about my complaint
regarding the lack of Oyster facilities at LHR-123 station.

I got mine today:

So did I.

"I'm sorry to hear that you had a difficult experience and I can
appreciate how frustrating it must have been for you.

I have spoken with the senior station manager about this issue and he
has confirmed that the closures were in place in prepartion for the
planned escalator replacment work due to start early next year. The
trial was carried out to see how the station would cope with the loss
of one up and one down escalator

So they were experimenting upon the public, to see how we would cope.

and also to test the remaining
escalators operating in the wrong direction.

We were aware before the trial started that without the installation
of additional Oyster readers there may have been some issues with
customer being unable to touch in or touch out. However, there wasn't
really anyway around it.

Some signs, and helpful staff, would have mitigated the situation a
little. Or was lack of signage, and unhelpfulness, part of the
experiment?

The trial had to take place and the
installation of new Oyster readers would have taken up to 10 weeks.

And they want us to believe that the escalator replacement project was
initiated in the last 10 weeks, so there wasn't time to order a
replacement Oyster pad before starting the trial?

Therefore it was not possible to install them for the trial but they
will be in place when the actual works start next year.

I hope you find this information helpful and I'm sorry for the
problems you experienced"

U

--
Roland Perry