Three-day London Underground strike suspended
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-27282596

--
Edward Cowling North London UK
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In message , at 12:42:19 on Mon, 5 May
2014, Edward Cowling remarked:
Three-day London Underground strike suspended
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-27282596

"Mr Hufton added: "Modernisation of the Tube means that it is our
intention to close all ticket offices, used in less than 3% of journeys"

As ever, it would aid transparency to know what the percentage was if
they excluded season tickets (to a first approximation I won't insist
that an annual season ticket bought at a ticket office counts as 400+
journeys).
--
Roland Perry

On Mon, 5 May 2014 13:13:46 +0100
Roland Perry wrote:
"Mr Hufton added: "Modernisation of the Tube means that it is our
intention to close all ticket offices, used in less than 3% of journeys"

As ever, it would aid transparency to know what the percentage was if
they excluded season tickets (to a first approximation I won't insist
that an annual season ticket bought at a ticket office counts as 400+
journeys).

3% of journeys is still a hell of a lot and more than enough reason to keep
them. If it really is just modernisation and not cost cutting why are they
seeking voluntary redundancies? The unions should call their bluff and say
fine - close the offices and modernise practises , but keep all the staff.
Lets see what Mike Brown has to say then.

--
Spud

On Mon, 5 May 2014 16:51:12 +0000 (UTC), d
wrote:

On Mon, 5 May 2014 13:13:46 +0100
Roland Perry wrote:
"Mr Hufton added: "Modernisation of the Tube means that it is our
intention to close all ticket offices, used in less than 3% of journeys"

As ever, it would aid transparency to know what the percentage was if
they excluded season tickets (to a first approximation I won't insist
that an annual season ticket bought at a ticket office counts as 400+
journeys).

3% of journeys is still a hell of a lot and more than enough reason to keep
them. If it really is just modernisation and not cost cutting why are they
seeking voluntary redundancies? The unions should call their bluff and say
fine - close the offices and modernise practises , but keep all the staff.
Lets see what Mike Brown has to say then.

How many of the visits to the ticket office are due to queues at the
ticket machine? If the proposal goes ahead, I assume there will be
more machines. Also, will payment by debit card not reduce the need
for non Oyster customers to purchase a ticket?

"Scott" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 5 May 2014 16:51:12 +0000 (UTC), d
wrote:

On Mon, 5 May 2014 13:13:46 +0100
Roland Perry wrote:
"Mr Hufton added: "Modernisation of the Tube means that it is our
intention to close all ticket offices, used in less than 3% of journeys"

As ever, it would aid transparency to know what the percentage was if
they excluded season tickets (to a first approximation I won't insist
that an annual season ticket bought at a ticket office counts as 400+
journeys).

3% of journeys is still a hell of a lot and more than enough reason to
keep
them. If it really is just modernisation and not cost cutting why are they
seeking voluntary redundancies? The unions should call their bluff and say
fine - close the offices and modernise practises , but keep all the staff.
Lets see what Mike Brown has to say then.

How many of the visits to the ticket office are due to queues at the
ticket machine? If the proposal goes ahead, I assume there will be
more machines.

That's the plan

Also, will payment by debit card not reduce the need
for non Oyster customers to purchase a ticket?

That's also the plan

Good luck with getting German tourists (and no doubt many others) to pay
this way :-)

tim

Good luck with getting German tourists (and no doubt many others) to
pay this way :-)

There's very , very many more knowledgeable people posting here than
this occasional tourist but I can't recall using a staffed ticket office
for the underground or equivalent as a tourist when in Paris, Budapest,
Boston, New York, Hong Kong, Sydney and Tokyo. In fact I can only
recall *seeing* staffed ticket offices in Boston and Hong Kong (and the
latter IIRC because we were looking to buy an Octopus at the airport).
Are other systems really still in the land of cash, wetware and language
barriers?
--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

wrote in message
...
On Mon, 5 May 2014 13:13:46 +0100
Roland Perry wrote:
"Mr Hufton added: "Modernisation of the Tube means that it is our
intention to close all ticket offices, used in less than 3% of journeys"

As ever, it would aid transparency to know what the percentage was if
they excluded season tickets (to a first approximation I won't insist
that an annual season ticket bought at a ticket office counts as 400+
journeys).

3% of journeys is still a hell of a lot and more than enough reason to
keep
them. If it really is just modernisation and not cost cutting why are they
seeking voluntary redundancies? The unions should call their bluff and say
fine - close the offices and modernise practises , but keep all the staff.
Lets see what Mike Brown has to say then.

Unions are supposed to act in the interests of the work force [1]

If my employer were offing redundancy terms that I (or others) were minded
to accept and the union wanted to go on strike to get them to withdraw that
offer I'd be sending back my union card

tim

[1] I know that frequently they don't, but this is just so blatantly the
wrong thing to do it would get noticed

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 12:42:19 on Mon, 5 May
2014, Edward Cowling remarked:
Three-day London Underground strike suspended
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-27282596

"Mr Hufton added: "Modernisation of the Tube means that it is our
intention to close all ticket offices, used in less than 3% of journeys"

As ever, it would aid transparency to know what the percentage was if they
excluded season tickets (to a first approximation I won't insist that an
annual season ticket bought at a ticket office counts as 400+ journeys).

I am of similar mind

I thought that the initial claim was only 3% of passengers use TOs

But 3% of *all*TfL journeys is a huge number, especially when you think
that a single ride on the bus counts as one journey and I can't imagine that
many of those start at a TO.

I still remain convinced that this big bang of closing all TO in one go and
expecting the 1,000,000 people per day to change their habits and suddenly
start using machines is doomed to failure and chaos will ensue - and that's
just considering the people who are queuing, by choice, to buy "normal!"
tickets, ignoring all of the edge cases that the machines can't handle.

And as for rolling it out before they have any idea whatsoever how many
people will switch to pay wave - NUTS! (As commented before, none of my 3
card providers has yet to send me a suitably enabled card - I can't be
alone!)

tim

[1] (3% of 24 million is 720,000 and then there's the bus pax on top)





--
Roland Perry

tim..... wrote on 05 May 2014 17:58:04 ...


"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 12:42:19 on Mon, 5 May
2014, Edward Cowling remarked:
Three-day London Underground strike suspended
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-27282596

"Mr Hufton added: "Modernisation of the Tube means that it is our
intention to close all ticket offices, used in less than 3% of journeys"

As ever, it would aid transparency to know what the percentage was if they
excluded season tickets (to a first approximation I won't insist that an
annual season ticket bought at a ticket office counts as 400+ journeys).

I am of similar mind

I thought that the initial claim was only 3% of passengers use TOs

But 3% of *all*TfL journeys is a huge number, especially when you think
that a single ride on the bus counts as one journey and I can't imagine that
many of those start at a TO.

Who is saying it's 3% of ALL TfL journeys? The quote I saw was from
Phil Hufton of LU in the context of LU ticket offices and LU journeys.
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

In article ,
(tim.....) wrote:

I still remain convinced that this big bang of closing all TO in one
go and expecting the 1,000,000 people per day to change their habits
and suddenly start using machines is doomed to failure and chaos will
ensue - and that's just considering the people who are queuing, by
choice, to buy "normal!" tickets, ignoring all of the edge cases that
the machines can't handle.

Who says they are going to close them all at once? I thought they had been
closing ticket offices for some time.

And as for rolling it out before they have any idea whatsoever how
many people will switch to pay wave - NUTS! (As commented before,
none of my 3 card providers has yet to send me a suitably enabled
card - I can't be alone!)

They must have some idea of the consequences of closing the ticket offices
they have already closed, surely?

I switched to ticket stops when they imposed an arbitrary £5 minimum top-up
at ticket offices.

--
Colin Rosenstiel