In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
18:30:11 on Sun, 18 Oct 2015, remarked:
I think, but can't be certain, that the "Visitor Centre" at the
western end of the Circle / Met ticket hall (near the doors into St
Pancras) can also process railcard discount setting.

If they can do so the gateline staff in that ticket hall didn't seem
to know about it when I was last there. They only suggested the man by
the ticket machines queue. Helpfully they have also removed some
ticket machines in that ticket hall (those on the left of the
gateline). Why on earth have they done that?

Did they move them to the right of the gateline where the windows
used to be? This is what it looked like soon after opening:

http://www.perry.co.uk/images/stp-western-queue.jpg

With only two, or possibly three, machines; on the far right.

That picture is not clear to me

In the middle distance are four windows, each with a ?pink light
above them. There's a single queue using a classic blue-tape zigzag.

In the foreground running from right to left are two separate ad-hoc
queues for ticket machines (which are themselves just out of shot).

What I'm not sure about is whether there's a third machine just in
shot, with a group of ladies and a girl with a pigtail milling around
in front.

but I think there were more than 2 or 3 machines. I didn't get that
close to the machines.

My recollection of the current configuration is also not clear, Roland. If
they have indeed moved all the machines to one side of the gateline that is
hardly convenient to people coming from King's Cross/Euston Road rather than
St Pancras who all now have to walk past the gateline to access any ticket
machines.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 04:26:48
on Mon, 19 Oct 2015, remarked:
http://www.perry.co.uk/images/stp-western-queue.jpg

With only two, or possibly three, machines; on the far right.

That picture is not clear to me

In the middle distance are four windows, each with a ?pink light
above them. There's a single queue using a classic blue-tape zigzag.

In the foreground running from right to left are two separate ad-hoc
queues for ticket machines (which are themselves just out of shot).

What I'm not sure about is whether there's a third machine just in
shot, with a group of ladies and a girl with a pigtail milling around
in front.

but I think there were more than 2 or 3 machines. I didn't get that
close to the machines.

My recollection of the current configuration is also not clear, Roland. If
they have indeed moved all the machines to one side of the gateline that is
hardly convenient to people coming from King's Cross/Euston Road rather than
St Pancras who all now have to walk past the gateline to access any ticket
machines.

Those from Kings Cross will have walked past machines in the original
ticket hall. Almost no-one enters the Western ticket hall from the
street outside. In any case, it's only a few mote feet, and if we are to
have foot patrols by helpers, isn't it better to have all the machines
close to each other.
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
04:26:48 on Mon, 19 Oct 2015, remarked:
http://www.perry.co.uk/images/stp-western-queue.jpg

With only two, or possibly three, machines; on the far right.

That picture is not clear to me

In the middle distance are four windows, each with a ?pink light
above them. There's a single queue using a classic blue-tape zigzag.

In the foreground running from right to left are two separate ad-hoc
queues for ticket machines (which are themselves just out of shot).

What I'm not sure about is whether there's a third machine just in
shot, with a group of ladies and a girl with a pigtail milling around
in front.

but I think there were more than 2 or 3 machines. I didn't get that
close to the machines.

My recollection of the current configuration is also not clear, Roland.
If they have indeed moved all the machines to one side of the gateline
that is hardly convenient to people coming from King's Cross/Euston Road
rather than St Pancras who all now have to walk past the gateline to
access any ticket machines.

Those from Kings Cross will have walked past machines in the original
ticket hall. Almost no-one enters the Western ticket hall from the
street outside. In any case, it's only a few mote feet, and if we are
to have foot patrols by helpers, isn't it better to have all the
machines close to each other.

Not if they followed the signage on the square to the entrances near Euston
Road either side of the junction with Pancras Road.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 06:55:16
on Mon, 19 Oct 2015, remarked:

My recollection of the current configuration is also not clear, Roland.
If they have indeed moved all the machines to one side of the gateline
that is hardly convenient to people coming from King's Cross/Euston Road
rather than St Pancras who all now have to walk past the gateline to
access any ticket machines.

Those from Kings Cross will have walked past machines in the original
ticket hall. Almost no-one enters the Western ticket hall from the
street outside. In any case, it's only a few mote feet, and if we are
to have foot patrols by helpers, isn't it better to have all the
machines close to each other.

Not if they followed the signage on the square to the entrances near Euston
Road either side of the junction with Pancras Road.

None of them do. Everyone makes straight for the entrance closest to the
main shed. And if they enter by the eastern of those two, the ticket
machines are almost straight ahead of them when they get to concourse
level.
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
06:55:16 on Mon, 19 Oct 2015, remarked:

My recollection of the current configuration is also not clear,
Roland. If they have indeed moved all the machines to one side of the
gateline that is hardly convenient to people coming from King's Cross/
Euston Road rather than St Pancras who all now have to walk past the
gateline to access any ticket machines.

Those from Kings Cross will have walked past machines in the original
ticket hall. Almost no-one enters the Western ticket hall from the
street outside. In any case, it's only a few mote feet, and if we are
to have foot patrols by helpers, isn't it better to have all the
machines close to each other.

Not if they followed the signage on the square to the entrances near
Euston Road either side of the junction with Pancras Road.

None of them do. Everyone makes straight for the entrance closest to
the main shed. And if they enter by the eastern of those two, the
ticket machines are almost straight ahead of them when they get to
concourse level.

Not my observation, especially from platforms 9-11.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 12:27:09
on Mon, 19 Oct 2015, remarked:
My recollection of the current configuration is also not clear,
Roland. If they have indeed moved all the machines to one side of the
gateline that is hardly convenient to people coming from King's Cross/
Euston Road rather than St Pancras who all now have to walk past the
gateline to access any ticket machines.

Those from Kings Cross will have walked past machines in the original
ticket hall. Almost no-one enters the Western ticket hall from the
street outside. In any case, it's only a few mote feet, and if we are
to have foot patrols by helpers, isn't it better to have all the
machines close to each other.

Not if they followed the signage on the square to the entrances near
Euston Road either side of the junction with Pancras Road.

None of them do. Everyone makes straight for the entrance closest to
the main shed. And if they enter by the eastern of those two, the
ticket machines are almost straight ahead of them when they get to
concourse level.

Not my observation, especially from platforms 9-11.

They'll head for the Northern ticket hall (lots of machines) then down
the corridor to the original ticket hall (lots of machines) if going
towards the subsurface TfL station.
--
Roland Perry

On 17/10/2015 10:03, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Sat, 17 Oct 2015 09:51:17 +0100, Clive Page
wrote:

On 16/10/2015 21:02, Paul Corfield wrote:

It is definitely the case that a member of LU staff should sign on to
one of the passenger machines to set the discount for you.

Ah, so I have to queue up to get the attention of the appropriate member
of staff, and then we *both* join the queue to access a wall-mounted
ticket machine, is that it?

Yep - that's the brave new concept of customer service. I suspect you
queue in a single queue and then hope to attract the sole member of
staff's attention and then you both go to a free machine and he signs
on and does the necessary. I don't know what happens if the member of
staff says "sorry I have to manage the queue"!!

I think, but can't be certain, that the "Visitor Centre" at the
western end of the Circle / Met ticket hall (near the doors into St
Pancras) can also process railcard discount setting.

That was exactly what I was going to say - yes they can do it.

Ticket offices at London Overground and TfL Rail (Shenfield line route)
stations can also do it, a (very) few NR ticket offices can do it, and
at least theoretically Oyster Ticket Stops (aka newsagents/convenience
stores) are supposed to be able to do it...


Last time I went through Kings Cross it was utter chaos at the main
Tube and Northern ticket halls. Huge queues of people, staff shouting
at passengers to come forward to a free machine and the crowds were
backed up to the gateline in the Northern ticket hall. I've never
seen such a mess at that ticket hall and I've seen it busy before.

I pass through KX-St.Pan quite frequently at various times of day and it
is never less than full of people queueing for ticket machines. Until
quite late at night the term "utter chaos" is pretty accurate, in my
experience.

I've only seen it "calm" once in recent treks through the place. It
was always busy, that's inevitable, but now it's just appalling in
terms of how people are handled. It was so bad that even the National
Rail ticket machines and ticket office at St Pancras all had queues at
them too. Usually people don't twig that NR machines can do some
Oyster based transactions.


That's long been my advice to anyone arriving at KX or St P (or
elsewhere) - head for the NR ticket machines, either for an Oyster topup
or a Day Travelcard. Of course nowadays, buying a Day Travelcard - with
the minimum validity of z1-6 - means one is likely rather paying over
the odds. The withdrawal of a straightforward central London day ticket
(z1&2 TC) does seem kinda user unfriendly.

On 17/10/2015 18:38, wrote:
[...]
I've only seen it "calm" once in recent treks through the place. It
was always busy, that's inevitable, but now it's just appalling in
terms of how people are handled. It was so bad that even the National
Rail ticket machines and ticket office at St Pancras all had queues at
them too. Usually people don't twig that NR machines can do some
Oyster based transactions.

Oh, can they? Interesting. How about the Thameslink ticket office?


The NR ticket machines cannot do setting a Railcard discount on Oyster -
they can do Oyster topups and buying weekly Travelcards on Oyster.

I *think* the Thameslink ticket office at St P is Oyster equipped, in
which case it should be able to set Railcard discounts on Oyster.

On 19/10/2015 10:40, Roland Perry wrote:
[...]
Those from Kings Cross will have walked past machines in the original
ticket hall. Almost no-one enters the Western ticket hall from the
street outside. In any case, it's only a few mote feet, and if we are to
have foot patrols by helpers, isn't it better to have all the machines
close to each other.

If you stand outside or inside at street level you'll see plenty of
people enter the Western ticket hall from outside. But I have no take on
the (re)positioning of ticket machines therein.

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
12:27:09 on Mon, 19 Oct 2015, remarked:
My recollection of the current configuration is also not clear,
Roland. If they have indeed moved all the machines to one side of
the gateline that is hardly convenient to people coming from King's
Cross/Euston Road rather than St Pancras who all now have to walk
past the gateline to access any ticket machines.

Those from Kings Cross will have walked past machines in the
original ticket hall. Almost no-one enters the Western ticket hall
from the street outside. In any case, it's only a few mote feet, and
if we are to have foot patrols by helpers, isn't it better to have
all the machines close to each other.

Not if they followed the signage on the square to the entrances near
Euston Road either side of the junction with Pancras Road.

None of them do. Everyone makes straight for the entrance closest to
the main shed. And if they enter by the eastern of those two, the
ticket machines are almost straight ahead of them when they get to
concourse level.

Not my observation, especially from platforms 9-11.

They'll head for the Northern ticket hall (lots of machines) then
down the corridor to the original ticket hall (lots of machines) if
going towards the subsurface TfL station.

Not if they have any sense they won't. The only escalator seems to be
up-only. As easy to walk down Pancras Road.

--
Colin Rosenstiel