Sadiq Khan to review Tube ticket office closures
 

Khan is reviewing the decision to close every ticket office on the Tube.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/mayor...-a3338791.html

The TfL home page says nothing about this. I think that the management would be devastated if the decision were reversed.

Also, the Tube management has done an extraordinary "damned memory" job on the old ticket offices; in most stations it is impossible to tell that a ticket office was ever there, it's just perfect tiling.

Sadiq Khan to review Tube ticket office closures
 

In message , at
22:21:59 on Tue, 27 Sep 2016, Offramp remarked:

Khan is reviewing the decision to close every ticket office on the Tube.

I would regard it as a mistake to close ticket offices at some major
stations with special requirements, like Heathrow.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/mayor...-a3338791.html

The TfL home page says nothing about this. I think that the management
would be devastated if the decision were reversed.

Also, the Tube management has done an extraordinary "damned memory" job
on the old ticket offices; in most stations it is impossible to tell that
a ticket office was ever there, it's just perfect tiling.

At a lot of the busier stations the wall-space has been used for more
ticket machines.
--
Roland Perry

Sadiq Khan to review Tube ticket office closures
 

On 2016-09-28 06:12:28 +0000, Roland Perry said:

I would regard it as a mistake to close ticket offices at some major
stations with special requirements, like Heathrow.

Doesn't Heathrow have one of those "tourist reception" centres designed
precisely for those special requirements? Euston does.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

Sadiq Khan to review Tube ticket office closures
 

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
22:21:59 on Tue, 27 Sep 2016, Offramp remarked:

Khan is reviewing the decision to close every ticket office on the Tube.

I would regard it as a mistake to close ticket offices at some major
stations with special requirements, like Heathrow.

Did LU ever have a ticket office at T5?


http://www.standard.co.uk/news/mayor...-a3338791.html

The TfL home page says nothing about this. I think that the management
would be devastated if the decision were reversed.

Also, the Tube management has done an extraordinary "damned memory" job
on the old ticket offices; in most stations it is impossible to tell that
a ticket office was ever there, it's just perfect tiling.

At a lot of the busier stations the wall-space has been used for more
ticket machines.

Yes, and the arrangement seems to work quite well, with a hovering
uniformed station assistant helping anyone who's confused. Most stations
that I use, whether in the suburbs or in central London, have shorter
queues than before.

Sadiq Khan to review Tube ticket office closures
 

Offramp wrote:
Khan is reviewing the decision to close every ticket office on the Tube.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/mayor...-a3338791.html

The TfL home page says nothing about this. I think that the management
would be devastated if the decision were reversed.

There's a poster up in my local Tube station inviting comments.


Also, the Tube management has done an extraordinary "damned memory" job
on the old ticket offices; in most stations it is impossible to tell that
a ticket office was ever there, it's just perfect tiling.

Yes, and it didn't take long to either tile over the old windows, or put
extra ticket machines in.

Sadiq Khan to review Tube ticket office closures
 

In message , at 08:46:12 on Wed, 28
Sep 2016, Neil Williams remarked:
I would regard it as a mistake to close ticket offices at some major
stations with special requirements, like Heathrow.

Doesn't Heathrow have one of those "tourist reception" centres designed
precisely for those special requirements? Euston does.

Those places are designed to sell theatre/attractions tickets, and are
virtually nothing to do with tube ticketing.
--
Roland Perry

Sadiq Khan to review Tube ticket office closures
 

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 08:46:12 on Wed, 28
Sep 2016, Neil Williams remarked:
I would regard it as a mistake to close ticket offices at some major
stations with special requirements, like Heathrow.

Doesn't Heathrow have one of those "tourist reception" centres designed
precisely for those special requirements? Euston does.

Those places are designed to sell theatre/attractions tickets, and are
virtually nothing to do with tube ticketing.

Yes, I'd say they were mis-sold. I certainly had the wrong impression
initially that they were a sort of super Tube ticket office, with
multilingual staff.

Sadiq Khan to review Tube ticket office closures
 

On 2016-09-28 08:11:18 +0000, Roland Perry said:

Those places are designed to sell theatre/attractions tickets, and are
virtually nothing to do with tube ticketing.

No they are not. They are intended to sell TfL tickets as well. The
sale of other tickets is to make them more financially viable.

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payment...isitor-centres


Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

Sadiq Khan to review Tube ticket office closures
 

In message , at 11:17:21 on Wed, 28
Sep 2016, Neil Williams remarked:

Those places are designed to sell theatre/attractions tickets, and
are virtually nothing to do with tube ticketing.

No they are not. They are intended to sell TfL tickets as well. The
sale of other tickets is to make them more financially viable.

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payment...buy-tickets/vi
sitor-centres?cid=visitor-centres

They may wish to spin it as somewhere to buy tube tickets, but in
practice the huge queues mode at glacial speed, and there's virtually
nothing to see from outside which makes it look like other than a place
designed to sell theatre/attractions tickets.
--
Roland Perry

Sadiq Khan to review Tube ticket office closures
 

On 2016-09-28, Recliner wrote:
Roland Perry wrote:

At a lot of the busier stations the wall-space has been used for more
ticket machines.

Yes, and the arrangement seems to work quite well, with a hovering
uniformed station assistant helping anyone who's confused. Most stations
that I use, whether in the suburbs or in central London, have shorter
queues than before.


I agree that queues are shorter than before. However, there's one thing
that doesn't work as well and that's when you need someone to help you
(and you know you're going to need someone)

For me it's getting my gold card registered onto my oyster PAYG

Someone helping at one of the (big) ticket machines so I join that
queue. The people two in front of me obviously didn't need help, so after
the assistant discovering that, wandered off, when I then had to chase
them (and then they were helping someone else) etc.

Eventually they ended up putting the wrong entitlement onto my card
(which I only discovered when I used it because the price was cheaper
than I'd expected. So I rang up the oyster helpline and they told me
that I'd got some sort of staff discount but they couldn't correct it
so I had to go back to the station - and back to a similar problem of
there being no way to "queue" for help.

Maybe it would be better now as there are more machines so rarely are
there queues for machines. I'll find out in December when I have to
renew my gold card discount.

Tim.

Sadiq Khan to review Tube ticket office closures
 

On 28/09/2016 11:43, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 11:17:21 on Wed, 28
Sep 2016, Neil Williams remarked:

Those places are designed to sell theatre/attractions tickets, and
are virtually nothing to do with tube ticketing.

No they are not. They are intended to sell TfL tickets as well. The
sale of other tickets is to make them more financially viable.

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payment...buy-tickets/vi
sitor-centres?cid=visitor-centres

They may wish to spin it as somewhere to buy tube tickets, but in
practice the huge queues mode at glacial speed, and there's virtually
nothing to see from outside which makes it look like other than a place
designed to sell theatre/attractions tickets.


Though I think you'll find the ones at the airports have a different
character.

They are all designed to give advice on and sell ticketing products.
However the exterior signage does seem to rely on people recognising and
realising what the roundel stands for (i.e. public transport in London.)

I am however not demurring from your underlying point about ticket
offices (or rather, the lack thereof) at main termini.

Sadiq Khan to review Tube ticket office closures
 

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Tue, 27 Sep 2016 22:21:59 -0700 (PDT), Offramp
wrote:

Khan is reviewing the decision to close every ticket office on the Tube.


http://www.standard.co.uk/news/mayor...-into-boris-jo
hnsons-tube-ticket-office-closures-a3338791.html

The TfL home page says nothing about this. I think that the management
would be devastated if the decision were reversed.
Also, the Tube management has done an extraordinary "damned memory"
job on the old ticket offices; in most stations it is impossible to
tell that a ticket office was ever there, it's just perfect tiling.

"Perfect tiling" is the last thing it is at Blackhorse Road. A bloody
ghastly incoherent mess is what it is.

London Travelwatch are conducting the review and I expect they will
take a pretty robust view on all this. They don't like reductions in
customer facing facilities.

My limited use of the tube usually has few or no staff visible in
ticket halls and certainly no help at ticket machines. All that has
happened is that staff numbers have reduced considerably and the
ability to assist the public has reduced. Just look at the Period 5
Financial Report in the most recent Board Papers and look at the drop
in FTE numbers. Huge reduction in LU as a consequence of the policy to
close ticket offices.

Not my experience at Tottenham Hale. I found staff easily enough when I got
overcharged on a trip to there, with backup from the office as needed. In
the end I had to go to the Oyster helpline but they sorted it.

--
Colin Rosenstiel