"Boltar" wrote in message
...
On Dec 11, 11:58 pm, "Lew 1"
wrote:
I may be far too cynical here, but it seems that in their efforts to
create
an arty farty "meeting place", the St Pancras team have forgotten about
the
most basic elements... seatings, signage and information displays.

Having watched the series on BBC2 about St P with the architect
getting into a flap about his doodleflips being 2 inches out of whack
and others making a big fuss about the retail side and yet more people
having kittens about marks on the statue , I suspect thats almost
certainly the case. I realise you can't trust the BBC editing much
these days , but not once did we see anyone making any comment about
anything to do with signs or displays.

B2003

True, but virtually everything they covered was to do with all the froth and
frippery of the marketing and PR side of the final stages of the project.

Such a missed opportunity, there must have been more tales to tell about the
construction than the guy who struggled to get the retailers' roof panels up
in time

It must have been an immense challenge to design and complete such a complex
project in and around three massively busy stations (4 with Thameslink).
Pity we didn't learn anything about it.

Garry Smith wrote:
"Peter Lawrence" wrote in message
...
First impressions of the Thameslink platforms at St Pancras which
opened on time this morning (after what must have been a massive
tidy-up operation).

I have to confess that I hadn't appreciated how far I'd have to
walk between the new station and the Underground. Being used
to nipping between KX TL and the Victoria Line, this morning's
hike - up out of the new station, then along the full length of
St P, and then back down to the Tube - came as an unpleasant
surprise.

For those whom it suits, Farringdon, Blackfriars, or even Kentish
Town may be a better interchange.

Even though the new station and the Underground are not directly
linked, a few signs saying "Underground this way" would be good.
Otherwise folks unfamiliar with the new station have to guess that
to get to the Underground they have to follow the "Way Out" signs.
--
Garry Smith




I paid a visit to what used to be King's Cross Thameslink today and
noticed that the concourse had been partially stripped bare although the
mural which had been covered by the countdown clock for the last 3
months is now visible again. The ticket office was closed, there were no
ticket machines available and it wasn't long before someone from FCC
asked what I was doing there. I pretended to be one of those who somehow
didn't know about the changeover of 9 December and was pointed in the
direction of StP - I couldn't be arsed to pay £1.50 for the privilege of
accessing the paid-side corridors as I was going to leave London with
FCC anyway but I did note that the corridors to the platforms (not the
corridors to the Underground) were fitted with doors.

I've also noticed that the FCC ticket machines at SPILL have blank
circular plates - I presume that they will be converted to Oyster pads
in due course (so far I've yet to discover any Oyster-compatible
machines that were not built by Cubic).

On 10 Dec, 23:38, Sky Rider wrote:

(snip)

I've also noticed that the FCC ticket machines at SPILL have blank
circular plates - I presume that they will be converted to Oyster pads
in due course (so far I've yet to discover any Oyster-compatible
machines that were not built by Cubic).

You want non-Cubic ticket machines that do Oyster eh?!

London Overground has both Scheidt & Bachmann Ticket Xpress...
http://therailticketgallery.fotopic.net/p26682964.html

....and Shere Fast Ticket machines...
http://therailticketgallery.fotopic.net/p15267418.html

....which have both been adapted to to include an Oyster reader (can't
find any photos so perhaps I'll take some).

I'm pretty sure all the Shere machines were installed after the
decision had been made to let TfL take over the Silverlink Metro
routes, but whilst Silverlink was still in charge. The Scheidt &
Bachmann machines are as found at ex-Silverlink County stations, so
they were definitely Silverlink's choice of self-service ticket
machine.

The preference of TfL for the Shere machines perhaps makes sense -
they are certainly the more elegant solution when fitted with Oyster
readers, the readers on the S&D machines look a bit like a bit boil
that's just been stuck on.

On 11 Dec, 04:11, Mizter T wrote:

The preference of TfL for the Shere machines perhaps makes sense -
they are certainly the more elegant solution when fitted with Oyster
readers, the readers on the S&D machines look a bit like a bit boil
that's just been stuck on.

The S&D machines also don't work in cold or wet weather properly.
They're clever in that they can report back their status (so RPIs can
tell if you're lying about the fact the machine wouldn't sell you a
ticket) but they can't detect the fact that the touch screen simply
stops working - either completely, or certain parts of the screen. The
one at Hatfield (for example) is under a shelter, but not sheltered
enough to stop the bottom of the screen getting wet - and certainly
not enough to protect it from extreme cold/windy weather. Therefore
you can't purchase any tickets at all - and yet the machine will
report itself as working fine.

In other words, they're crap if they're in an exposed location - at
least for the next few months or so!!

Jonathan

Mizter T wrote:
On 10 Dec, 23:38, Sky Rider wrote:
(snip)

I've also noticed that the FCC ticket machines at SPILL have blank
circular plates - I presume that they will be converted to Oyster pads
in due course (so far I've yet to discover any Oyster-compatible
machines that were not built by Cubic).

You want non-Cubic ticket machines that do Oyster eh?!

Yes. To put it another way, I haven't discovered any FCC ticket machines
that are Oyster-compatible yet. This is not to say that I don't like
using Cubic machines with Oyster, but it is more likely that FCC will
stick with their own S&B machines than take Cubic machines.

There is also the possibility of ITSO rollout on the FCC network during
the 2010s...


London Overground has both Scheidt & Bachmann Ticket Xpress...
http://therailticketgallery.fotopic.net/p26682964.html

...and Shere Fast Ticket machines...
http://therailticketgallery.fotopic.net/p15267418.html

...which have both been adapted to to include an Oyster reader (can't
find any photos so perhaps I'll take some).

snip

I don't really use the Overground so I wouldn't have noticed.

Fortunately I didn't have to go through it this morning, but
my wife did. Here's what she said - her first two points are
not actually about the new station, but her last point is
interesting.

"Today's journey was the usual fiasco. A train broke down at
St Pancras so we were stuck for 25 minutes at Cricklewood.

At King's Cross all the machines stopped accepting tickets and
would only accept Oyster cards. I tried mine on 3 machines before
I gave up so by the time I got to Piccadilly Circus it failed in the
reader there too!

New definition of Hell - Thameslink, Midland Mainline and a Eurostar
from Paris all arriving at the same time!!!!"
--
Garry Smith

In message , at 12:39:05 on Tue, 11
Dec 2007, Garry Smith remarked:
Fortunately I didn't have to go through it this morning, but
my wife did. Here's what she said - her first two points are
not actually about the new station, but her last point is
interesting.

[...]

New definition of Hell - Thameslink, Midland Mainline and a Eurostar
from Paris all arriving at the same time!!!!"

Including the use of the "old" franchise names.

And it'll get even busier when the Kent domestics start going, but at
least there should be a [new] northern tube ticket hall as well.

--
Roland Perry

On 11 Dec, 12:39, "Garry Smith" wrote:

New definition of Hell - Thameslink, Midland Mainline and a Eurostar
from Paris all arriving at the same time!!!!"

It's pretty bad isn't it. The 'traffic' passing through King's Cross
underground station is now VERY busy at certain times, presumably, as
you say, when lots of trains are arriving at St Pancras - as well as
NXEC.

Jonathan

On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:39:05 -0000, "Garry Smith"
wrote:

Fortunately I didn't have to go through it this morning, but
my wife did. Here's what she said - her first two points are
not actually about the new station, but her last point is
interesting.

"Today's journey was the usual fiasco. A train broke down at
St Pancras so we were stuck for 25 minutes at Cricklewood.

At King's Cross all the machines stopped accepting tickets and
would only accept Oyster cards. I tried mine on 3 machines before
I gave up so by the time I got to Piccadilly Circus it failed in the
reader there too!

New definition of Hell - Thameslink, Midland Mainline and a Eurostar
from Paris all arriving at the same time!!!!"

I can vouch for that. On Saturday lunchtime, queues for tickets in
both LUL booking halls were horrendous. This seems not to have been
thought out properly at all.

In message , at 18:34:59 on
Tue, 11 Dec 2007, Mike Roebuck remarked:
On Saturday lunchtime, queues for tickets in both LUL booking halls
were horrendous. This seems not to have been thought out properly at
all.

The queues were horrendous in the old booking hall, and were horrendous
in the new one from the day it reopened. They just don't seem to want to
put enough staff on duty.
--
Roland Perry