"jonmorris" wrote in message
...
On 13 Dec, 15:21, Roland Perry wrote:

Given that it's busy all day long these people aren't commuters. I think
they must be mainly irregular passengers who are intimidated by the
machines and prefer to buy from a person.

I know plenty of people who prefer to speak so someone because they
might not know exactly what ticket to get (or if it's definitely the
best/cheapest/correct one).

Go to a ticket window and you can ask for a ticket to x, and explain
when/why you're going etc. Then, you can get the ticket and ask again
for confirmation that it's definitely the right one. That reassurance
doesn't come from a machine.

I must admit that when I was in Paris and we visited the Louvre, we
opted to go to a ticket window (with queue) instead of the many
(completely unused) credit card machines to ensure we got the right
tickets for four people. This is despite the fact that I'll nearly
always go for a machine when I see one!

Jonathan

There's a lot to be said for speaking to a human when using a route you
never have before, but I would only value it at 5 minutes of my time, not
half an hour