please empty your brain below
You mentioned Euston ticket office closing in September. This station benefits (using the term benefits rather loosely) from a Visitor Centre. This is located behind a new staircase up to the mezzanine food court with an entrance facing Eversholt St. As such, if anyone arriving on a train from the north wants help, they will probably miss it. Yes, there are big pink TfL Visitor Centre signs on the back wall of the centre opposite the Underground stations escalators, but the huge Underground roundel and the escalators themselves are a much bigger magnet. The ticket hall is usually heaving.....Friday PM can be mayhem (although not as bad as Victoria!

When I passed through Euston at 10:45 and later at 13:15 on Wednesday this week, the 4 staff I observed were looking out expectantly for a customer, but none seemed to be forthcoming.

The only other Visitor Centre I have seen is at St Pancras, but at least that is on a well beaten track from St Pancras International to the Met line station.

100andthirty | 04.09.15 - 7:21 a.m. | #

So this month we'll see ticket office closure at Euston, LHR T5, and Victoria..... This will be fun....

IslandDweller | 04.09.15 - 7:44 a.m. | #

At most of the stations I have visited with closed offices they have simply turned off the blue "assistance and tickets" signs and slapped some coloured vinyls over the window. At South Wimbledon, one of the early casualties they eventually took form the illuminated signs as well.

Colliers Wood is due to close next week and there is a planning application in to block up the windows properly, convering one with signs, whilst another will become a third ticket machine. Guess the builders are going to be a bit slower than the closures.

Interesting that the staff disappear at ten. Even now Colliers Wood gateline is almost always staffed, even late at night. What makes the end of the District special?

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 04.09.15 - 8:03 a.m. | #

Bow Road is always staffed, from start to finish, Bromley-by-Bow not so. But the former is officially an "under ground" station, so regulations dictate a permanent presence.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 04.09.15 - 8:12 a.m. | #

I'm not convinced the "visible staff" thing is working at all. I've lost count of the instances of huge queues at ticket machines and no staff being nearby wanting to help. I've also never seen any member of staff "signed on" to a machine doing a more complex transaction like refunds, setting a railcard discount etc but then TfL aren't telling people that this can be still be done. People are left to fend for themselves and ask on Twitter or non TfL websites. There's also no active publicity about acceptance of company cheques for season tickets being scrapped or Annual tickets being only available online with Gold Cards sent through the post and then the passenger having to go to a station, find a staff member, have them sign on to a machine to set / reset the Gold Card discount. Compare that palaver to a 2 min transaction at a ticket office window with everything done immediately.

The staff I see normally lurk inside the paid area of gatelines having a nice chat or, as at F Park, sat in a box by a non operational gateline reading a book doing sod all to help anyone.

I do wonder if the line managers and group managers ever "wander about" in the evenings or Sundays just to see what is / is not happening on their patch. If the objective is to provide a visible presence and active service to passengers I'd suggest a heck of a lot more management effort is needed to make it happen. I'm particularly surprised that LU is tolerating gates being switched off on busy bits of the District Line. The performance levels for gate "up time" used to be tracked, monitored and used for management performance targets. Perhaps that's all been stopped or the targets are low because saving on staff salaries is now more important than revenue protection?

PC | 04.09.15 - 8:49 a.m. | #

hmmm. For 'improvement' read 'cut'?

@PC - Line and Group managers wandering the system to see whether it's actually working? Srsly? Nice idea though.

Bronchitikat | Homepage | 04.09.15 - 9:59 a.m. | #

In terms of safety, the most likely person to be attacked at a tube station is a member of tube staff, no wonder TfL had so many willing recipients for redundancy rather than be out front assisting passengers.

| 04.09.15 - 10:12 a.m. | #

Bromley by Bow doesn't have to be staffed, so I'm sure when there's a staff shortage somewhere else then that staff member gets moved. I expect that there usually is someone on the station, but that (for some unfathomable reason) they don't fancy standing around on a deserted concourse by themselves at 11 o'clock at night.

And that's the biggest issue with the TfL changes: every station will be staffed, but often by only one single person. Given the person most likely to get attacked on a tube station is the member of staff, of course they're going to lurk.

Arctic Troll | 04.09.15 - 12:16 p.m. | #

Down here in Hong Kong there's also a problem of shortage of station staff, despite MTR's efforts to put a person at every single train door. I probably have to take this in mind when I come to London 65 days later.

Patrickov | 04.09.15 - 3:58 p.m. | #

I thought last month was Local History Month? ;-)

swirlythingy | Homepage | 04.09.15 - 6:08 p.m. | #

Patrickov. I lived in Honkers for nearly four years.
You are in for a major culture shock in many respects!

Chris | 04.09.15 - 9:49 p.m. | #

Part of the new "low-cost/self-service culture"...I mean if they can get people to get out of their cars to fill-up on fuel, do their own banking in banks, scan & pack there own items at the supermarket, make there own way thru a road junction when the lights are not working, then we can all get our own tickets and work-out which platform to go to. Though think as we have a "ageing population" so may have problems ahead, then again maybe robots will help out?

Working Class Hero | 04.09.15 - 10:18 p.m. | #

@ Working Class Hero: Low-cost/self-service will be coming to the health service if the bean counters get their way.

NICE will be rebranded NASTY - Nothing Available, So Treat Yourself...

Gerry | 05.09.15 - 1:07 a.m. | #

Elm Park lead the way on this years ago. Ticket office only open from 6-9am and the barriers open all day whilst staff lurk in the office. Now the office is for information only.

Running_Correspondent | 05.09.15 - 7:31 a.m. | #

It all came to pass at Brixton a few months ago with very little ado for such a busy station, but I do wonder about the likes of Euston. It must be said that the ticket machines in France for SNCF are a joy to use. When you put the destination in, it shows all the available pricing options in one go, including the times of the next departures, and how quickly they will get there, so you can distinguish between the slow and fast trains, as well as any price variations, all in one go.

Back on the Tube, contactless is rapidly making tickets a thing of the past - there won't be any such things left to sell, soon. I bet that people at TfL Towers are plotting the end of paper tickets, as well as Oyster, for that matter.

NickW | 05.09.15 - 1:55 p.m. | #

All part of the slow push towards a cashless society

Martin | 06.09.15 - 8:17 p.m. | #

Network Rail stations are going the same way, as well, due to the increasing use of ticket machines. My nearest station (Portchester) has said ticket machine and a seemingly random allocation of very short hours when the ticket office is manned..

Adrian | 20.11.15 - 11:13 a.m. | #











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