please empty your brain below

Strange that no one responded to your travel info request with "that's near Midtown, isn't it?".
I hope you did not spend the day behaving like a tourist, whilst undercover?
Wow, how things change in a few days, since I observed the Euston Visitor Centre devoid of people. Out of interest what day and time did you visit?
Another thought........the seething mass in the Euston Underground concourse isn't a new thing; it was as bad as you describe even when the ticket office was open. The concourse (and the escalators to/from platforms 3 to 6) are wholly inadequate for the traffic now using the station.
Oh, the joy of having a freedom pass! Also a connection to the internet for sorting out my journeys around this vast town. Sometimes it's good to be old! 😉
Interesting findings, particularly your conclusion.

Clearly your determined efforts to avoid photographing mirrors must be helpful when it comes to things like this. So there wasn't much danger of anyone responding to your questions by "Come off it, DG, you know the answers far better than I do!".
It's always irritated me with TfL that a tube map can be picked up at most stations without queuing, but bus maps are guarded by someone in a kiosk which I have to queue for.
Can confirm that the downstairs ticket hall at Euston was invariably over-crowded and chaotic long before the ticket windows closed, alas.
Check the balance on your lobster card? Perhaps you were rumbled, not necessarily as dg, but as a Londoner. Did you put on a strong regional accent?
Yep, Euston's a right mess of a station. Always terrible ten minutes after an intercity service has come in. Woefully inadequate place, long overdue a refurb.
Looks like I'd be best off going to Kings Cross then, always assuming I haven't already checked up on such things online.

Which is a shame cos I'd be coming into Waterloo, if I ever wanted/needed to come into Central London. Usually we take the ring route as we're going to Middlesex.
I can also confirm that Euston has always had hellish queues. Can they not get some TfL ticket machines at the upper (train station) level as that would improve conditions downstairs?
@Andrew Bowden: Yes, it's a nightmare after an intercity train comes in. And these days there are nine Virgin Trains services an hour getting into Euston.

It's a shame they haven't put more TfL ticket machines upstairs, but then that'll eat into the retail space Network Rail are busy installing.
Most of the long queues a Euston underground (I've seen and they're terrible) are pesumably domestic visitors to London. Promoting contactless payment would seem the best solution.
Probably a silly thought/question; but I wonder if they sell postage stamps?
Shame that the Northern ladies were not aware that they could almost certainly have bought their One Day Travelcards from the London Midland ticket office by the suburban platforms or from the various ticket machines in the NR station at Euston. The same applies at places like Kings Cross and St Pancras by the Thameslink / Great Northern entrances.

It is a great shame that these bits of "lateral thinking" are not actually advertised to people as alternatives to just piling into the tube station and queuing forever and a day.

I am dreading the day when I actually have to get a complex transaction undertaken at a LU station which no longer has a ticket office.
"That's near Holborn/Russell Square isn't it?" Sounds like
1. they're not sure:
and 2. their mental map of London is based on the Tube map.

If you said you were in Bayswater would they think of Queensway station as an option? Or ask them how to get to Croydon - nul points if they direct you via Whitechapel!
Anyone know if I can buy an annual season ticket at these places? If I'm handing over £1k+, I'm not going to wait 30 days for a new gold card...
Apparently...

The Annual Gold Card discount entitlement can be set on to your Oyster card at:

• Tube and London Overground stations
• Some National Rail station ticket offices
• Oyster Ticket Stops (local shops and newsagents across London)
• Visitor or Travel Information Centres

Just try the nightmare that's the National Rail website. Ask for a journey from Russell Square to Heathrow Terminal 5 arriving by noon on Saturday and it makes you change at Piccadilly Circus and take the Bakerloo Line to Paddington. After a horrendous change you're supposed to take the infrequent Heathrow Connect or Heathrow Express services.

NatRail is too embarrassed to quote the eye-watering fares totalling £12.40 and £23.80 respectively. Who'd have thought you could have paid just £3.10 and stayed on the same Piccadilly Line train all the way?

If you ask NatRail for 'Heathrow Underground', it just sulks and says that you have to mix and match a NatRail station with an Underground / DLR station, but the same flavour for both is a No-No.

But even if you play by the silly rules and ask for, say, Sevenoaks to T5, NatRail still gets it hopelessly wrong, quoting the Cheapest Fare as a rip-off £36.00 via the Heathrow Express ! That's a blatant lie: if prodded, its Cheapest Fare Finder will offer £22.50 (but via a crazy three-hour journey with changes at Denmark Hill, Clapham Junction and Woking, ending up on a bus).

But it need cost only £14.50, with an easy change from Southeastern to the District Line at Cannon Street and then a cross-platform change to the Piccadilly at Hammersmith. The Southeastern and TfL websites are also equally hopeless, neither suggesting this obvious route.

Pity the poor tourists and out-of-towners !
Everyone in London a bunch of whining w***s like you lot? Get over it. Been buying everything from a machine forever. Easy peasey. Maybe unionized labour shouldn't price itself out of the market then?
Why-oh-why-oh-why is the Gold card discount still not set automatically *when you buy the Gold card!*
MarcB, I always buy my annual ticket on the website and my Gold card arrives within a week or two. But I agree with Dan, it would be much easier if it would auto activate Gold card discount when an annual ticket is added to an Oyster.

I think the Virgin website tries to sell a travel card alongside your train tickets when booking a train into London. That would be best option for the Ladies who were queuing, they would have picked up the paper travel card alongside their Virgin tickets at their starting station and been ready to go in London.
At one point Virgin Trains were making an effort to flog travelcards on the train itself.

And yes, the Gold Card situation is insane. Used to infuriate me when I still had a Gold Card.
With regard to how the magic things like gold cards addition happen in stations now; you go and find a helpful station assistant, tell them what you want, they go to the ticket machine and scan in their oyster card along with yours. This puts it in some special mode where they can do all sorts of dull things.

But they can only refund the last transaction (which is how I found out what they did to the machines)
The London Planner September pdf says:
"As the Underground runs for 24 hours
on Friday and Saturdays, Paul Critcher
finds venues that are open all hours"
Euston Undergrond is a vile place to get through. At least with contactless I have no need to linger near any ticket machine. It really needs expanding to cope with the large increase in passengers. No wonder they know it will never cope if HS2 ever arrives.










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