please empty your brain below
It's an impressive machine - very easy and intuitive to use, allowing tickets to be purchased from any National Rail/Overground station to any National Rail/Overground station and including the full National Rail range of Rovers and Rangers - even the 14 day Furst Class All Line Rover at £1,138 can be purchased!
This, of course, is a requirement of all ticket offices on National Rail.
Now, let's drag the Underground screaming and kicking into the 21st century and integrate their ticketing properly with National Rail. It's ridiculous that I can book an overnight return to Great Missenden but not Amersham
These tube line ticket offices, operated by LU, are at National Rail stations. This meant they are protected by schedule 17 of the National Rail ticketing and settlement agreement, and so TfL could not close them off its own bat but rather requires the consent of London Travelwatch or the Secretary of State.
Note that the remaining stations are served by London Midland or Southern which probably explains their ticket offices being retained for the time being. People with complicated trips are much more likely to use these then Kew Gardens etc.
I thought Harrow & Wealdstone also had two ticket offices, the map shows two, do they both shut, or is the other run by London Midland (or whatever its called)?
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations-and-destinations/stations-made-easy/harrow-and-wealdstone-station-plan
This is the large version - so you'll have to slide the image about.
You have overlooked another ticket office on the Underground - Terminal 5 has one and this is run by Heathrow Express.
It is possible that you will see the odd member of Underground staff at stations run by another company.
Nice touch how at Gunnersbury the staff 'was stood/sat' whereas the staff at Kew Gardens are grammatically correct. These are the touches we love about DG.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/safety-row-over-plans-to-axe-ticket-offices-at-65-london-overground-stations-a3635496.html
From a quick count from the map, there are about 111 stations served by Overground services, but many of these stations are managed by other operators such as TfL Rail, the Underground, C2C, Anglia, London Midland, SWR, Southern, South Eastern, and Network Rail.
Do the new ticket machines have 'Boundary Of Zone 6' as a starting point for journeys outside the London zones? It can be cheaper for many journeys if you have a London travel pass such as a Freedom.
dg writes: For the purposes of this post, all 270 stations with tube services are tube stations.
(The track doesn't have to be owned by Network Rail to be part of the National Rail network; exactly the same thing happens with the East London line whose track is also owned by TfL.)
dg writes: TfL closed their ticket office here, and it was on a separate gateline, so I decided 'no'.
Yes, I was told that enhanced ticket machines will appear at Bond St etc. Which then begs the question, why not put them at all London Underground stations?
More interesting is how far they will go out. From the artist's drawings it doesn't look as if Custom House will have a ticket office. I suspect Woolwich won't either but we do know that currently Abbey Wood has one - and a new one at that.
It is going to seem a bit irrational if some of the quieter TfL-managed Crossrail stations have a ticket office but busy London Overground ones don't. Acton Main Line and Hanwell are not busy stations.
The issues surrounding National Rail ticketing and the extent of the product range / stations retailed have been troublesome for LU / LT / TfL for decades. The London passengers watchdog (under many different names) has never shifted in its view that the range should never be reduced if there is a change of operating business. I am actually surprised that some station ticket offices have actually been closed down given London Travelwatch's position. I can only assume the Secretary of State is happy to see cost savings rather than customer service.
For all the wonders of new fangled ticket machines I can guarantee there is one form of product they don't handle - privilege fares for rail staff. Only ticket offices can retail these and shutting down what are actually National Rail station facilities deprives people of access to these products. TfL wiping out ticket offices from the Overground will deal a serious blow to the retailing of these tickets. OK it is a minority product in the greater scheme of things but even so. I imagine the same nonsense will prevail on much of Crossrail despite its important role in linking up disparate parts of the National Rail network.
You have to ask for London Charing Cross, but only anoraks will know that.
I would expect a similar problem with Waterloo (Merseyside)
You hardly see them out on the station concourse except if there is an issue, even though there are 3 people milling around.
This isn't a rant, but 'operation do nothing' is a good description of a lot of tube station staff.. a cushy number
You don't need to buy an overnight return to Amersham, you can just use pay as you go, something you can't do to to Great Missenden.
Paul -
Don't worry about the lack of Priv tickets from machines. At worst it means you have to buy a ticket later in the journey "at the first available opportunity" but often it means a free ride!
While he can use PAYG from Stratford or Liverpool Street, he would need to buy a ticket to there and then use PAYG. Effectively it is buying two different tickets. Max's complaint is the lack of integration that exists one stop further out.
It was always a bugbear of mine when travelling occasionally from Southampton to Amersham by train. I could buy a ticket to Great Missenden, I could buy a ticket with a Z1-6 Travelcard, I could not buy a ticket to Amersham (despite NR serving the station) nor Z9.
And the problem that way around (to Amersham) is less of an issue than the other way around - NR ticket machines can get you to all stations served by NR save 4, and all stations served by LU save 6. LU ticket machines can get you to places with Oyster PAYG, and occasionally somewhere else (eg Amersham sells tickets to Great Missenden as if it didn't, that would be truly insane).
It only takes 1 encounter with an officious ticket inspector or guard who doesn't believe you and your privilege ticket facility may be withdrawn on the grounds of "misuse". There are enough horror stories as to how people on advance tickets are treated to make this is a viable concern. It isn't worth taking the risk (in my view).
I also have fond memories of buying an off-peak return to Epsom from the LUL ticket machine at West Brompton, and getting some very confused looks from the gateline staff there. I'd assume that other LUL-owned NR station ticket machines still have the facility to issue NR tickets.
"The ticket office at Kew Gardens will close from Saturday 2 December 2017. The ticket office at Gunnersbury will be closed from Saturday 23 December 2017."
TridentScan | Privacy Policy