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Post by t697 on Dec 19, 2019 19:04:49 GMT
Not sure whether this is the right place. Move it if not!
I had cause to travel from Farringdon to East Croydon today. I went in via the new entrance on Cowcross St and went to buy a ticket. There are only 3 ticket machines and they don't accept East Croydon as a destination despite there being a frequent and direct train service between the two stations without changing trains. It doesn't seem to be that the machines are 'TfL/LUL destinations only' as they were very keen to offer me a ticket to Earlsfield instead.
What's the story here I wonder? Something specifically against Thameslink?
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pitdiver
No longer gainfully employed
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Post by pitdiver on Dec 19, 2019 21:18:00 GMT
When I worked in LUL booking offices Farringdon was one of those stations that no one wanted to work at at. The reason being the Booking Office could sell Br tickets to all sorts of stations with all the different restrictions attached
Things are now obviously vey different
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Post by spsmiler on Dec 19, 2019 23:56:19 GMT
I do not know the full situation here, as I've never thought to look, but it does sound very wrong that passengers might be unable to buy the correct ticket before they travel.
Surely they should (at a minimum) be ticket machine capability for potentially possible fares from here, in the same way that quieter stations may have a ticket machine that can sell tickets to all sorts of destinations (even for trunk InterCity journeys that involve a change of train en route) and pre-paid ticket collections but not a 24/7 staffed ticket office
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Chris M
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Post by Chris M on Dec 20, 2019 1:01:28 GMT
If it's the entrance I'm thinking of, then it used to be advertised as being for ticket holders only. The main ticket halls (LU and Thameslink) will be able to sell a full range of tickets, at least for their respective networks and probably with some overlap. What seems to be missing is signage directing people there for full ticket issuing facilities.
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Post by AndrewS on Dec 20, 2019 11:26:58 GMT
Cowcross Street is the pedestrianised road with a fairly cramped old LU ticket hall on one side and a more spacious modern TOC one the other side. Both should be able to sell tickets to East Croydon; they are actually issued to "Croydon Stations" or "East or West Croydon" or similar, but the inbuilt search function should mean that the relevant button pops up when starting to type "East Croy..." or "E Croy...". I can't think of any reason for it not to work, and it's a popular enough destination that I would expect it to have been raised before now.
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Post by phil on Dec 20, 2019 23:25:59 GMT
Not sure whether this is the right place. Move it if not! I had cause to travel from Farringdon to East Croydon today. I went in via the new entrance on Cowcross St and went to buy a ticket. There are only 3 ticket machines and they don't accept East Croydon as a destination despite there being a frequent and direct train service between the two stations without changing trains. It doesn't seem to be that the machines are 'TfL/LUL destinations only' as they were very keen to offer me a ticket to Earlsfield instead. What's the story here I wonder? Something specifically against Thameslink? Given Earlsfield is a National Rail station served by SWR out of Waterloo and nothing to do with TfL/LU in the slightest then the machines are quite clearly not restricted to TfL/LU destinations.
No idea why East Croydon wasn't available though.
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Post by t697 on Dec 21, 2019 9:29:31 GMT
I do not know the full situation here, as I've never thought to look, but it does sound very wrong that passengers might be unable to buy the correct ticket before they travel. Surely they should (at a minimum) be ticket machine capability for potentially possible fares from here, in the same way that quieter stations may have a ticket machine that can sell tickets to all sorts of destinations (even for trunk InterCity journeys that involve a change of train en route) and pre-paid ticket collections but not a 24/7 staffed ticket office I did actually buy a ticket! Two staffed windows. One had someone who seemed to be on training and not selling tickets. I was front of queue but it still took 5 minutes as the other customer had some long involved purchase of multiple tickets for multiple family members on multiple journeys it seemed. 5 minutes to buy a ticket then dashed to platform, just caught the train and in East Croydon 20 minutes later, no problem. I was just puzzled by the odd and limited choice of destinations from the machines. I tried typing in East Croydon, Croydon - not recognised on either of the two machines I tried. Always offered me Earlsfield... |
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Post by Chris L on Dec 21, 2019 9:48:38 GMT
I do not know the full situation here, as I've never thought to look, but it does sound very wrong that passengers might be unable to buy the correct ticket before they travel. Surely they should (at a minimum) be ticket machine capability for potentially possible fares from here, in the same way that quieter stations may have a ticket machine that can sell tickets to all sorts of destinations (even for trunk InterCity journeys that involve a change of train en route) and pre-paid ticket collections but not a 24/7 staffed ticket office I did actually buy a ticket! Two staffed windows. One had someone who seemed to be on training and not selling tickets. I was front of queue but it still took 5 minutes as the other customer had some long involved purchase of multiple tickets for multiple family members on multiple journeys it seemed. 5 minutes to buy a ticket then dashed to platform, just caught the train and in East Croydon 20 minutes later, no problem. I was just puzzled by the odd and limited choice of destinations from the machines. I tried typing in East Croydon, Croydon - not recognised on either of the two machines I tried. Always offered me Earlsfield... The Thameslink ticket office is covered by their own staff. The machines would be theirs too. I wonder if you could have selected a single to Zone 6. |
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Post by t697 on Dec 21, 2019 13:31:45 GMT
Ah, maybe I should have selected zone 6 then. There are no maps or line diagrams at the ticketing area to guide anyone to know that. If me as an LU/TfL employee doesn't know that, how is the average Jack or Jill supposed to know?
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londoner
thinking on '73 stock
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Post by londoner on Dec 21, 2019 20:03:37 GMT
At least in Farringdon it seems that it is only not possible at a certain entrance. However at Harrow - I don't think you can buy a rail ticket to go beyond Amersham.
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Post by t697 on Dec 21, 2019 23:06:58 GMT
At least in Farringdon it seems that it is only not possible at a certain entrance. However at Harrow - I don't think you can buy a rail ticket to go beyond Amersham. Only the new entrance on Cowcross St at Farringdon seems to have ticket machines for NR destinations. The CW Clark style building entrance to the LUL station doesn't. And as others have confirmed in this thread, the human ticket seller in the new entrance ticket office appears to be working for Thameslink and much more competent than the machines! So I assume LUL staff would direct you to that new entrance from the LUL ones if you asked about tickets to NR destinations. |
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Post by goldenarrow on Dec 21, 2019 23:09:51 GMT
At least in Farringdon it seems that it is only not possible at a certain entrance. However at Harrow - I don't think you can buy a rail ticket to go beyond Amersham. I believe there are special arrangements for Harrow-on-the-Hill offering Chiltern destinations on pink tickets up to Aylesbury. |
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Post by t697 on Dec 21, 2019 23:19:57 GMT
Harrow and the Chiltern route were long ago part of the planned Crossrail route. So we are not quite off topic yet but it must be close!
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Post by Chris L on Dec 22, 2019 7:58:19 GMT
At least in Farringdon it seems that it is only not possible at a certain entrance. However at Harrow - I don't think you can buy a rail ticket to go beyond Amersham. Only the new entrance on Cowcross St at Farringdon seems to have ticket machines for NR destinations. The CW Clark style building entrance to the LUL station doesn't. And as others have confirmed in this thread, the human ticket seller in the new entrance ticket office appears to be working for Thameslink and much more competent than the machines! So I assume LUL staff would direct you to that new entrance from the LUL ones if you asked about tickets to NR destinations. From what I've seen LUL gate line staff can use an iPad to access different types of ticket which can be printed on the machines. |
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Post by superteacher on Dec 22, 2019 10:47:03 GMT
This highlights the confusion of ticketing which for TFL is more of a problem nowadays with the greater integration with National Rail and of course the advent of London Overground.
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Post by Chris L on Dec 22, 2019 20:07:22 GMT
Changed from Thameslink to the Underground at Farringdon this morning. Took the opportunity to check the ticket machines on both sides of Cowcross Street.
All the machines have an A-Z destination finder on the touch screen.
Once selected I typed East and East Croydon appeared in the list of stations on the right of the screen.
Once selected you are able to select the type of ticket you require.
On the way home I saw that the Turnmill Street entrance has two ticket machines of the narrow type. No reason to believe that they will not have the A-Z destination finder.
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Post by t697 on Dec 23, 2019 19:02:36 GMT
Changed from Thameslink to the Underground at Farringdon this morning. Took the opportunity to check the ticket machines on both sides of Cowcross Street. All the machines have an A-Z destination finder on the touch screen. Once selected I typed East and East Croydon appeared in the list of stations on the right of the screen. Once selected you are able to select the type of ticket you require. On the way home I saw that the Turnmill Street entrance has two ticket machines of the narrow type. No reason to believe that they will not have the A-Z destination finder. That's how I used the A-Z selector and typed as well. Must have been some temporary system malfunction, I tried two machines. |
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Post by noddymac on Jan 4, 2020 0:20:37 GMT
As a CSA 2 a lot of my work is with the POM’s (ticket machines). I work at Bank/Monument and I am sure in the past I have seen Croydon come up on the list when typing in a station name. I’ll double check it when I’m back at work.
When covering at Chancery Lane though I’ve people ask me if they can purchase direct tickets to Leicester and even further north from a London Underground ticket machine.
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Post by brigham on Jan 4, 2020 8:29:57 GMT
...When covering at Chancery Lane though I’ve people ask me if they can purchase direct tickets to Leicester and even further north from a London Underground ticket machine. And..can they? |
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Post by noddymac on Jan 4, 2020 9:27:53 GMT
No, they would have to purchase tube tickets to the National Rail station (Kings Cross) then purchase the National Rail ticket from there.
My sister lives in Saint Neots so before I joined LU I would use my contactless to Kings Cross then would have to buy a National Rail ticket for the rest of my journey.
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Post by Chris L on Jan 4, 2020 17:58:29 GMT
No, they would have to purchase tube tickets to the National Rail station (Kings Cross) then purchase the National Rail ticket from there. My sister lives in Saint Neots so before I joined LU I would use my contactless to Kings Cross then would have to buy a National Rail ticket for the rest of my journey. Checked at Farringdon today. You can select Leicester on the machines on the Thameslink side but it then shows no fares available. On the Underground side you can only see Leicester Square. |
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Post by commuter on Jan 30, 2020 11:37:32 GMT
I did actually buy a ticket! Two staffed windows. One had someone who seemed to be on training and not selling tickets. I was front of queue but it still took 5 minutes as the other customer had some long involved purchase of multiple tickets for multiple family members on multiple journeys it seemed. 5 minutes to buy a ticket then dashed to platform, just caught the train and in East Croydon 20 minutes later, no problem. I was just puzzled by the odd and limited choice of destinations from the machines. I tried typing in East Croydon, Croydon - not recognised on either of the two machines I tried. Always offered me Earlsfield... The Thameslink ticket office is covered by their own staff. The machines would be theirs too. I wonder if you could have selected a single to Zone 6. No, you cannot select a ticket to zone 6 on the L.U machines. Such tickets are only valid on L.U.L services as well as Docklands (and on Main Line routes of Joint availability) |
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Post by commuter on Jan 30, 2020 11:39:16 GMT
No, they would have to purchase tube tickets to the National Rail station (Kings Cross) then purchase the National Rail ticket from there. My sister lives in Saint Neots so before I joined LU I would use my contactless to Kings Cross then would have to buy a National Rail ticket for the rest of my journey. Checked at Farringdon today. You can select Leicester on the machines on the Thameslink side but it then shows no fares available. On the Underground side you can only see Leicester Square. There are no fares available from Farringdon to Leicester; you have to buy a ticket with the origin of Zone U1. This is probably why the TLRailUK machines don’t sell them. |
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Post by philthetube on Jan 30, 2020 12:22:52 GMT
Underground machines used to offer Brighton, no idea if they still do.
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Post by bassmike on Jan 30, 2020 19:08:37 GMT
Not everyone has oyster/c/card,d/card,ipod/laptop etc: Why can't you go to a station and buy a ticket with money?
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Post by malcolmffc on Jan 31, 2020 7:07:07 GMT
Not everyone has oyster/c/card,d/card,ipod/laptop etc: Why can't you go to a station and buy a ticket with money? But the number of people without one of those things is tiny, and gets smaller every day. Why should passengers have to pay more to cover the costs of the tiny minority who refuse to move with the times? Oyster has been around for 16 years now. |
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Post by crusty54 on Jan 31, 2020 9:25:36 GMT
Not everyone has oyster/c/card,d/card,ipod/laptop etc: Why can't you go to a station and buy a ticket with money? You can. The ticket machines accept notes and coins (except at Canary Wharf). |
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Chris M
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Post by Chris M on Jan 31, 2020 11:58:26 GMT
And even at Canary Wharf there are at least four other locations within walking distance that will take notes and coins.
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