LNR (WMT) ticket office at Euston to close

[AlterEgo]

It sounds like a convenient excuse for closing an unremunerative ticket office.

Yes, I agree.

 

[Ianno87]

Yes, I agree.

If it's unremunerative, what's the point of it?

 

[Bletchleyite]

If it's unremunerative, what's the point of it?

The point of it was providing a more convenient ticket office to users of suburban services. However...

1. It's in the way of widening the ramp, and the queueing area provides a further obstruction;
2. It's not well-used (and only really was in recent years when it did Oyster);
3. Usage of ticket offices is declining anyway;
4. Most people travelling on LNR are travelling to London as part of a return journey, not from it;
5. Suburban services make more use of other platforms these days, so it's no longer a dedicated "station within a station" like it was.

So overall, there probably is no point of it any more, and because of the ramp thing it's actively negative rather than just a bit useless.

 

[Watershed]

If it's unremunerative, what's the point of it?

Perhaps nothing at all in today's world.

But it wouldn't hurt them to at least go through the motions of the consultation properly - rather than admitting upfront that it's just a box-ticking exercise.

I imagine this will be one of many ticket office closures in coming years. No matter how replaceable this ticket office is, we can't let the precedent be set that consultation exercises can be approached with closure as the only possible outcome.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Perhaps nothing. But they could do with pretending the consultation is more than a box-ticking exercise.

I can't see that there is any justifiable reason to retain it, so like the formal closure of some obscure freight siding somewhere that hasn't been used for years and has never had and will never have a passenger service by virtue of being nowhere near anywhere anyone wants to go to and from, it probably is fine for it to be a box-ticking exercise.

The station has a staffed ticket office run by Avanti anyway - it's not like we're talking about a destaffing.

 

[AlterEgo]

If it's unremunerative, what's the point of it?

Well that’s why it’s closing. It’s been there since God knows how long - ticket buying habits have changed a lot.

 

[Chriso]

The big Smiths by the ramp down to platform 8-11 has also closed which I’m guessing is all linked. The other branch by the M & S entrance is still open

 

[Bletchleyite]

The big Smiths by the ramp down to platform 8-11 has also closed which I’m guessing is all linked. The other branch by the M & S entrance is still open

Yep, all that retail (Smiths, Costa and the small Marks) is built on the ramp - it's all being removed to open out the full width of the ramp, which is roughly twice the width it is now (same as 4-7 and 12-15).

 

[philthetube]

Perhaps nothing at all in today's world.

But it wouldn't hurt them to at least go through the motions of the consultation properly - rather than admitting upfront that it's just a box-ticking exercise.

I imagine this will be one of many ticket office closures in coming years. No matter how replaceable this ticket office is, we can't let the precedent be set that consultation exercises can be approached with closure as the only possible outcome.

Lets pay a few more lawyers to have a box ticking exercise when the result is inevitable rather than just calling it a box ticking exercise then?

 

[island]

I think London Bridge still has a small second ticket office run by GTR near the terminating platforms, unless that has closed?

I used to use it to get season ticket re-encodes because only the original issuing TOC is prepared to do that, and my home station at the time often had queues a the office in the morning, and was closed contrary to its supposed opening hours many evenings.

Yes, that’s still around as far as I know.

I purchased a ticket at Euston LNR ticket office on Saturday and noticed this. Quite sad as I always found this ticket office quite efficient and quick at serving customers.

I think this closure will just leave Glasgow Central, Edinburgh, St Pancras and Stevenage as the only stations on the network with two ticket offices operated by different TOCs

I seem to recall Kings Cross having a Great Northern booking office in the vicinity of platform 8, but it may have closed previously.

Do Ebbsfleet and Ashford count? I suppose Eurostar’s not a TOC per se…

 

[Wolfie]

The point of it was providing a more convenient ticket office to users of suburban services. However...

1. It's in the way of widening the ramp, and the queueing area provides a further obstruction;
2. It's not well-used (and only really was in recent years when it did Oyster);
3. Usage of ticket offices is declining anyway;
4. Most people travelling on LNR are travelling to London as part of a return journey, not from it;
5. Suburban services make more use of other platforms these days, so it's no longer a dedicated "station within a station" like it was.

So overall, there probably is no point of it any more, and because of the ramp thing it's actively negative rather than just a bit useless.

Unless things have changed recently Avanti ticket machines at Euston don't sell LNWR/WMT only tickets. Closure of the LNWR ticket office, and presumably also removal of the LNWR ticket machines as l imagine that they are supported from the ticket office, will mean that anyone who hasn't pre-booked is lumbered with the often very lengthy queues at the main Avanti ticket office. Given Avanti's (and, to be fair, Virgin before them) track record of "obeying" the rules at Euston l wonder how impartial retailing will fare....

 

[Hadders]

Perhaps nothing at all in today's world.

But it wouldn't hurt them to at least go through the motions of the consultation properly - rather than admitting upfront that it's just a box-ticking exercise.

I imagine this will be one of many ticket office closures in coming years. No matter how replaceable this ticket office is, we can't let the precedent be set that consultation exercises can be approached with closure as the only possible outcome.

They are having a consultation, it's just that WMT appear to have decided to close it before the consultation officially closes.

That is not acceptable, however justifiable the closure of the ticket office is.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Unless things have changed recently Avanti ticket machines at Euston don't sell LNWR/WMT only tickets.

I'm almost certain they do, but if they indeed don't that needs to be fixed, regardless of what that ticket office does or doesn't do.

If it doesn't get fixed, a couple of LNR TVMs need adding to the main ticket office, and that would mostly solve it; it doesn't require the staffed booking office that is in the way on the ramp to remain open.

(I'd likely oppose its closure otherwise - but the ramp is a massive problem and the widening will help massively, and it just won't be as useful relocated somewhere else)

 

[kieron]

I think this closure will just leave Glasgow Central, Edinburgh, St Pancras and Stevenage as the only stations on the network with two ticket offices operated by different TOCs

Liverpool Lime Street has Merseyrail and Northern ticket offices, I think.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Liverpool Lime Street has Merseyrail and Northern ticket offices, I think.

That it does, but de-facto they are really two separate stations and more comparable to Euston Avanti vs. Euston LU. Yes, I know LU no longer have ticket offices, but I mean when they did

 

[Haywain]

They are having a consultation, it's just that WMT appear to have decided to close it before the consultation officially closes.

I would suggest that WMT have probably been given little choice in the timing by their landlord.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I would suggest that WMT have probably been given little choice in the timing by their landlord.

And any workaround to that they could have used, such as putting it in a Portakabin for a week or two, would be a total waste of money.

 

[ScottGallagher]

Just out of interest Are the Burger King and Upper Crust kiosks next to platform 7 also built on an old ramp? if so is the future bleak for those too?
I always thought there were green LNWR ticket machines in the main ticket office as you walk in near the Avanti ticket retieval machines perhaps they are collection ones too.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Just out of interest Are the Burger King and Upper Crust kiosks next to platform 7 also built on an old ramp? if so is the future bleak for those too?

No, the other ramps are still full-width, it was only that one that was narrowed. Which at the time was fine - passenger volumes have increased massively, as has the actual usage (in terms of number of trains) of those platforms due to the loss of 17 and 18 for HS2 construction. (Isn't 16 going too?)

I always thought there were green LNWR ticket machines in the main ticket office as you walk in near the Avanti ticket retieval machines perhaps they are collection ones too.

I thought there were too but I half recall them having been removed when they redid it. They might have gone back though, if they have this solves the problem.

 

[ScottGallagher]

No, the other ramps are still full-width, it was only that one that was narrowed. Which at the time was fine - passenger volumes have increased massively, as has the actual usage (in terms of number of trains) of those platforms due to the loss of 17 and 18 for HS2 construction. (Isn't 16 going too?)



I thought there were too but I half recall them having been removed when they redid it. They might have gone back though, if they have this solves the problem.

Thanks Bletchleyite.
I was at Euston in October and the machines were there then.

I was always surprised that there were two WH Smith's in sight of each other, Euston isn't that big to warrant it, won't miss one bit, just an awful dreary chain of shops wherever you go but that's another topic.

 

[LowLevel]

Thanks Bletchleyite.
I was at Euston in October and the machines were there then.

I was always surprised that there were two WH Smith's in sight of each other, Euston isn't that big to warrant it, won't miss one bit, just an awful dreary chain of shops wherever you go but that's another topic.

One was probably a John Menzies until the 90s, that is the usual reason for WHS duplication on stations.

 

[_toommm_]

One was probably a John Menzies until the 90s, that is the usual reason for WHS duplication on stations.

There was 3 in Manchester Piccadilly up until a year or two ago.

 

[ScottGallagher]

One was probably a John Menzies until the 90s, that is the usual reason for WHS duplication on stations.

Yes there was one. In fact Euston has had many alterations in my lifetime. I still remember the gazebo style glass shops on the concourse built around the pillars in the 80s, one was a sock shop I think.

 

[Andrew1395]

There used to be a John Menzies at the gate line between the entrance to 11/10 and 9/8 at Euston, underneath the suburban Solari board.That disappeared with the rebuild in the very late 1980s early 19990s.The main WH Smith used to the one next to the food court. There was a tiny little one at the entrance to the ramp to platform 11. This was about the size of the Burger King at the top of ramp entrance to platform 7.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There used to be a John Menzies at the gate line between the entrance to 11/10 and 9/8 at Euston, underneath the suburban Solari board.

That must have been tiny. Was it just a classic newspaper kiosk style arrangement? (I recall there was a Costa in that sort of position in the middle between 4-5 and 6-7)

 

[Hadders]

I understand that the Department for Transport has instructed WMT not to close the ticket office on 26th March.

 

[PG]

I understand that the Department for Transport has instructed WMT not to close the ticket office on 26th March.

Must have been reading the thread...

 

[RJ]

Like I said before, the way things are being done isn’t right.

The company is trying to close the office permanently on the back of some works allegedly - and had a notice pinned up in public view from February declaring it would be closed permanently. Yet the consultation only appeared online on the 8th March, to close on the 29th March, after the stated date of closure.

I’d say it’s pointless having a procedure for ticket office closures if TOCs can just ride roughshod over them, but it looks like in this case there has been some intervention.

 

[Hadders]

Like I said before, the way things are being done isn’t right.

The company is trying to close the office permanently on the back of some works allegedly - and had a notice pinned up in public view from February declaring it would be closed permanently. Yet the consultation only appeared online on the 8th March, to close on the 29th March, after the stated date of closure.

I’d say it’s pointless having a procedure for ticket office closures if TOCs can just ride roughshod over them, but it looks like in this case there has been some intervention.

I totally agree with this. It's not the closure itself that is the issue, rather the way WMT are riding roughshod over the correct process.

It appears that someone has complained about the consultation closing after the closure which has resulted in the DfT instructing WMT that they cannot close the ticket office on the 26th.

 

[infobleep]

I totally agree with this. It's not the closure itself that is the issue, rather the way WMT are riding roughshod over the correct process.

It appears that someone has complained about the consultation closing after the closure which has resulted in the DfT instructing WMT that they cannot close the ticket office on the 26th.

I wouldn't be surprised if some manager thought they could ignore legalities of this to get the thing done more quickly.