I’ve just read on the BBC website that London Travelwatch made 130 visits to 57 stations at the end of last year and found that 48% of the time there was no staff presence in ticket halls despite LUL’s assurance that following the reduction in ticket office opening hours staff would be redeployed to provide customer service. LUL dispute the survey claiming that its own research suggested that “staff are present in ticket halls in 98% of visits”.

Last week as I was walking back to the locker room after finishing my shift a passenger asked me where to go for the next train to EPP. When I told her she complained that the member of staff on the gateline had seemed very unsure when she’d asked and that we shouldn’t leave untrained staff on their own. I agreed with her wholeheartedly but did point out that the man I’d just passed at the gateline was a cleaner employed by an outside contractor.

When I returned about five minutes later he’d gone leaving the barrier unmanned. I suppose no information is better than the wrong information.