Transportation
Why the London Tube Wants to Help You Do Your Grocery Shopping
Transport for London is working on a plan to replace its ticket offices with pick-up points for online shopping.
Does London's Underground system have a future as a supermarket chain? Transport for London announced last month that in 2015, it will close the ticket offices in London's 240 subway stations, obliging users to rely on machines alone. Setting aside the other implications of this staff and service cut, the move means stations will suddenly have vacant space. The commercial potential of these former ticket offices is huge, and retooling them as shopping spaces might provide a possible commercial template for transit systems across the world.
TFL are clearly thinking big on this. Last week, a spokesman told the Financial Times that London's transit network has the potential to be a massive "supermarket aisle" for time-poor Londoners.