Great Western Coffee Shop

It's been a while now since the improvement works were done at Maidenhead.

For those who don't know, there used to be a "passenger walkway" through from the Shoppenhangers road entrance to the main station entrance that anyone, rail passenger or not, could use..It also enabled people going on into town to go more directly than they can now. The ticket barriers at that point were in one place in the main station ticket office.

(As an aside, also, as part of the recentish redevelopment works, platform 1 was extended with easy access to shoppenhanger's road car park (has anyone ever used that?)...)

Back to the tunnel. This was closed off to the general public, which I can understand in some way since this was private property but for as long as I can remember this had been a public right of way..

But,despite all this,  FGW seem to have gained nothing from any of it.. The barriers at the shoppenhangers road entrance are generally (from what I have seen) open and unmanned (or, even worse, the whole entrance is closed off).. The barriers are before platform 1 anyway.. so give no extrar evenue benefit unless someone can convince me otherwise?

The occasion that made me post this was last week. I arrived back in Maidenhead from London about 7.45pm. My ticket had disappeared into the depths of my bag. I had three choices.. 1. spend a while finding ticket and go through main barrier .. 2..convince barrier people at main barrier that I had a ticket or 3.. just go through shoppenghangers entrance where barrier was open.. I obviously chose 3... Now, I had a valid ticket, but how easy is it to travel to Maidenhead without one now as I proved last week. It's much easier at that time of day than before they did the "improvement" works..

I'm sure someone knows the point of the whole exercise but it makes no sense to me  :)

Dont stress it

I proved last year that barriers dont work

My 1K season ticket reduced to a reading - reading west and and a charbury - reading with a rail card

do the math

Al barriers do is prove you've got something that the computer says yes to

I thought the shutters were there as a means of weather forecasting....Whenever I arrive at Maidenhead in the evening, if it's raining heavily the shutter will be down and I have to walk the long way round to the car park.

Co-incidently, the barriers were in operation this morning. Maybe someone realised they've been open for a while now.

Ticket barriers are something that NR provide (they are the Landlords of all stations) as part of the "improved customer security" required by ORR.  The barriers when in operation need a member of staff to be present my guess is during the day when at times when FGW have a shortage of staff the staff decided to have the Shoppenhanger barriers open to save a lot of flak.

Platform 1 does some to be totally underutilised, when it was needed in the days when the 17:06 Ex Padd stopped at Maidenhead on platform 1 and we all had to leave the train by 3 or 4 doors the extra length was needed.  Bring back the 17:06 stop at Maidenhead the 17:18 has to the worse train for excessive over crowding

I don't see how they have brought about improved security with the closing of the tunnel to the general public though. There have been barries in the main ticket office for a very long time. And the only way to the platforms was through those barriers. All they've done now is the opposite by adding an extra set of barriers that are generally open and unmanned. And they've made lots and lots of people have to walk the long way round to get to where they want to be!

Ha ha.. I think the shutters also predict when people are going to arriving at the station with only a couple of minutes to spare to get onto the platform. They are always closed if I'm running a tiny bit late  :)

I did put the security bit in " " There were a number of comments about the unsavory nature of the public part of the tunnel at Maidenhead Station also there was a very nasty bottle neck cause by the old roller shutter at the bottom of the stair from platform 2/3 which has now gone.  Short of a total demolition job generally I think Maidenhead Station has been greatly improved

But the unsavoury tunnel is still there.. And late at night when the barriers are open, it obviously becomes open to the public. So now half the tunnel has been made all nice and bright and white and behind barriers (that are generally open at one end anyway), and the other unsavoury part is still there... It just makes no sense to me... But I agree I guess they had to make the best of what was there.. I just happen to think that a tunnel which is a public right of way is probably safer than a tunnel that now goes nowhere..

Public rights of way can also be pretty unsavoury ... here is one that I found in the Manchester area when I was up there a few months ago ... it gives access to a station (it's how you cross the dual carriageway above) through that unlit underpass.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/whereme4.jpg)

I will normally be quite brave about places like that ... but in this case,  I took a longer way around and walked a couple of hundred yards along the dual carriageway to a place I felt safe crossing, and where there were lots of people around (all be it car drivers in their cars!)