Will the automatic barriers let you through or do you have to show your ticket? Do the automatic barriers allow you through when you have open tickets that allow break of journey? When I was a student with more time on my hands I used to enjoy taking advantage of the break of journey on return legs of a saver ticket.

My main criticism of barriers is that they're so easy to circumvent if you don't want to pay the correct fare that it's quite easy to do so. If the barriers are there then they might as well be used but the problem is some operators are using it as an excuse to cut staff. The longer the route, the more money that can be saved by fare dodging and without the on-train checks it'll be trivially easy to get through the barriers with the wrong ticket.

Only ever used MML once. Back in 2002 when I used to live in Sheffield I still preferred GNER^▸ (Great North Eastern Railways) to get to London. MML weren't bad apart from their journey times. As a standard class passenger you could walk up to the buffet and get a free coffee. I don't know how they compared in 1st class though.

I agree that barriers are useful for commuter routes where the distances travelled are relatively short and the trains are very busy that it'd be almost impossible to manually check all tickets.

But I think barriers are a waste of time on all long distance routes particularly if they're going to be used by the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) to reduce onboard ticket checks (like NXEC^▸ (National Express East Coast) is planning to do once barriers are installed on the East Coast).

There's just too many ways of getting round it. If they're happy to let you through to see off friends, use a cash machine or board the open access operator that sells tickets on board then you can quite as easily jump on another train and if they've cut back on ticket inspections then you're in for a free ride.

Even if they don't let people through without a ticket and platform tickets aren't available you can easily buy the ticket to the cheapest destination from that station.

I was told last week by staff in the KGX NXEC^▸ (National Express East Coast) lounge that as part of the cutbacks NXEC will be turning all first class lounges self service. Not Newcastle style self service where the lounge is still staffed but you help yourself to drinks but rather Doncaster style where the lounge is totally unstaffed and you let yourself in by holding your ticket up to a camera above the intercom.

I was told that they're looking into letting all first class ticket holders (i.e. advance) into the lounges once again, presumably so they can mention this as an enhancement. In reality it's going to be a disaster. How are they going to keep an unstaffed lounge in a station as busy as KGX clean? It also means that paid for food, alcohol and soft drinks will vanish from KGX leaving only the complimentary offering.

NXEC cutbacks are getting beyond a joke this year. The onboard catering has been cut dramatically, many staff have been laid off and staff morale is very low which kills the enjoyment of travelling by train.

If you've not already, please sign the petition. I know there's a strong chance the petition won't do anything (unless the government are looking for criticism of NXEC) but at the minimum we can get a response from the government about the mess they've made (I blame the government for this mess, they should not have took the highest bid without thinking of the consequences. The amount of money NXEC pledged the government was so high that they'd have struggled even if the recession hadn't hit).

Hopefully the farce of NXEC will mean that the government will take quality of service more into account when making future franchising decisions.

All Govia franchises are now using the Mixing Deck. Southern and South Eastern implemented it late February.

I was using the Southern website to book tickets when NXEC^▸ (National Express East Coast) stopped accepting Amex. Now that NXEC accept Amex again I can use any of the sites.

Thetrainline may have been decent in the 90's, but its stagnation shows what a lack of competition can do.