Paddington overbridge ticket barriers

[whole diary]

[CE02]

While traveling to Slough on Friday night on the 19:22 HST^▸ (High Speed Train) from Paddington i was pleasantly surprised to find the overbridge ticket barriers in operation the first time i have actually seen them in use. My question is this now a regular occurance or are they only put in to operation on an ad-hoc basis?. Interestingly though many of the barriers on the suburban platforms were locked open eventhough there were plenty of staff around. As usual both of Sloughs barrier lines were in full working order.

Thanks in advance

[devon_metro]

Blimey, that is odd. They were useful in my last few visits to Paddington, no queues and ticket didn't get rejected due to what it was!

[Tim]

I was surprised to discover today that the barriers at Reading are very easy to get round.  I got a lift from the platform and found myself on the "landside" of the overbridge.  What is the point of barriers if they are so easy to get arround?

[CE02]

I know the situation at Reading is ridiculous as is Bath with its alternative exit. The staff at Exeter St Davids must also be the worst barrier staff in the country there are only 4 gates and every time i have used the station the wide gate has been left locked in the open position with the three revenue protection staff everywhere but by the open gate thus allowing anyone without a ticket free access through the barriers. I was actually shocked at how three members of staff could make such a hash of it.

[Tim]

I know the situation at Reading is ridiculous as is Bath with its alternative exit.

At Bath there is usually someone manually checking tickets at the manual gate on teh up side and sometimes on the downside (and there are plans to remove these entrances and allow step-free access via new lifts) , but at Reading there didn't seem to be anywhere that tickets could be manually checked even if staff were available to do so (checking before entry to the lift seems a bit difficult because tehre are multiple lifts) and once you are on the public side of the overbridge you could have come from teh car park rather than the platform.  Reading has been gated for ages so I thought that they might have sorted it out by now.   

[Mookiemoo]

Afaik - it's only the lift between five and eight that goes landside of the gates at rdg.

[Tim]

Afaik - it's only the lift between five and eight that goes landside of the gates at rdg.

Ok, don't normally bother with lifts but had lots of bags for the Railair bus to LHR and Munich

[Ollie]

2 lifts at Reading, lift down to Platform 4 (next to 4a and 4b) and also the lift for Platform 5,6,7 and 8
Both are landside down to platform.

The lifts can be remotely controlled (which is why they sometimes have a delay) and have CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) for the purpose that a ticket could and probably should be showed to gain access, but I have not seen this done before.

[Tim]

2 lifts at Reading, lift down to Platform 4 (next to 4a and 4b) and also the lift for Platform 5,6,7 and 8
Both are landside down to platform.

The lifts can be remotely controlled (which is why they sometimes have a delay) and have CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) for the purpose that a ticket could and probably should be showed to gain access, but I have not seen this done before.

There was a sign in the lift about a possible delay but I hadn't made the connection, and if there had been a delay I would have missed my (unofficial) connection with the bus.

[johoare]

Maidenhead is as bad.. The newly constructed ticket barriers don't include platform 1 and are generally (in my experience) left open and unmanned. 

In fact the Saturday before last  I travelled up to London and back and could have done the whole lot without a ticket.. Although obviously I had one. Maidenhead barriers (well at least the ones on Shoppenhangers road) were open and unmanned. We came into Platform 13 at Paddington and the barriers to the main concourse were open and unmanned. This was lunchtime It was the same situation on the way home early evening.. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

At Bath there is usually someone manually checking tickets at the manual gate on the up side and sometimes on the downside (and there are plans to remove these entrances and allow step-free access via new lifts) ...

Hmm.  I rather get the impression that the staff manning those manual gates at Bath Spa are quite happy to do so - if only because they are 'outside' the station there, so the smokers among them (cough) can smoke.  Or is it pure coincidence that every time I've seen any member of staff there, they've been stubbing out a cigarette just as the train arrives, as they get ready to start checking tickets? 

[moonrakerz]

The staff at Exeter St Davids must also be the worst barrier staff in the country there are only 4 gates and every time i have used the station the wide gate has been left locked in the open position with the three revenue protection staff everywhere but by the open gate thus allowing anyone without a ticket free access through the barriers. I was actually shocked at how three members of staff could make such a hash of it.

Having been to Exeter several times in the last couple of months - I must say that my impression was "why have barriers at all ?"
To get to the "station" cash machine you have to go out to the car park
To get into the buffet/shop you have to be "land side"
I got the impression that there were so many people who were trying to get to/from these facilities from the platforms, and whose tickets wouldn't let them out or in,  that the barrier staff had just found it easier to leave the barriers open all the time.

[Tim]

BTW^▸ (by the way), my ticket went through the automatic gates at Bath, wasn't checked on the train (as is the norm at the moment) , but the coach-driver had an assistant at the kerb side who was looking at then scribbling on tickets before I was let onto the coach.   

[johoare]

A few times I've had to go to the cashpoint at Slough (which is outside near the taxi rank) when I am changing trains there and the staff are always very happy to let me go out (I don't dare ever put my ticket in the machine). It does make me laugh though when two minutes later I reappear to the same person who let me out, and they always look surprised and as if they've never seen me before.. I guess they see so many passengers each day though so kind of makes sense

[devon_metro]

I was at Plymouth the other day, barriers shut ( ), they let me out, but then a few minutes after visiting the shop refused to let me back in 

Odd.