So if you enter and then need to access a different platform you sometimes get stuck behind a temporary barrier and have to go back out and sometimes you don't? That sounds even more confusing. Do the staff move loads of temporary barriers around every 5-10 minutes as trains arrive and board? That sounds like a waste of effort.
If you're arriving off a train from the East or West Coastway service you have no option but to exit the ticket barrier and then re-enter.
How do they know if you've just come through the gate rather than off a train? Surely only someone who saw you come through the gate would be in a position to know. Or do they just take it at face value? Also, it means if you do go through the coastway gates by mistake you cannot access a London train, so you have to be manually allowed out then manually allowed back in?
There are no coastway gates, they only set the central ones to entry. Your other point is valid though, if you arrive from a London train I presume connections to coastway services can be made as they don't know if you've come off a train or through the barrier.
Oh agreed about the caging arrangements for matches, I was caught in it getting home to Lewes - delayed me by at least 30 mins and was fairly unpleasant.
Sorry, what's nonsense?
This sounds very rhetorical
I certainly get the impression that it's weekday and peak time only!
See:
Yeah, last time I was there, that was a Friday afternoon, so basically the height of peak time as far as fare evasion is concerned for them. To be fair though, that is a useful tip, and if I am taking a journey which officially requires a change at Brighton, I will probably go at Weekend if possible. I am not a fan of going through queues, particularly queues created for needless reasons mentioned directly below in this same comment. Fortunately, I have often been able to avoid Brighton, and on a recent trip from Bognor to Maidstone, I avoided Brighton by going via Redhill and into Maidstone West, when the alternative would have been to go via Brighton into Maidstone East.
That would work just fine to be honest, but the problem there unfortunately is that for GTR, that would cost money, and I suppose for them its cheaper to get in cheap, (possibly) agency staff who aren't trained to check tickets, and just are told to turn people away. If they were there for reasons such as security, say if there had just been a series of fights at Brighton station, then that is money well spent. However, when I was there, the only thing the chap was doing was turning people away from platforms 3-8 (I arrived from P2), including an old fellow with a suitcase, probably heading to Gatwick Airport, and forcing him to queue for one of ~6 exit barriers, which won't be enough at the height of peak time considering how crowded trains are in the final leg of a journey into Brighton, particularly from the Coastway lines.
GTR seem to have hired a bunch of rent a mob, the other day I encountered a group of around 10 of these agency staff in security guard clothing on a coastal service who were forcefully demanding tickets from every passenger and very inpatient when it came to an elderly lady who was having issues locating it in their luggage bag. Not sure who has sanctioned this or the reason why, as the on train travelling ticket checking staff are usually very polite and efficient at checking. This on top of the barriers at Brighton which appeared to cause crowding and mean people miss their connections, seems very over the top and not something I have witnessed before whilst travelling across the country?
No idea who they were they looked like a private security firm some dressed in black and some green. Seems a bit heavy handed to physically remove somebody for a ticket infraction but I guess the railway company are the ones who have to justify it, if there's a backlash or complaint.
That sounds horrific. While I do think there should be more ticket checks on trains, given that can mitigate the need for expanded ticket checks at stations beyond the typical gateline, when a train company are literally getting more staff to be actively unfriendly to customers. The checks at Brighton station have already got enough attention from many people, but if they end up with impatient agency staff on nearly every service eventually (obviously not in that quantity), that has the potential to lead to complaints going into GTR, and maybe some people who can drive choosing to do so instead of the train when they know they will be effectively bullied by staff on the train. That contrasts with regular conductors, where they typically are patient with customers, and they don't sound very angry on occasions where they do need to threaten people with a penalty fare if they did end up showing them an invalid ticket or took too long to find a ticket to the point it is clear to them they did not have a ticket.
The funny thing is they seem to have pushed out the minimum interchange time at brighton to 10 mins to accomodate going out through the barriers and coming back in. On my football commute from Appledore or Winchelsea to/from Fratton after a cursory look at the barcode in the bypass lane Im regularly arriving at Fratton 20 mins early westbound and with an extra change (4 min connection) at Lewes an hour early eastbound on the journey planner times.
The 10 minute extended interchange time is a pain as it means Advances using GEx London trains to connect to Moulsecoomb or Falmer don't now connect onto the next train and instead you get a long wait despite being able to make the connection in under a minute from the front coach.
So the consequences for doing something that people on this thread wanted to alleviate passengers missing their connection is now a bad thing because it may affect other people? They simply cant win here can they
It was always 10 minutes for anything involving GX, it was only the reduced 4 minute connection for Southern to Southern that was removed (so it's now always 10 minues).So the consequences for doing something that people on this thread wanted to alleviate passengers missing their connection is now a bad thing because it may affect other people? They simply cant win here can they
Does that involve any checks going through (even at the height of peak times only), such as a revenue protection person (who previously was like "no, go the long way through the barriers!") checking to make sure people do in fact have a valid ticket through Brighton station, given it is technically still possible without doing that, people could still travel from say Aldrington on the West Coastway to London Road on the East, neither of which have barriers.
In my experience, physical tickets are checked. I can't say for certain about m-tickets etc., but I think they are scanned. (I use a physical Season Ticket).
I hope so, every time I travel to St. Pancras on my 1st class Interrail from Brighton it is packed in 1st class both ways. Be nice to know who should genuinely be in there
