At Woolwich Arsenal, the only DLR only station with barriers, a few months ago I got to the station and no staff were around at all, and there was no accessible help point either which I could use. I had an expired Zip Oyster card (that were allowed to be used at the end of last year due to the cyber attack) which didn't work on gates, needing staff to let you through. In hindsight, I probably should have bought a ticket and claimed it back, but at the time my friend and I (who had a paper ticket which had been demagnitised) just pushed through the wide-gate which I felt bad about but with no staff manning the gate, there was little other choice (other than buy a new ticket...)
I suppose the only other option would have been to go to the National Rail gateline and ask to be let through.
I do think, however, that if you have a bylaw that makes it a criminal offence to leave the station by forcing through the barrier (and, I think, a criminal offence of strict liability at that, though I may be wrong?), then leaving the barriers closed and unattended without very clear signage advising passengers what to do if the barrier doesn't open as expected, is unacceptable.
Personally I would strongly support deleting the words "or automatic" from the relevant bylaw:
(2) Where the entrance to or exit from any platform or station on the railway is via a manned or automatic ticket barrier no person shall enter or leave the station, except with permission from an authorised person, without passing through the barrier in the correct manner.
If that's thought to create too much of a loophole, then maybe a compromise might be something like:
(2) Where the entrance to or exit from any platform or station on the railway is via a manned or automatic ticket barrier, or via an automatic ticket barrier at which assistance can be readily obtained should the barrier fail to open as expected, no person shall enter or leave the station, except with permission from an authorised person, without passing through the barrier in the correct manner.
I really can't think what legitimate objection TfL could have to such wording, unless of course they're reserving the right to have unmanned barriers where assistance can't be readily obtained, but still may want to prosecute people with valid tickets who don't wish to be held captive in their stations?
