Accessing Fast Platforms

[Meerkat]

My point exactly. These measures are put in place to a point, but not perhaps where most needed due to timetable constraints. The industry paying lip service to certain issues perhaps, but only where it doesn't interrupt the business of the day!

That’s perfectly normal cost benefit trade off. Surbiton might have more staff on the platform on watch.

 

[All platforms]

I have been lucky enough to visit nearly all the fast line platforms (ECML, MML, WCML, SWML, GEML, GWML, Brighton ML, Chatham ML etc) in the Greater London area as part of my all platfoms gig. With few exceptions they are all available to be used during times of engineering and at times of disruption. In pretty much all cases i have experienced, one, (sometimes more) of the fast line gates have been open at staffed stations upon boarding/alighting. Often its just the gate nearest the entrance/exit. Most but not all of the others are unlocked and available too but you have to do operate them manually. Some stations operate a locked gate policy so only one gate is available for use.

With unstaffed stations further out of London its more of a mixed bag and where i am on the first train of the day (nearly always Sundays) i have had to open the gate myself more often than not.

As always with all things railways there are exceptions, and one late night escapade at Wandsworth Common P4 would have seen my me locked out of the station if i had gone the day before. The passenger who alighted with me said that the previous night he had to scale the rather high fence to gain the footbridge with which to exit the station. 2 others with bikes had to scramble back on board and come back from Clapham Junction to alight in P3 which did have access to the footbridge. I thought all London stations were manned until the last train but not the case on this occasion it seems.

Quite a few fast line platforms are not timetabled during engineering works any more but most here would know what these are. New Cross Gate, Hadley Wood, Queen's Park and Wembley Central are all listed in the Sectional appendix (i think) but Acton Main Line, Taplow, Hanwell, New Malden and Esher are not. I may have missed one - apologies.

On Sundays, the gates are definitely unlocked at Wimbledon as I've used them before. Never tried opening the gates on other days though.

I have used P7 at Wimbledon on a scheduled service Sunday mornng post 10am. The gates were specifically unlocked on this visit just 2 minutes before the service was due - possibly as it was a one off use of the platform that day, whereas in the current timetable there is use hourly on a Sunday on services for Basingstoke. I have still to do P6 however but Sunday opportunities do exist i understand so it would make more sense that the gates remained unlocked on Sundays at the moment.

 

[wastedlife]

1W91 05:30 Waterloo-Weymouth calls DFL at Wimbledon
2L10 04:54 Basingstoke-Waterloo calls UFL at Wimbledon
but very few indeed

2L10 is on the slow at Wimbledon. Although I think on Monday it was on the fast because it went up the main rather than via East Putney because of the overrunning engineering works. That was the only time I've been on it when it's gone in on the fast at Wimbledon.

P3 at Surbiton isn't really fast; the down fast doesn't have a platform face. I think I've seen about three trains go through P3 without stopping, all during disruption, over about 25 years. P2 is pretty scary when you think about it, but it definitely doesn't have more staff than Wimbledon - it's a separate subject but Surbiton platform staff are very good at disappearing when they would be useful, hence my complete lack of surprise at the incident last month.

 

[boiledbeans2]

I have used P7 at Wimbledon on a scheduled service Sunday mornng post 10am. The gates were specifically unlocked on this visit just 2 minutes before the service was due - possibly as it was a one off use of the platform that day, whereas in the current timetable there is use hourly on a Sunday on services for Basingstoke. I have still to do P6 however but Sunday opportunities do exist i understand so it would make more sense that the gates remained unlocked on Sundays at the moment.

2tph in the afternoon, when the Basingstoke/Alton service becomes 2tph, so it'll be even easier for you to complete P6!

 

[Sad Sprinter]

Fast line platforms can be weird, almost liminal places. The lack of platform furniture, the desolate feel to them, in fact I don't particularly enjoy using them when I have to. I've only really ever used one, and that's platforms 3 and 4 and Balham. Whist its always novel when one has to alight or board there, the bare, narrow island platforms, can feel quite unnerving when you have fast trains coming by in both directions. It wasnt particularly pleasant having to wait there in the mornings in early 2022 when the slow lines were closed during the resignalling project.

I'm not surprised an earlier poster couldn't get into Wandsworth Common's up fast platform, that platform has been tightly locked for a long time. Even before the other stations on the Brighton Line were fenced off, I think. Wandsworth Common, despite its curiously rural nature, seemed to have a bit of an angsty station presence there. I remember really freaking out a member of staff for filming trains one quiet, summer Saturday afternoon, who made me march to Balham to ask the (largely unbothered) area supervisor for permission to film.

 

[sir_gummerz]

This reminds me of a time about 6 or 7 years ago when I was a teenager. I went trainspotting at Bletchley, and saw a gate that lead to the fast platforms. There were instructions on how to open the gate (along the lines of "push down bar and slide to open) and no warnings saying not to open it. So I went though to film the trains, and the staff came and shouted at me. Despite me saying it wasn't clear I wasn't allowed they were still very nasty to me. With the overkill amount of warnings at most stations, is it not acceptable to think its OK to walk onto a paltform that's got instructions how to enter and nothing to tell you it's closed? I thought it was maybe only shut to prevent children or other things from going into the platform.

 

[jfollows]

2L10 is on the slow at Wimbledon. Although I think on Monday it was on the fast because it went up the main rather than via East Putney because of the overrunning engineering works. That was the only time I've been on it when it's gone in on the fast at Wimbledon.

That’s good info; I was going from the working timetable which is more a statement of intention than reality I guess!