Barriers and staff are never going to be foolproof in preventing the hardened fraudster, but it IS likely to reduce somewhat the level of ticket evasion. I know for a fact that at Blackburn station it is possible to use just any old ticket and wave it at the staff and to be fair I can understand it to a certain extent when you have got 200 people piling through a small ramp.
Ticket barriers would certainly prevent the large scale of people getting on at Mill Hill and not paying to Blackburn and I can only imagine there are enough similar situations across the UK.
Gateline staff at Blackpool for instance are fairly good at spotting dodgy tickets (seen a few day tripping scrotes being held up there with bum tickets) and on the times when my own ticket hasnt gone through the machine, it is scrutinised quite closely.
As I said, barriers won't stop it all and with bad staff who dont care, it wont change a thing. But not all gateline staff are bad and not all fakers are that good.
