Brookwood Ticket Barriers

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The local councillor has found some information regarding the franchise agreement to install ticket barriers at Brookwood

A few people have asked me about the potential ticket barriers that may be installed at Brookwood Railway station and I’ve been gathering some facts before doing anything else.

South Western Railways rightly want to protect their income from the people that bunk the trains. I wholeheartedly agree with SWR doing that. They’ve also made a commitment to the government as part of the franchise that they will improve their performance at collecting fares. This has led them to figuring out where they are most losing money and putting in infrastructure to resolve this. Brookwood station is one of the stations they have identified that they know has a high level of evasion.

Their proposals have pros and cons. I’ll outline the proposal first.

A bank of barriers will be installed diagonally inside the current ticket hall. The existing double entry doors into the hall will be permanently locked. A mechanism will be installed at the cemetery entrance and the ramp entrance on platform one to prevent access with an intercom system in place to allow access. A new entrance will be opened up next to the outside telephone box.

SWR are obliged to man the station from 06:00 to 22:00 where there are barriers. I do not know if this includes Sunday.

Enabling works are scheduled to begin in January with the actual ticket barriers being installed around March.

The only positive I can think of is that the station will be manned for 16 hours a day which may prevent some anti-social behaviour and is certain to stop the visiting drug dealers from using Brookwood as a distribution hub.

My obvious concerns are regarding access to the cemetery, access for people with mobility issues and people with push chairs. I’m also concerned that the Victorian nature of the station won’t be taken into account as some carbuncle is bolted on to the front of the station. I suspect the capacity of the barriers will fail to quickly accommodate half a train alighting at Brookwood from Waterloo and that a significant queue will build during peak hours.

WBC are very concerned about access to the cemetery as are the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The cemetery is Grade I listed and recently won the Large Cemetery of the Year award (who knew?) as WBC’s intention is to restore the cemetery to its Victorian roots as a Victorian park land. A jolly fine job is being done of that by the way.

I am in regular contact with the Regional Development Manager at SWR and have emailed him my extensive concerns. I have also raised my concerns with WBC and to that end, a meeting has been planned between various stakeholders, including representatives of SWR for the 31 October to have a more detailed chat.

That’s everything I know at the moment and I have raised a number of questions regarding the long term viability including a few ‘what happens if’ type questions.

I’ll report back here after the meeting next week.

Cheers.

Kevin

Posted onOctober 22, 2018CategoriesNews

https://cllrkevindavis.me/?fbclid=IwAR05gkkuehSYTzrrzE4xKIg1Y7Z0zA7QT0ezneLClBPWuYeNsPD33D9jXXA

This photo shows a profile of the front of the station. A new main entrance by the telephone booth: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...a335d126952d96f!8m2!3d51.3037523!4d-0.6359786

 

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Since my last post, there have been a couple of meetings in the background to understand what is being proposed.

Firstly, I’d like to say that what I write here is what I know about the proposals. It was disheartening to hear people state that access would be permanently blocked to the cemetery and then saying that the information had come from my blog. I had to go back and check what I’d written to make sure it was accurate. It was. The rumour mill had kicked it, Chinese whispers had distorted the truth and upset people needlessly.

At the end of October, senior representatives from WBC, the Cemetery, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), the American Battlements Monuments Commission (ABMC) and Southwestern Railway (SWR) met up to understand more.

SWR presented their data for determining the proposals and we argued that the data was flawed and that other possible options hadn’t been considered. It was agreed to meet at the station to look at it in more detail. That meeting happened on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, we had an opportunity to examine my preferred option which is to put a gate line (ticket barriers) at Platform Two and a gate line at Platform One. The principal idea was to open up the redundant rooms on Platform Two and use the space. SWR argued this wasn’t possible because of regulations concerning evacuating platforms in emergency situations and regulations concerning the number of people that could pass through the gate line and be funnelled down the stairs. They also argued that if this was to occur, the design on Platform One wouldn’t work currently and that also had issues with alternative proposals. Personally, I think the proposals can be accommodated if the will is there and that it’s 100% down to money as a second gate line will instantly add about £250k before any enabling works are done. The will isn’t there.

The discussions also covered the access proposals to the cemetery and the disabled access to Platform One to fully understand what is being proposed. The proposal is for magnetically locked doors that will be opened by an intercom / buzzer. Crucially, in an emergency or when there is no one operating the gate line, the doors will be open.

The existing foldaway gate at the cemetery entrance will stay in place and continue to operate as it does now.

I thought that even exposing the issue around the gate line not preventing people bunking the trains with people claiming to be going to the cemetery and then boarding a train would carry weight. It did not. We are dealing with a project team that has to implement a solution as per the agreement with the Department for Transport (DfT) when being awarded the franchise. It’s a box ticking exercise and whether it actually improves revenue collection is a secondary matter as far as I can see.

So, where are we then? Well, the reality is that access to the cemetery isn’t being blocked. Access to the cemetery is being controlled when the station is manned and is uncontrolled when the station isn’t manned.

There are no further meetings planned to discuss this. The other thing to note is that the timescales have slipped and it is now summertime next year when SWR are looking to do the work. They have promised to keep me in the loop.

Cheers.

Kevin

Gatelines be expensive...

Best paragraph is the one I've bolded.

https://cllrkevindavis.me/2018/11/16/brookwood-railway-station-update/

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

If only all Councillors were this effective and honest!

 

[A Challenge]

I used the passageway to get through to the cemetery only this month, and it would have been a long way round if I'd had to go round as the barriers had been left unmanned, and before people say it shouldn't happen it will, even if only for the singular member of ticket office staff to have a break, and what if you want to come in the other side, and there's seemingly no way to put the barriers in (beyond one bidirectional wide gate I'd think) in the fenced area.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Gatelines be expensive...

Best paragraph is the one I've bolded.

https://cllrkevindavis.me/2018/11/16/brookwood-railway-station-update/

Is he a Scouser by birth? I don't recall having heard the term "bunking the trains" used outside the immediate area of my city of birth, least of all down South, and even less so in a formal piece of writing!

 

[Railwaysceptic]

". . . . a second gate line will instantly add about £250k before any enabling works are done."

How can they be so expensive?

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

". . . . a second gate line will instantly add about £250k before any enabling works are done."

How can they be so expensive?

Not much competition in terms of other manufacturers. The contract has to include penalties for lateness no doubt (which are effectively priced in then). And the rail industry is not very good at negotiating prices... (not that they have a lot of negotiating leeway here). Plus it's specialised equipment that has to be highly reliable (mechanically speaking, not in terms of the tickets it recognises).

 

[ALAN BYRNE]

Is he a Scouser by birth? I don't recall having heard the term "bunking the trains" used outside the immediate area of my city of birth, least of all down South, and even less so in a formal piece of writing!

You're kidding!! We all used to 'Bunk Off' school , from time to time, back in the long, lost '60's!!! I'm a South Londoner, by the way!

 

[sharpley]

". . . . a second gate line will instantly add about £250k before any enabling works are done."

How can they be so expensive?

Cubic Transportation Systems have signed $2 billion worth of new contracts and business in the last 12 months worldwide so that cost doesn't surprise me one bit. I work for Cubic so I'm not complaining though.

 

[14sutton]

SWR have confirmed on their website which 13 stations are getting gatelines Teddington has been dropped and replaced by Hampton Court


The new ticket gates are being installed at the following stations:

• Fratton
• New Malden
• Portsmouth Harbour
• Hampton Court

• Virginia Water
• Wokingham
• Petersfield

• Windsor and Eton Riverside
• Egham
• Brookwood

• Fleet
• Godalming
• St Margarets
• https://www.southwesternrailway.com...ation/station-improvement-programme/gatelines

 

[Helvellyn]

Surprised Airport Parkway isn't being done but it is probably in the too difficult and/or too expensive pile.

 

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They have leaflets at the individual stations indicating the changes:

 

[swt_passenger]

SWR have confirmed on their website which 13 stations are getting gatelines Teddington has been dropped and replaced by Hampton Court


The new ticket gates are being installed at the following stations:

• Fratton
• New Malden
• Portsmouth Harbour
• Hampton Court

• Virginia Water
• Wokingham
• Petersfield

• Windsor and Eton Riverside
• Egham
• Brookwood

• Fleet
• Godalming
• St Margarets
• https://www.southwesternrailway.com...ation/station-improvement-programme/gatelines

Apart from the Hampton Court Change isn’t this list already as per the franchise agreement?

 

[lewisf]

Hampton Court’s barriers are already in place and live. Have been for at least a couple of weeks

 

[adrock1976]

What was the underlying reason for automatic barriers at Hampton Court?

The reason I ask is that it is 2 stops and a short ride from Surbiton, which already has automatic barriers, as (to the best of my knowledge) the interchanges with London Underground at Wimbledon, Vauxhall, and Waterloo. It does seem like a tick box exercise to me.

 

[A Challenge]

There are no barriers when you change at Wimbledon, but there are stand-alone validators to allow you to touch in (when you've arrived on a paper ticket) on the platforms to transfer to the tube/tram.

 

[TEW]

What was the underlying reason for automatic barriers at Hampton Court?

The reason I ask is that it is 2 stops and a short ride from Surbiton, which already has automatic barriers, as (to the best of my knowledge) the interchanges with London Underground at Wimbledon, Vauxhall, and Waterloo. It does seem like a tick box exercise to me.

You get quite a lot of people who use the train between Hampton Court and Thames Ditton, particularly students off to Esher College. Revenue protection staff always seem busy when they are in attendance at either Thames Ditton or Hampton Court.

 

[Meerkat]

The Brookwood leaflet states that residents and cemetery users (surely visitors would be a more appropriate word!!) will still enjoy access through the station.
Does that mean you have to ask the barrier staff to let you through and then out the other side?
I assume they would then ask for back up if someone went in but not out the other side (curious, not planning evasion!)

 

[A Challenge]

The Brookwood leaflet states that residents and cemetery users (surely visitors would be a more appropriate word!!) will still enjoy access through the station.
Does that mean you have to ask the barrier staff to let you through and then out the other side?
I assume they would then ask for back up if someone went in but not out the other side (curious, not planning evasion!)

Is the Brookwood leaflet available in PDF format on the SWR website, or only as a leaflet from the station?

 

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Work has now started installing ticket barriers at Brookwood. The ticket machines have been moved outside (temporarily?). Very big banner on the fence on London-bound platform showing the plans.

 

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Progress inside showing the skewy barriers. Doors still need swapping sides.