Is Gatwick gated ?

[PhilipW]

Is Gatwick gated - In and out ?


With all the luggage, foreigners and many languages, it must be fun, if it is

 

[Pumbaa]

No - neither way!

 

[SWT Driver]

Why do you ask?

Not thinking of trying a little fare evasion are you? hock:

 

[yorkie]

Why do you ask?

Not thinking of trying a little fare evasion are you? hock:

I don't think that's a fair suggestion at all, it could be seen as slanderous.

It is a well advertised fact that you can buy on board Gatwick Express, so it would be very difficult to gate the station given the layout of it (although theoretically possible if they segregated it). It would be absurd to suggest that people who intend to buy on board are intending to fare evade!

Many people dislike barriers, because of the congestion and other problems that they cause. They are extremely awkward for people with lots of luggage, large groups on group tickets, people with bikes, people using ticket such as Rovers, Rangers, PTE products, etc...

And the people who man the barriers are not infrequently obstructive toward genuine passengers (e.g. denying the right for break of journey, claiming routes are invalid when in reality they don't even know what the RG is!), and they can't even do anything to the most determined dodgers as they have no powers to actually do anything.

I think most people accept, reluctantly, that they are pretty much essential on suburban railways with large numbers of people on standard tickets, but for Inter-City type stations they are inappropriate.

To even things up, I'd like to see barriers at the entrance to all motorways to ensure the users of them have valid insurance, have paid for their fuel (and not got it from some dodgy source to avoid tax), have a valid license, and a valid MOT. These barriers would operate at busy times but late at night when all the dodgy characters go on to the roads, the barriers would be let open. Anyone opposing the barriers would be labelled a tax dodger ...

 

[PhilipW]

Why do you ask?

Not thinking of trying a little fare evasion are you? hock:

No, I don't mind you asking. Because of the vagaries of the British ticketing system, I find that it is cheaper to book further along the line to London Victoria than to Gatwick. I am therefore planning to get off the train early. Apparently with a walk-on ticket that is fine.

If however, one does the opposite and stayed on for a few more stations, I would feel deeply uneasy about it and would feel that I was doing something immoral and wrong. That would be the feeling I would have even if I knew that the fare to the further station was cheaper.

It's a strange world we live in. I only wish we could have a sensible ticketing system where cost is related to distance.

 

[SWT Driver]

@PhilipW.

I'd like to apologise unreservedly if what I said earlier caused you any offence.

SWT

 

[PhilipW]

@PhilipW.

I'd like to apologise unreservedly if what I said earlier caused you any offence.

SWT

No problems. I took no offence. Thanks for the above comments; I appreciate the thoughfullness behind it.

Barriers have their uses, I know. But sometimes they do reject valid tickets and you can be in the position of having to explain yourself. If you anticipate that, it is best to be prepared. Hence my question. I have had situations before where I have had to explain myself. I really don't like it. It creates a great feeling of "us" and "them" between passenger and train company which is not how train travel should be.

As I said before, I really wish ticket prices could be simpler and reflect clearly the distance travelled. So if you travel just one stop beyond beyond your ticket destination, you are doing something wrong because you are travelling a distance that you have not paid for. For the opposite, if you get off early (on any type of ticket), then you are not doing anything wrong and the only loser (if you want to use that word) would be you because you have paid extra for a distance that you have not used.

However I realise that my wish will not come true ....