Manchester Piccadilly to get ticket gates

[Baxenden Bank]

Is there sufficient barrier throughput capacity, or space on the platform side at Piccadilly, to cope with a simultaneous Virgin and Cross Country arrival on a busy football day? Experienced London commuters may flash through in no time at all, but long-distance travellers, rummaging for tickets whilst juggling bags, babies, cups of coffee and such have a much slower throughput. All finely calculated by the experts no doubt. No queuing up stairs at Stoke, honest guv!

If I may digress slightly, what actually happens when a barrier swallows a ticket which is required for onward travel, how is it retrieved?

I've watched it happen at Stoke. The top of the machine lifts up and there is a track from the insertion slot through to a 'bin' in the main body of the machine. If you were the last user of the machine, your ticket will be either in the track or on top of the neat pile in the bin (or 10 down the pile if the 10th last user).

One key point, which is what got me watching at Stoke, is that the ticket may still be in the top part of the machine rather than the bin. I watched the gate-line assistant searching through the bin pile for a few minutes, before finally looking in the top part and, hey presto, there was the customer's ticket.

If you find yourself in that position, and are in a hurry, a gentle word that the ticket may still be in the top of the machine rather than the bin may speed things along (or make the assistant feel you are a clever clogs and take even longer to find retrieve your ticket for you).

 

[scrapy]

Given both Virgin and Cross country usually use the fast line from Stockport it is very unlikely they will both arrive at exactly the same time there would usually be at least a 3 minute gap which should be enough time to mostly clear the platforms.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The G4S inspectors at Piccadilly rarely even bother to look at the ticket - I could flash anything small and orange in their face and they'd let me through.

I thought STM now had the contract. Have G4S still some operatives in force?

 

[greaterwest]

I thought STM now had the contract. Have G4S still some operatives in force?

STM aren't much better in my experience, so it probably won't make a lot of difference.

 

[ag51ruk]

Is there sufficient barrier throughput capacity, or space on the platform side at Piccadilly, to cope with a simultaneous Virgin and Cross Country arrival on a busy football day? Experienced London commuters may flash through in no time at all, but long-distance travellers, rummaging for tickets whilst juggling bags, babies, cups of coffee and such have a much slower throughput. All finely calculated by the experts no doubt. No queuing up stairs at Stoke, honest guv!


I've watched it happen at Stoke. The top of the machine lifts up and there is a track from the insertion slot through to a 'bin' in the main body of the machine. If you were the last user of the machine, your ticket will be either in the track or on top of the neat pile in the bin (or 10 down the pile if the 10th last user).

One key point, which is what got me watching at Stoke, is that the ticket may still be in the top part of the machine rather than the bin. I watched the gate-line assistant searching through the bin pile for a few minutes, before finally looking in the top part and, hey presto, there was the customer's ticket.

If you find yourself in that position, and are in a hurry, a gentle word that the ticket may still be in the top of the machine rather than the bin may speed things along (or make the assistant feel you are a clever clogs and take even longer to find retrieve your ticket for you).

There are 21 ticket gates including 6 wider ones, and glass screens have been installed at the platform edge for the first 5 metres or so to prevent anyone queuing accidentally going over the platform edge

 

[Mojo]

The barrier arms are retracted by compressed air on the LU design gates. That's why they move so quickly. On newer designs it's electric motors.

Only the original gates that were installed in Zone 1 and also at Stockwell and Brixton are pneumatic (P) gates. I'm not aware of these being installed at any NR stations, except for Kings + Thameslink. The other gates are powered by electric motors.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I can see the point of ticket barriers for local/ metro type services. Assuming you are always going to have ticket checks on long distance trains what is the point of them there?

Whilst the CrossCountry and Virgin services from Manchester Piccadilly might be "long distance trains" most/all(?) of them call at Stockport which is less than 10 Min away, with many trains making further stops within 35 Min at both Macclesfield and Stoke on Trent.

Similar arguments have been made elsewhere, and there are plenty of examples where "long distance trains" effectively make stops within the same urban area or subregion.

 

[pjm0512]

I think theres a sheet of glass to go in where the yellow tape barrier is but otherwise looks completed.

Cheers Watcher for using my photos without permission. Wouldn't have minded if you'd have just credited me.