Taunton station ticket barriers - what is going on?

[Upton]

Yesterday I came by train to visit Taunton. Having got off the Bristol train to come out of the station on the south side, my ticket was rejected at the barrier. There was no one manning the barrier, so I decided to exit the station on the north side. The same thing happened at these barriers too. This time there was someone manning the barriers and he manually opened the barriers after looking at my ticket and taking it off me. Coming back from visiting the town I tried to go back into the station on the south side. I did see someone go through the barriers ahead of me, so thought they were working properly. Yet again the same thing happened, this time with a different ticket. Rather than walking all the way round to the north entrance, and as no one was manning the barriers, I used the intercom. I had to show my ticket on a screen at the right height and distance before the barriers were opened for me. Is this a problem that other travellers have had at Taunton? Is it the machine or the ticket that is at fault? I did buy both tickets in advance from a ticket machine. Could this be the problem?

 

[thejuggler]

If it is a magnetic strip ticket chances are it is a fault with that rather than the machine - from my experience rejection rate is far higher than the newer aztec scanning system.

 

[Hadders]

Tickets can be rejected by barriers for all sorts of reasons. It could be a faulty magstripe but just as likely is that at some stations all Advance tickets are rejected so they can do a manual check to make sure you're on the right train. Sometimes they also set railcard discounted tickets to reject to they can check the railcard.

Barriers should always be manned if they are in operation, or at least be connected via a video link.

Contrary to popular belief ticket barriers are not 'intelligent' and do not determine ticket validity.