I agree at peak times extra staff are needed but why can't Nexus split up these CSA's? I know they are probably working hard half of the time but you never see them.
You often see a lone Metro officer wondering around the stations doing nothing. As you say they are miserable and rude with my worst experience being at Central when a female officer actually pushed me out of the way and said in a nasty tone 'Smart Card only' so to counter her I did ask when they were going to get their act together with the pop card.
As regards to the barrier themselves they are far too slow to open and people are poorly educated on how to use them. It really does infuriate me the amount of old people who kick off about the system not working when infact it is them as they are either putting the card on the screen instead of the reader or putting the paper receipt on, this could have been resolved one of two ways, spending the wasted money on the stupid Metro Ken builder man on leaflets to explain the smartcard system or getting the under 16 pop card to work 4 years ago when it came around (please pardon the ageist comment) as us younger kids understand and learn new technologies quicker than any other generation and then the pensioners would just follow after us so to say.
And finally to get back to the man being fined, I agree with it as in essence he does not have a valid ticket however his comments are rather distasteful as rarely are the trains unbearably filthy and one should expect to see a couple of bottles on the floor also punctuality isn't too bad from my point of view, although that could be because I don't use morning peak services.
The CSA's can't be split up for various reasons. Mainly, right now they are in teams, so for example you may have a North, South, East, and West team - that's not how it actually is, just an example. Those teams must stay together and can't be split up because then they wouldn't be able to do any revenue work on trains as there wouldn't be enough. I believe each team must have 5 members and so because of the whole mismanagement of this 'project' those manning the barriers have to do so with the rest of their team. So say Paul in North team gets told to do barrier work at Four Lane Ends, that would mean every CSA in Paul's team is stuck doing barrier work for the duration Paul is there.
I've found the barriers to be quite responsive, but other times they just don't want to know. For example, I often touch out and if I'm with someone I'm stood waiting for them for a good 30 seconds because everyone is so slow. I walk toward the barrier touch my pass but just slow down my pace, most of the time I don't have to stop, but when I do it's usually because the barrier is faulty. I have been told by one old guy that I need to slow down otherwise I will break them - I dread to think how he would cope in London.
A lot of people simply haven't grasped the fact that if you keep going the barriers are actually really efficient. The problem is a lot of people stop, touch their card everywhere but the right location, and then when the barrier opens they walk through. I find it amusing how I can do it all in 5 seconds or so (if the barrier is working as it should) yet everyone else seems to take 20-30 seconds if not more!
You're right about the man being fined, but to me he has a valid pass. Most CSAs that I've spoken too have said they aren't going to PF people because the smart card system doesn't work. He's already paid his £1,000 for a yearly pass so should he forget to touch in, it shouldn't be a problem other than a telling off. A penalty fare is not the answer and will only result in people not having any trust in the smart card technology. I'll admit when I got my pass and the first time I used it the validator told me it wasn't valid I freaked, in the end I just didn't touch in, but how many others have been in that situation? As for train delays/cleanliness, trains are delayed quite often in the peak with trains just not showing at all on a very regular basis, there's almost always at least two peak extras which don't run. And the trains are scruffy, I've posted previously about it, but it's getting worse. The bars next to the doors are covered in dirt, running your finger across turns it black. Trains are supposedly undergoing their deep clean right now, I've seen one set which has looked like it's been deep cleaned, floors polished etc. and that's it.
Is the Airport station cross-platform interchange to get on the other train, or is it best to be in a certain part for a quick crossover?
The £4.50 ticket is the one I was planning to get
It's an island platform, so changing at Airport is fine - have a look on Google Images and I'm sure you can get a rough idea of the layout.
For a quick change at South Gosforth to head towards St James I'd suggest the front doors of the second carriage, so those closest to where the trains are coupled. Then it's just straight up and over the bridge to Platform 2.
P.S Could someone tell me whether people were supposed to actually be working at Jarrow the other day, the Platform was closed but their were no maintenance vans and no-one to be seen doing any work, there was work going on at Hebburn though. I don't mind anyway, it's forced me onto the bus which I much prefer since there's a lot nicer atmosphere on board whereas the Metro is very dark and doesn't exactly make you feel safe.
