What if I barge through gates while holding a valid ticket?

[thesignalman]

You can get a Privilege Oyster card. Details here. But only really useful if you use the tube more often than occasionally.

I'm fully aware of that. I live in the Home Counties, so only rarely have cause to use the tube. And it seems every time I do ends in disaster! But that's life, you learn from experience.

J

 

[Sakuradori]

It is. But policy and reality can be different things.

TfL, and probably other operators, grade stations on the time the gates are active for. This is why gates get left unattended. The other thing is the wide gate only gets left open, this fools the gate software that the gates are in use so the station doesn't get a bad mark.

In the London zones, "everyone" is on Oyster and Contactless and there is little need for assistance, so staff get complacent.

This is pretty close. Some mainline stations with gates (at least, the ones managed by NR) are graded on this by the DfT. They keep an average of time the gates are closed and set targets, which is why staff in some TOCs are working longer hours and are being pushed to keep gates closed as much as possible. As for leaving wide gates open, the gates are individually tracked, but one open doesn't bring down the average as much as a whole gateline.

The policy (for my TOC at least) is that if there aren't the minimum number of staff on a gateline, all gates are set to open.

And realistically most retired railway staff aren't agile enough to push or jump!

There's no real alternative for retired railway staff because though because they can't stand around and claim delay repay later. Any case where there is no staff available should be reported as it is a safety hazard.

Exactly this, an operational gateline without any supervision (no staff present, no answer on the video/audio help point) presents a safety hazard and should deserve an email to the relevant TOC.

 

[RPI]

Some are permanently remote control (for example, the newish gates exiting Gatwick Airport to the west).

I seem to recall a station (Exeter Central?) which had a secondary exit (which was pretty much as far away from the main entrance as it was possible to be) where the operator was insisting (to whoever was at the other end of tge intercom) that the passenger come to them to be let out.

Exeter Central remote gates has had a remote help point since it was installed in 2010.

 

[adelante_burns]

This is pretty close. Some mainline stations with gates (at least, the ones managed by NR) are graded on this by the DfT. They keep an average of time the gates are closed and set targets, which is why staff in some TOCs are working longer hours and are being pushed to keep gates closed as much as possible. As for leaving wide gates open, the gates are individually tracked, but one open doesn't bring down the average as much as a whole gateline.

The policy (for my TOC at least) is that if there aren't the minimum number of staff on a gateline, all gates are set to open.

Exactly this, an operational gateline without any supervision (no staff present, no answer on the video/audio help point) presents a safety hazard and should deserve an email to the relevant TOC.

I emailed TfL about Walthamstow Central’s Platform 1 gateline being left closed and unattended with my priv rate ticket being rejected when trying to exit. Interestingly they sent a very apologetic response, explained the rejection was down to a “software issue”, and compensated me £10 for the inconvenience.