Using station as pedestrian through-route

[dastocks]

I don't think there is another country in the world whose rail system would generate this discussion, what with "bridge passes" and the possibility of being charged for some kind of train journey one never made.

I used to do a touch-in touch-out at Amsterdam Centraal frequently with my ov-chipKaart without being charged anything beyond the minimum fare (from memory, you need to have at least 20 euros balance available on the card when you touch in) which was then refunded in full upon touching out. This is about the only sensible way to interchange between trams and buses at this location. As far as I'm aware this works just about anywhere in the Netherlands; I don't think I ever tried it on a bus or tram but, provided the vehicle doesn't move, I can't think of a reason why it shouldn't work. There are ungated stations, but also a high rate of ticket checks and the penalties for ticket-less travel are high.

 

[Mainline421]

Indeed some stations in the Netherlands also have an equivalent to "bridge passes" so hardly unique to the UK.

 

[pint]

You can currently walk though Nottingham station from the Station Street side to the Queen's Road side, as both sides have no barriers - although the alternative around the front via Carrington Street is not far. I've seen on other threads this bridge is going to have the exits shut off soon (or the whole bridge being taken out of use)?

Thet "walkway" through Nottingham station is a Public Right of Way. A few years back there were plans to stop up ( close) the public footpath over/thgrough the station, but this was denied and it was ordered that the right of way be kept open for people to pass and repass without let or hindrance - this means that they can not install any ticket barriers or stop people to check for tickets etc

 

[Steve Harris]

At Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City the footbridges are available for use as pedestrian walking routes. At Stevenage there is one gateline on the bridge. In both cases the lifts at footbridge level are outside the gateline(s).

You can add St Neots to that list to. As it's the same set up as Stevanage.

 

[Kite159]

At Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City the footbridges are available for use as pedestrian walking routes. At Stevenage there is one gateline on the bridge, at Welwyn Garden City there are two gatelines, one on each island platform. In both cases the lifts at footbridge level are outside the gateline(s).

Add on New Barnet and Alexandra Palace [where the bridge is split into 2 with a "paid side" and "public side" with a gate between them [which is opened when there are events on])

Pretty sure in the old Reading station before it got rebuilt there was a similar bridge layout to allow access to the northern side of the station

 

[Horizon22]

I've never totally understood why TfL don't have it so if you tap into a station then back out within say 5 or 10 minutes you are charged nothing. It's not like you could have travelled in that time, and you're hardly going to give your debit card to someone else.

The way they have set it up is just creating work for their call centre for no logical reason.

This approach would also allow for practical gating of a station like Sheffield with a public right of way over the bridge. You'd then only have to provide some sort of alternative for the very small number of people who do not possess any form of contactless payment card or device.

It is a form of fraud - people tap in & then out but don't actually leave the station. Then they force their way out at the other end, or go somnewhere without barriers.

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

Pretty sure in the old Reading station before it got rebuilt there was a similar bridge layout to allow access to the northern side of the station

Correct, there was.

Kensington Olympia has a split bridge to allow acesss across the line for non passengers.

IIRC one reason York has never got barriers is the access from the city to NRM.

I would think the station subway at Huyton is used a public thoroughfare.

 

[xotGD]

It would be convenient if you could use Leeds station as a cut through to get to Granary Wharf.

 

[YorksLad12]

It would be convenient if you could use Leeds station as a cut through to get to Granary Wharf.

Alas, the southern entrance opened after MetroCards were replaced by MCards. With the ordinary card you could wave it at the ticket person as you entered on one side, and again as you left on the other. With MCard the gate realises you only checked in a few minutes earlier and won't open to let you out (been there, done that, but not for several years now). I don't know how long you have to wait before the system decides you must have gone somewhere. If only there was a pub inside the barrers... you could wait in comfort

 

[D6130]

When I briefly worked as an acting station supervisor at Harrogate nearly twenty years ago - having beentemporarily taken off driving due to a back injury (142s, I'm looking at you!) - the station footbridge was used as a shortcut from the town centre (main entrance - Down side) to the car park and Asda supermarket on the Up side. Now that barriers have been installed on both sides of the station, I should think that this will no longer be possible.

 

[LickeyIncliner]

There are some stations where platforms were lengthened and a former right of way was replaced by footbridges spanning the whole station. examples are Brockenhurst and a very long concrete one at Seaton Junction (added when the station was 4 tracked).

My own local station has a step free entrance each side, but the only ticket machines are on town side, so need to enter station and use the footbridge to get a ticket if using the other entrance, but there are no barriers so non railway users use it as shortcut

Cambridge is another case where there is a footbridge/cyclebridge spanning the whole station (or at least the northern end of it), though as far as I know that was entirely new in the 1980s rather than adopting any earlier right of way

 

[43301]

This approach would also allow for practical gating of a station like Sheffield with a public right of way over the bridge. You'd then only have to provide some sort of alternative for the very small number of people who do not possess any form of contactless payment card or device.

Not sure whether Sheffield is technically a public right of way. I was working in Sheffield a day or two a week last time there was a dispute over it, and so far as I recall the city council had contributed to the cost of the new station bridge when the station was refurbished a few years previously, on the understanding that it could be used by the public to get from the city centre to the Park Hill area. The other bridge is not particularly safe at night due to its secluded location. When EMT (probably under instruction from DfT?) wanted to install barriers it kicked off, and the city council clearly won the argument as there are no barriers.

 

[dosxuk]

There is no public right-of-way across the station bridge at Sheffield (indeed, it's one of the reasons they fastidiously clear and lock the station up each night to prevent one from being implicitly created), however the council was involved with funding the bridge refurb and got assurances that it would be open to the public whenever the station was open. In the end it came down to planning permission and the council would not grant EMT permission for barriers, the secretary for state got involved and the whole idea was quietly dropped, with vague promises about looking again after the bridge just to the south of the station was replaced or upgrade.

That second bridge has now been closed for over a year. The decking was quite "bouncy" in places and had numerous temporary covers added in recent years. There was also constant evidence of vandalism (including burn marks on the decking and the metal wire which roofed it had been cut open in numerous places) and it was blind until you were on the actual bridge, so was a notorious spot for muggings. That bridge does carry a right-of-way, so I'm surprised there is no public announcements about what is planned for it.

 

[43301]

There is no public right-of-way across the station bridge at Sheffield (indeed, it's one of the reasons they fastidiously clear and lock the station up each night to prevent one from being implicitly created), however the council was involved with funding the bridge refurb and got assurances that it would be open to the public whenever the station was open. In the end it came down to planning permission and the council would not grant EMT permission for barriers

There was a similar situation at York, where the then franshisee (this it was National Express at the time) wanted or had been told by DfT to install barriers, which was blocked by the city council declining planning permission. That would have been a particularly difficult station to barrier anyway as it has four entrances.`

 

[Dave S 56F]

Low Moor station can be used as a pedestrian footpath over the footbridge from the sustrans route 66 (a disused railway line now a cycletrack) onto the A638 Cleckheaton road.

 

[Taunton]

I think bridge passes (as they're known) are still used at Guildford. The signs about the extent of their validity are certainly still there (they're valid via bridge but not subway).

I believe Taunton station long ago had an equivalent, in that platform tickets, at a time when they were charged a couple of pence, were issued free there to pass through the subway under the station.

 

[ijmad]

You can enter Southwark tube station on Blackfriars Road to get to Waterloo East station via the concourse, but I believe you'll be charged in the interchange hallway.

 

[John Luxton]

Shrewsbury station has a bridge across the station which is a right of way which links to a footpath on the castle side the path is known as the Dana. There are steps immediately after the bridge on the station frontage side which lead to Platform 3 both the entrance from near the steps and the stair case access Frome the forecourt are not gated. But a gateline exists for access from the central island platforms within the subway under the tracks.

 

[Mugby]

Derby.

The platform footbridge continues through to the Pride Park entrance/exit and is used every weekday by hordes of students who attend the college in what was part of the former loco works. They have a barrier pass for the purpose but that wouldn't stop them accessing the platforms and boarding a train.

Also, the footbridge is used by football fans whenever Derby County have a home game and I've never understood why the facility is afforded to them, the steps either side of the lift shaft are non too wide and if you're unlucky enough to become embroiled in a crowd of fans in full chant or song it can be quite scary. It's also absolutely impossible to buy a ticket at the booking office when the fans are passing through the hall, due to the noise!

 

[Western Sunset]

Off the top of my head, I think there's a public right of way across the footbridge at Merstham. Also, I think at Castle Cary, though with the old footbridge partially dismantled, one has to now walk along the island platform and across the (newish) structure at the western end of the station.

 

[plugwash]

I've never totally understood why TfL don't have it so if you tap into a station then back out within say 5 or 10 minutes you are charged nothing. It's not like you could have travelled in that time, and you're hardly going to give your debit card to someone else.

I presume the worry is that people would touch out but not actually leave the station. If the faredodgers commute was only barriered at one end, this would allow them to only pay in one direction each day and given the way revenue enforcement works with contactless the risk would be minimal.

 

[MCSHF007]

Derby.

The platform footbridge continues through to the Pride Park entrance/exit and is used every weekday by hordes of students who attend the college in what was part of the former loco works. They have a barrier pass for the purpose but that wouldn't stop them accessing the platforms and boarding a train.

Also, the footbridge is used by football fans whenever Derby County have a home game and I've never understood why the facility is afforded to them, the steps either side of the lift shaft are non too wide and if you're unlucky enough to become embroiled in a crowd of fans in full chant or song it can be quite scary. It's also absolutely impossible to buy a ticket at the booking office when the fans are passing through the hall, due to the noise!

A prime example of "empty vessels make the most noise". Some of my very best friends are very keen football fans but would never even dream of strutting around/shouting/"singing"/acting like an entitled knob when travelling to/from their team's games. Ever noticed why this type of football "fan" "sing" louder when in a station subway? They're just like the toddlers that do the exactly the same thing. STFU ("Shut the F*ck up" for any anti-abbreviation police on here)

 

[P Binnersley]

I don't think there is another country in the world whose rail system would generate this discussion, what with "bridge passes" and the possibility of being charged for some kind of train journey one never made.

The subway at Brisbane Roma Street (Australia) has gate passes for non-passengers.

 

[Nev85]

I sometimes use the footbridge through the station at Aberdeen as a shortcut - technically it’s the access from the College Street car park to the Station, and the car park is also used as overflow for Union Square.

There’s also a small access from the Trinity Centre stairs to the station car park/taxi rank which Is a great way to avoid going outside on rainy days, albeit currently blocked off due to ongoing works inside the station.

Neither route crosses any barriers so no issues on that side of things

 

[AlbertBeale]

You can enter Southwark tube station on Blackfriars Road to get to Waterloo East station via the concourse, but I believe you'll be charged in the interchange hallway.

Yes - I'm sure I remember once trying to leave the eastern end of the Waterloo East platforms, after that link down for a connection to (the then new) Southwark Underground was introduced, thinking it would be a useful short-cut to Blackfriars Road. But I found you had to go in and out of tube barriers on the way. I have no idea why it isn't usable as a way to and from the main line station there - there's quite a catchment area (including bus routes on Blackfriars Road) for whom that would be the easiest way to and from those lines rather than going to Waterloo East via Waterloo itself, or to London Bridge the other way.

 

[Taunton]

Edinburgh Waverley is another, the high level walkway across the centre of the station from Market Street, on the south side, over to the foot of the substantial steps up to Princes Street. That used to get a lot of use.

 

[Magdalia]

Cambridge is another case where there is a footbridge/cyclebridge spanning the whole station (or at least the northern end of it), though as far as I know that was entirely new in the 1980s rather than adopting any earlier right of way

Yes, the Cambridge Cycle Bridge was an entirely new route when constructed. But it is not part of the station, though it does span the northern ends of platforms 4-6. It isn't really any different from, for example, the Old North Road bridge over Royston station.

A prime example of "empty vessels make the most noise". Some of my very best friends are very keen football fans but would never even dream of strutting around/shouting/"singing"/acting like an entitled knob when travelling to/from their team's games. Ever noticed why this type of football "fan" "sing" louder when in a station subway? They're just like the toddlers that do the exactly the same thing. STFU ("Shut the F*ck up" for any anti-abbreviation police on here)

There are sound reasons why football fans behave in this way, and asserting entitlement to be there is one of them. Football fans have a very good ear for a good acoustic to obtain maximum effect. And if you ever went to a football match with your best friends I suspect that you would find that some of them turn into quite different people every other Saturday afternoon.

You can add St Neots to that list to. As it's the same set up as Stevenage.

I haven't been to St Neots much since the new bridge was constructed. I'm used to the up side at St Neots being just fields!

 

[alf]

Lingfield Surrey has a public footpath at the country end that used to cross the tracks. It was closed for safety reasons & walkers are now diverted over the footbridge to the other platform & station exit.

The only public access from/to Didcot railway centre is via the gate line & the subway.

 

[norbitonflyer]

There is a footbridge spanning the pltaforms at the east end of Lincoln Central station with no access to the station. This (or a previous structure) was provided when the station was built in the 1840s to preserve an ancient right of way following the bank of the Sincil Dyke, a flood relief channel of medieval origin which is culverted under the station.

 

[robert thomas]

In the 1960s Stockport used to have a machine that issued free blue coloured platform tickets which enabled one to pass through the station from one side to the other