LNR Euston ticket gates

Warning: there now follows a rant about something relatively unimportant.

Does anyone know why the LNR ticket gates at Euston won't accept various commonly held tickets including (but not only) Super OffPeak travelcards 2 years after their introduction?

Is it just a matter of reprogramming or is there something more going on?

I know it's not earth-shattering stuff but it adds to the congestion and absolutely does my head in when I have to fight my way through the crowds to find someone to let me through!

LNR gates are notorious for not handling tickets

Wonder if they will handle my Advance 1st tomorrow morning..........

It is a minor inconvenience. Just ask the man at the gate to let you through

I agree it's a minor inconvenience if you know and go there first, it's bloody annoying when you've got the scrum behind you and you have to try and get to the gate staff.

DarloRich said:

It is a minor inconvenience. Just ask the man at the gate to let you through

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It's not very minor in the morning rush, though odds on a LO will show up and the barriers will be opened anyway.

DarloRich said:

It is a minor inconvenience. Just ask the man at the gate to let you through

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I know. I couldn't have been much clearer in saying just that. However, it's an unnecessary minor inconvenience as it stems from the fact that LNR just can't be bothered to program the gates properly.

Nippy said:

I agree it's a minor inconvenience if you know and go there first, it's bloody annoying when you've got the scrum behind you and you have to try and get to the gate staff.

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Exactly. Trouble is you never know when your ticket will work and when it won't!

You won't have any problems this morning

Lnr Twitter said:

The #LondonEuston gateline on platforms 8-11 is currently out of action whilst power fault is seen to.

We have been made aware that Oyster readers aren’t working at the moment - please use one of the readers on the other platforms at Euston.

Thank you for your patience.

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matt said:

You won't have any problems this morning

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DarloRich said:

It is a minor inconvenience. Just ask the man at the gate to let you through

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Don’t entirely agree that it’s just a minor inconvenience.

Once in a while is a minor inconvenience, but happening every time one passes through a gateline is a pain in the arse, especially if one is in a hurry for whatever reason.

Bletchleyite said:

It's not very minor in the morning rush, though odds on a LO will show up and the barriers will be opened anyway.

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BucksBones said:

I know. I couldn't have been much clearer in saying just that. However, it's an unnecessary minor inconvenience as it stems from the fact that LNR just can't be bothered to program the gates properly.

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bramling said:

Don’t entirely agree that it’s just a minor inconvenience.

Once in a while is a minor inconvenience, but happening every time one passes through a gateline is a pain in the arse, especially if one is in a hurry for whatever reason.

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It is absolutely a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things and not one worth getting wound up about. I have more than enough to worry about at work and at home to waste emotional energy on something I cant control or fix. You see people loosing their $hit over things like this and it just isnt worth it. How do they cope when the juggernaut of life hits them with problem after problem?

CLEARLY LNWR should programme their barriers correctly but if they haven't, won't or cant why let it bother you? Personally I am more concerned about the bottleneck crush conditions those barriers create. The whole area needs looking at and extending if possible

DarloRich said:

It is absolutely a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things and not one worth getting wound up about. I have more than enough to worry about at work and at home to waste emotional energy on something I cant control or fix. You see people loosing their $hit over things like this and it just isnt worth it. How do they cope when the juggernaut of life hits them with problem after problem?

CLEARLY LNWR should programme their barriers correctly but if they haven't, won't or cant why let it bother you? Personally I am more concerned about the bottleneck crush conditions those barriers create. The whole area needs looking at and extending if possible

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Er.... Bit strong don't you think??

I started my original post stating that it was "relatively unimportant" and went on to say that it wasn't earth-shattering but just a minor rant about a small irritation. Others have then contributed in much the same vein; nobody has let it bother them, much less lost their ****.

Although as to your last point, yes the barriers do cause crush conditions and something does need to be done. However, in the meantime, maybe the congestion would be a little bit less if so many people didn't faff about trying to put tickets through 3 or 4 times when they're clearly not working, then stand there in the way trying to attract the attention of a member of staff.

Perhaps if LNR reprogrammed the barriers...........?!

They should either reprogram the barriers to accept all common tickets or just scrap them altogether.

Mag_seven said:

They should either reprogram the barriers to accept all common tickets or just scrap them altogether.

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LNR have a problem with gates at the moment anyway. The ones at Bletchley refused to accept an Anytime Single from Bletchley to Euston the other day, about as simple a ticket as you can have. It was an e-ticket so not an encoding issue. The barrier staff said there was some sort of programming related issue possibly related to dates.

Bletchleyite said:

LNR have a problem with gates at the moment anyway. The ones at Bletchley refused to accept an Anytime Single from Bletchley to Euston the other day, about as simple a ticket as you can have. It was an e-ticket so not an encoding issue. The barrier staff said there was some sort of programming related issue possibly related to dates.

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There is certainly a problem with the LNWR ticket barriers: They have accepted my season ticket all year!!!!!!!!!!!!

DarloRich said:

It is absolutely a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things and not one worth getting wound up about. I have more than enough to worry about at work and at home to waste emotional energy on something I cant control or fix. You see people loosing their $hit over things like this and it just isnt worth it. How do they cope when the juggernaut of life hits them with problem after problem?

CLEARLY LNWR should programme their barriers correctly but if they haven't, won't or cant why let it bother you? Personally I am more concerned about the bottleneck crush conditions those barriers create. The whole area needs looking at and extending if possible

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I agree that it's one of those things not worth getting too worked up over, however potentially missing a train is not a minor inconvenience. If one has invested in a season ticket primarily for the purpose of not having to be subject to the randomness of the booking office, one should be able to rely on not being held up for a minute or two when entering or leaving the station.

Unfortunately it isn't always a case of just a cheery moment's encounter with staff - it can take time to get staff's attention, they may be engaged with others, or when the manual gate is opened half a dozen other people take the opportunity to barge through.

bramling said:

Unfortunately it isn't always a case of just a cheery moment's encounter with staff - it can take time to get staff's attention, they may be engaged with others, or when the manual gate is opened half a dozen other people take the opportunity to barge through.

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All of which have happened to me, multiple times. So far I've not missed a train as a result, but I've had quite a few close calls.

They can also be one of the 'awkward' staff who insist on seeing you put the ticket through the gate and it failing, before trying to let you through manually - wasting everyone's time, especially if there is a big queue behind you.

Or they may be hiding away somewhere and require shouting into the ether in order to get them to make an appearance.

Or they could be like the rather odd setup I encountered at Newbury a few months ago, where the only member of gate staff was apparently also responsible for selling tickets to passengers without them. I was waiting there at least five minutes while they dealt with a queue of passengers, including one girl involved in a long debate as she was clearly lying about why she didn't have a ticket, before I just went through the wide gate when somebody came the other way, else I may well have still been waiting there now...

Not to mention the time at Bristol when, after my ticket didn't work the gate, I was motioned to go through a gate that had just opened, only for it to close on me while going through, and after complaining about that slightly painful occurrence was told I should have read the sign about how to go through the gate with luggage. A sign that was behind me. I pointed out that I didn't have eyes in my back, and got quite a bit of abuse in return. (Why do you have to carry your luggage *behind* you to use these gates, anyway? It doesn't help if you have a large shoulder bag, as I did at the time. It only seems to be an issue at GWR stations...)

All are annoying scenarios. I've no objection to ticket gates as long as they either recognise valid tickets, or staff on them are sensible enough to deal with people who have valid tickets that the gate doesn't accept, in an efficient and timely manner. Often they are, but all too often they are not.

bramling said:

Unfortunately it isn't always a case of just a cheery moment's encounter with staff - it can take time to get staff's attention, they may be engaged with others, or when the manual gate is opened half a dozen other people take the opportunity to barge through.

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It doesn't help that since manual large gates were abolished there is no standard place to find them, either. They need to permanently stand at one end by the large gate, wear hi-vis or brightly coloured uniforms (e.g. in LNR's case bright green jackets - the VT bright red was an excellent way to attract attention to staff without making them look like a lorry driver or security guard) and there needs to be large and prominent signs clearly saying ASSISTANCE above where they stand.

The M6 Toll etc have this spot-on when it comes to identifying assisted and automatic booths. OK, with a car you can't easily reverse out and walk over, but for maximum barrier throughput this needs resolving for barriers too.

I'd love to do some "people flow analysis" on the railway - so many things are simply counter-intuitive in terms of function and layout. It isn't even obvious which barriers to use in which direction - why not a large green arrow/red X above the barrier rather than a small one on it?

Bletchleyite said:

It isn't even obvious which barriers to use in which direction - why not a large green arrow/red X above the barrier rather than a small one on it?

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Indeed.