Approaching ticket barrier with no ticket.

[beeza1]

A couple of weeks ago I travelled to BHM, my friend met me on the platform, as she always does, she entered the station via the main entrance where the ticket barriers were unmanned which meant she could not get a platform ticket, she proceeded to the platform to await my arrival, I can't remember which platform we arrived on, but we exited via the Victoria Street (I think) exit, where there was a ticket check in place, unusual at this exit I am led to believe, my ticket was checked, she explained she had met me on the platform and we were allowed through, the Inspector was a very pleasant employee of LM, unlike some of the downright rude and offensive employees of G4S I have come across.
What would have happened if they had not believed her, and is there anything she can do to prevent any misunderstanding in the future?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Buy a platform ticket from the booking office at New St?

 

[crosscity]

Buy a platform ticket from the booking office at New St?

I'm not sure there is such a thing as a platform ticket at New St (I would be pleased if there is).

Cheapest fare is a single to Adderley Park or Duddeston (£1.60), which will give legal access to the platforms.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

But wouldn't allow her off again

 

[GadgetMan]

is there anything she can do to prevent any misunderstanding in the future?

In future, exit the same way she enters. When LM are short of barrier staff they move them between the main entrance and the Navigation street entrance. So only one of them is manned at any time. She would have to be really unlucky to find the barrier staff move from one entrance to another in between entering and exiting.

 

[johnnychips]

Take a photo of a clock with some other features that show it is obviously New Street before she enters?

Just thought - you need to do this with the phone mode that shows time and date.

 

[Flamingo]

How about she waits for you outside the barrier? Just a thought.

 

[dave4jackie]

I'm not sure there is such a thing as a platform ticket at New St (I would be pleased if there is).

Cheapest fare is a single to Adderley Park or Duddeston (£1.60), which will give legal access to the platforms.

You can buy a platform tkt from any station that has got a ticket machine

 

[transportphoto]

You can buy a platform tkt from any station that has got a ticket machine

Incorrect. It is in theory possible from any ticket office, however not ticket machines. Also getting a clerk willing to issue them too is a different matter.

TP

 

[steadmane]

My wife is disabled and I asked the guard at the barrier at Waterloo East if I could see her onto the platform and get her on the train. No problem. Ten minutes later I return and it is no longer the same guard. Cue the most incredible questioning- but it was almost as if it was personal and I was trying to "get one over" on this guy. I even had the name of the guard that let me through - to which he replied "No one works here called that."

 

[beeza1]

You don't have to "buy" a platform ticket, you pick one up from the staff at the ticket barrier,and give it them back when you leave, she has done this lots of times, as I have at "my end". If, as I originally posted there is no one there what are you supposed to do?
As for the comment "meet her outside the barrier", how is she supposed to know which exit I will be using? there is so much work going on at New Street at the moment untill you actually arrive you don't know which exit is most convenient, plus the phones don't work down in the "rabbit warren". As a footnote neither of us has a phone that will take photos, so that is not an option.

 

[D2022]

How about she waits for you outside the barrier? Just a thought.

How about we be allowed to go onto platforms as has been the practise since trains began without being treated like some sort of terrorist?

I regularly meet my other half off the train and go up to the platform, but asking to do so is like confessing you have a bomb or plan to travel all day in 1st class without paying. I often get bombarded with questions when I do so, even been told to buy a ticket for the journey just to get on the platform. It's disgusting to think we live in such a paranoid and nanny style state we aren't allowed basic rights to meet loved ones who have travelled in my case a long way.

Best bit is we have a disabled gate on one of the platforms and I know the code, they refuse and I simply can go up there and get in anyway.

 

[jon0844]

Where did terrorism come into it? It's about revenue protection! Just ask staff or get a platform ticket.

Try meeting someone as they step off a plane, airside, and tell me how you get on with that. Is that our nanny state too?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[johnnychips]

Where did terrorism come into it? It's about revenue protection! Just ask staff or get a platform ticket.

Try meeting someone as they step off a plane, airside, and tell me how you get on with that. Is that our nanny state too?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

You're half-right. You don't need immigration controls off 99% of trains, but of course it is revenue protection, not terrorists.

I'd love it if Brief Encounter had taken place on the Jubilee Line with smeared lipstick on the closing plastic doors...

 

[D2022]

Where did terrorism come into it? It's about revenue protection! Just ask staff or get a platform ticket.

Try meeting someone as they step off a plane, airside, and tell me how you get on with that. Is that our nanny state too?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

I'm not saying it is or ever will be, I'm simply making the point of how you get treated if you ask to get on some platforms.

 

[Lrd]

Best bit is we have a disabled gate on one of the platforms and I know the code, they refuse and I simply can go up there and get in anyway.

Are you meant to know the code? Or is it for use by staff only?

 

[LE Greys]

Where did terrorism come into it? It's about revenue protection! Just ask staff or get a platform ticket.

Try meeting someone as they step off a plane, airside, and tell me how you get on with that. Is that our nanny state too?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

People could actually do that at Heathrow up until about 1976 or so. Then it all went wrong!

 

[cjp]

How about we be allowed to go onto platforms as has been the practise since trains began without being treated like some sort of terrorist?

It's disgusting to think we live in such a paranoid and nanny style state we aren't allowed basic rights to meet loved ones who have travelled in my case a long way.

Since when has such an action been a right let alone a basic right?

Get real the world does not turn around you (or me for that matter), stop reading the tabloid papers and and ranting like tabloid paper reported trying to stir things up.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

People could actually do that at Heathrow up until about 1976 or so. Then it all went wrong!

Go back a little bit earlier until late 1972 ( Dawson's Field ) and the perimeter fence at Heathrow was literally nothing more than a low wooden barrier fence of the sort commonly seen in country parks today. I am just about old enough to remember that as a 5 year old being taken there and watching Pan Am 747s etc taking off from that fence line.

 

[jon0844]

I'm not saying it is or ever will be, I'm simply making the point of how you get treated if you ask to get on some platforms.

You don't get treated like you're a terrorist though. That is unless the policy is to assume someone without a ticket is a terrorist (and therefore someone with one can't be). Totally flawed logic, based on an exaggeration about basic rights and how you're treated. Clue: you're not treated like a terrorist, or else you'd be stopped, searched and possibly arrested.

Yes, I can accept some gateline staff can be rude - but drop the terrorism/nanny state nonsense!

I can see how it might be a problem if you've entered a protected platform without a ticket and then get stopped coming back out. Can you imagine if you had to assume that everyone without a ticket was innocent until proven guilty? That's why there's the byelaw offence - and a risk you'd take by entering a station without a ticket, or having asked anyone for permission, or getting a platform ticket (or any other ticket).

 

[Lewisham2221]

But wouldn't allow her off again

Surely you couldn't stop somebody who had purchased a ticket and gone 'railside' from:

a) Changing their travel plans - travelling later or not at all;

b) Going back through the barriers to use 'landside' station facilities?

 

[34D]

Incorrect. It is in theory possible from any ticket office, however not ticket machines. Also getting a clerk willing to issue them too is a different matter.

TP

Is anyone able to provide instructions on how to request this, or does it vary?

There will always be people wanting to access platforms, either to meet people who are uncomfortable with navigating a big station alone or due to access needs, aas well as those who wish to watch trains.

 

[bb21]

Is anyone able to provide instructions on how to request this, or does it vary?

There will always be people wanting to access platforms, either to meet people who are uncomfortable with navigating a big station alone or due to access needs, aas well as those who wish to watch trains.

Just ask at the ticket office for a platform ticket. Not all stations require them, only at CTAs iirc.

Some stations might get you to sign in rather than issue a platform ticket, or you might just be let through by barrier staff depending on local instructions.

If there was no staff then I don't see why you can't just access the platforms. When exiting the station, simply explain that when you entered there was no one there to ask. Station staff should be able to verify whether your story is true or not if they want.

 

[Condor7]

Does anyone know the best way to get on the platform at Leeds?

Do the barrier staff provide a platform ticket, or is it best to ask at the booking office?

 

[bronzeonion]

Platform ticket is abit over the top to be honest, she isn't travelling anywhere so why would anyone need to pay?

 

[bb21]

Does anyone know the best way to get on the platform at Leeds?

Do the barrier staff provide a platform ticket, or is it best to ask at the booking office?

I believe that the ticket office at Leeds sells platform tickets.

 

[snail]

As for the comment "meet her outside the barrier", how is she supposed to know which exit I will be using? there is so much work going on at New Street at the moment untill you actually arrive you don't know which exit is most convenient

Why is it so important to meet those few seconds earlier? Even with the disruptions at New St it shouldn't be so difficult to think of a suitable meeting point outside the station.

It's different at a small station or if someone needs assistance, that's what platform tickets should be for. And before you tell me 'it's her right' to be able to meet you on the platform, just think what it would be like if everyone meeting passengers decided to hang around on the platforms...

 

[neilmc]

When I used to train spot at Leeds in the 1960s there was a machine which only sold platform tickets for about 3d, this was normal at major stations and anyone could buy one, or you waited behind the barrier. What was so difficult about that?

 

[Eagle]

Surely you couldn't stop somebody who had purchased a ticket and gone 'railside' from:

a) Changing their travel plans - travelling later or not at all;

b) Going back through the barriers to use 'landside' station facilities?

Automatic barriers do prevent this though. I've had a couple of times at barriered stations where I've wanted to put a bike or heavy luggage in the back of a train that's 20 minutes from departing, then go back outside to quickly get something to eat. The barriers don't like you trying to go through them three times on the same ticket (luckily the staff are totally okay with it).

 

[jon0844]

Don't most big Network Rail operated stations have meeting points? The good thing about those (although at Hatfield, it's on the platform after the gates!) is that everyone can ask where it is and you can't get lost.

Meeting on the platform isn't always great (ignoring the already raised issue of how to cope if everyone did it). I've missed people when the whole train turfs out at once so it didn't help at all. Far better to get off and then seek the meeting point or agree to meet at a shop, ticket office, or whatever.