Best and Worst barriered Stations

[mralexn]

So In your opinion what is the best and the worst barriered stations, in terms of

Design - Coping with Passenger flow

Staff Friendliness (Knowledge of tickets not just "if it doesn't open it is not valid")

Do the barriers work well, or always reject perfectly valid tickets?

and general overall ease of use as a customer experience.

 

[221129]

Exeter St Davids has friendly staff and the barriers work well.
Exeter Central On the other hand..... One set is unstaffed completely and by the time the satff actually wonder on over to let you through you have missed the train anyway!!

 

[pemma]

Had my first experience of a barrier rejecting a valid ticket on Saturday - it was the exit barriers at Liverpool James Street - I can only think that was to do with it being too soon after the ticket was inserted in the barriers at Lime Street.

I've found staff on the manual barrier at Southport to be very unfriendly when you have a ticket on non-standard stock. What use does shouting at passengers to put tickets in the barriers do when they don't have tickets on orange stock?

The barriers at Chester causes too much congestion at relatively busy times - there are just not enough for the numbers of passengers.

 

[gordonthemoron]

Leeds are pretty good, despite my initial misgivings

 

[Firesprite]

Cambridge, Utter chaos in the rush hour

 

[317666]

Cambridge, Utter chaos in the rush hour

Agreed, the entire ticket hall there is a nightmare at most times of the day. A tip for anybody using Cambridge station who needs to buy a ticket - although the queue for the machines looks shorter, in reality it's quicker to join the queue for the ticket windows, because the amount of people who stand at the machines fumbling for their ToD code, or have no idea how they work, means you have to wait for absolutely ages before you get to a machine! Whereas the staff in the ticket windows are very good and the queue moves reasonably quickly.

 

[Stigy]

I often find Clapham Junction, though with fully operational barriers, without automatic wide gates (still have, or had the manual ones), the gate staff often are either nowhere to be seen, speaking to colleagues several feet away or just open them upon request, without asking to see tickets...seems to defeat the object to me!

I appreciate it's not all staff, probably just a select few, but it can be annoying and somewhat pointless having the barriers at times!

 

[6Gman]

Shrewsbury is usually pretty good.

Staff at Bhm Snow Hill seem more interested in chatting to each other than attending to their duty.

Chester is just horrible!

 

[Waverley125]

Bristol Temple Meads. Last time I was there there was one gate for passengers entering and leaving the station. Coming off a full and standing HST from Paddington, it was a nightmare.

 

[D1009]

SWT don't seem very good at this, I had trouble at Vauxhall one Sunday morning when I had a valid pass which did not work the barriers, and missed the train because the one member of staff was some way away from the barriers, and I had to shout to attract his attention.

 

[Urban Gateline]

I often find Clapham Junction, though with fully operational barriers, without automatic wide gates (still have, or had the manual ones), the gate staff often are either nowhere to be seen, speaking to colleagues several feet away or just open them upon request, without asking to see tickets...seems to defeat the object to me!

I appreciate it's not all staff, probably just a select few, but it can be annoying and somewhat pointless having the barriers at times!

Sadly I agree, some of my colleagues at CLJ are not the most interested in the job! Sometimes I feel like I am one of the only Gateline staff there actually doing the job properly.

 

[jopsuk]

Cambridge, Utter chaos in the rush hour

The barriers didn't actually make things hugely worse. It was already terribly congested.

 

[transmanche]

SWT don't seem very good at this, I had trouble at Vauxhall one Sunday morning when I had a valid pass which did not work the barriers, and missed the train because the one member of staff was some way away from the barriers, and I had to shout to attract his attention.

Things haven't changed then.

About eight years ago, I used to commute through Vauxhall. Faulty barriers and absent staff was the order of the day, leading to large crushes. On one occasion, the crush was so bad that I felt I had no option other than to activate the big red emergency plunger on the wall - opening all the gates.

Only then did a member of staff emerge from the 'cubbyhole' in order to threaten me with prosecution. Thankfully a couple of other passengers backed me up.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Vauxhall seems to have a lot of rebuilding work being done on it. Anyone know if that'll involve having more barriers?

 

[richw]

The staff at Truro are brilliant, and very customer focused.

 

[Mojo]

Vauxhall seems to have a lot of rebuilding work being done on it. Anyone know if that'll involve having more barriers?

Yes, it already has. There is now a second subway parallel with the other one, with a new array of E2 gates, which leads to the Underground/Bus station. A few times I've been there the 'old' exit leading to the Underground/Bus station has been staffed with operational barriers, but the 'new' exit just the other side of the wall has been unstaffed with the barriers open!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24759744@N02/7881001630/in/photostream/

As to the OP. I had a little moan this morning: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showpost.php?p=1205159&postcount=3. I'll have a thought about "naming and shaming" a few locations I hate later.

 

[BrownE]

Canterbury West.

Barriers rarely in use except the few times a week they have enough staff, but always operational on Friday night when the Enforcement Officers are 'in town'.

Copes extremely well with a heavy passenger flow as they are always open.

Staff can't do anything wrong if they're not there. The staff when they are there are good except the one RPI who *seems* scared of his shadow. Enforcement Officers are friendly til you upset them.

So few tickets have been put through the machine it has a 100% correct record with me.

I'd rate it 10/10 for passenger use. 0/10 for reducing fare evasion.

 

[yorkie]

I was shocked at how rude Aberdeen were in 2008, in total contrast to the on-board staff. Also they leave unattended barriers and are unhelpful at times of disruption if passengers miss onward trains. The ticket office staff are rude to passengers asking for ticket wallets, accusing people of being bus customers. They also made headlines when they denied a blind traveller travel, for which Scotrail apologised. They may, of course, be much better now, in which case I'd congratulate Scotrail for sorting them out.

 

[district]

The thing that annoys me about Canterbury west is that there are about 3 or so barriers and a WAG, when there is clearly space for significantly more. They have a glass wall type structure running through the ticket hall connecting with the barriers, where it may be possible that more barriers could be installed. http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/sjp/CBW/images/photos/800/o1431-0000020.jpg

Today I was there in morning peak. There was a revenue inspector and another member of SET staff manning the gates. It took around 6-7 minutes to get out of the station through the two gates which were set for exit.

 

[tsr]

Wimbledon really took the biscuit this morning. The Centre Court side entrance/exit barriers were completely unmanned and in full operation - when they are unmanned, there is no video link system and the nearest staff are typically at the other gateline at the other side of the station, so they are normally left open. Not only did this mean that I was unable to keep a ticket that I should really have kept, it also meant that I was unable to report a small congregation of smokers in a semi-enclosed area on one of the platforms. Furthermore, there is often confusion with tickets and Oyster cards (with the Tramlink situation, this is unsurprising), and due to the position of the ticket machines, crushing can be a serious issue. Despite the fact that I was in a hurry, I was very close to complaining to the appropriate Manager (who I have previously spoken to on occasions) there and then.

 

[jopsuk]

I was unable to keep a ticket that I should really have kept,

Care to expand?

 

[Proud Salopian]

Shrewsbury is usually pretty good.

Yep, though platform 3 isn't covered by the barriers..

 

[tsr]

Care to expand?

Business expenses reasons may or may not (depending on circumstances) require me not only to keep my ticket receipt, but also my actual tickets as well. Don't ask why! Fortunately, in this case, the ticket was not required, but I never normally know at the gateline.

 

[Firesprite]

The barriers didn't actually make things hugely worse. It was already terribly congested.

When it was a open station, I would be quickly out the station, Now it can take anything up to 20 minutes to get out. Before you could exit off the platform using the gates by the bays, these are now sealed.

 

[12CSVT]

Loughborough can be a nightmare if you are buying tickets, due to the gateline being in totally the wrong place in relation to the ticket office. Once you have bought your ticket you then have to double back (and fight your way out of the ticket hall if there is a long queue), and back onto the station entrance to get to the gateline. The gates aren't always manned, so you sometimes have to show your ticket to a video link if it doesn't work the gates.

 

[Deerfold]

Leeds are pretty good, despite my initial misgivings

That's not been my experience - as someone who regularly goes from platform 8 to 5, I find there's now huge clumps of people in the way who never used to be.

They also seem to have reprogrammed the barriers not to accept my ticket.

 

[mralexn]

I was shocked at how rude Aberdeen were in 2008, in total contrast to the on-board staff. Also they leave unattended barriers and are unhelpful at times of disruption if passengers miss onward trains. The ticket office staff are rude to passengers asking for ticket wallets, accusing people of being bus customers. They also made headlines when they denied a blind traveller travel, for which Scotrail apologised. They may, of course, be much better now, in which case I'd congratulate Scotrail for sorting them out.

As far as getting a ticket wallet from them in June goes, It maybe easier to get blood from a stone. The gave me the whole, "You MUST buy a season ticket to get one of these", "We don't just hand them out to anyone you know" So I got one later from the much nicer Inverness staff!

 

[Requeststop]

The staff at Truro are brilliant, and very customer focused.

Yes very true, but the barriers themselves have made the station user unfriendly. I miss being met by friends on the platforms on arrival or being seen off when leaving.

 

[Tracked]

Canterbury West - agree with the comment about not having enough barriers, went there last year & on a fairly quiet early saturday service into there I was still waiting a while to get out

London St Pancras EMT - Only used it once, had problem with a member of staff not recognising the All Line Rover but thought the amount of platforms and barriers a bit small considering. It was quiet that day, but one of my mates took a photo at rush hour on a friday ...

Leeds - before the gates came in I spent 20 minutes waiting to get a ticket (ticket machine failed on the train I was on) from the single window they had for that, don't know if it's much different with the barriers.

There's probably loads where the number of barriers seem insufficient, Grantham maybe and Hastings?

 

[trainophile]

Liverpool South Parkway annoys me because once you've used your ticket to go through one set of barriers (exiting either Northern Line or Intercity platforms) it always rejects when you then try to go through the other set to reach the other respective platforms. Apparently they are programmed to only permit one use at this station, even though it is a connecting interchange separated by two sets of barriers.

The staff are friendly though, and sometimes the Northern Line barriers are left open if no-one is around.