I saw the new gateline at Finsbury Park today, opening April 20th, and quickly saw the obvious flaw and potential downside. Namely that the spiral staircases will not be gated, and will become the easy way to get into and out of the station if you have no ticket, or an invalid ticket for that part of an overall journey.
I spoke to a GN guy who says TfL did their research and said very few people will make the diversion, and they expect the new gates to be fully effective.
I have to disagree. Finsbury Park has long been known as a very easy way into the Underground network without a ticket (or the right ticket) and more people will likely use the stairs which will have an impact at peak times when people are changing from overland trains to the tube and vice versa.
Yes, there will be more random stings in the corridor, but they won't be there all the time. Plus, if there's a block for people coming in, given the position of the Oyster readers you'd surely just touch in that one time and consider it nothing more than bad luck.
I'd have said there is almost as much room for gates for the GN/spiral staircase entrance from street level as there is from the official tube entrance, if they made a few changes to bring the gates out a bit (making the burrito shop and cash machine end up behind the gates).
This would finally mean the station is 100% protected and the gates up the stairs for the National Rail lines would be unnecessary, as well as having to touch out/in when changing service.
I spoke to a GN guy who says TfL did their research and said very few people will make the diversion, and they expect the new gates to be fully effective.
I have to disagree. Finsbury Park has long been known as a very easy way into the Underground network without a ticket (or the right ticket) and more people will likely use the stairs which will have an impact at peak times when people are changing from overland trains to the tube and vice versa.
Yes, there will be more random stings in the corridor, but they won't be there all the time. Plus, if there's a block for people coming in, given the position of the Oyster readers you'd surely just touch in that one time and consider it nothing more than bad luck.
I'd have said there is almost as much room for gates for the GN/spiral staircase entrance from street level as there is from the official tube entrance, if they made a few changes to bring the gates out a bit (making the burrito shop and cash machine end up behind the gates).
This would finally mean the station is 100% protected and the gates up the stairs for the National Rail lines would be unnecessary, as well as having to touch out/in when changing service.