First-time user - Ticket gate etiquette at busy termini?

[Abelfromtamim]

Hi all,
Longtime lurker here—finally joined after that mess of a disruption on SWR last Thursday! Based in Surrey (Wey bridge commuter), and I’ve got a niche query that’s been bugging me...

Scenario: At Waterloo (evening peak), I always see huge queues for the few open ticket gates. Meanwhile, staffed wide-aisle gates sit empty with a "disabled access only" sign.

Question: Is it frowned upon to use the wide gate if:

• You’ve got heavy luggage (no trolleys)?
• No visibly disabled passengers are waiting?
• Queues for standard gates are 15+ deep?

My dilemma:

• Used it once with a suitcase—got a death stare from staff.
• Avoided it since, but missed my train twice due to gate queues.

Bonus Q: Why don’t termini like Liverpool Street use reversible gates (like airports) during peaks? Seems a no-brainer!

Cheers for any insights—this forum’s been gold for decoding rail quirks!

 

[aron2smith]

I'm only really a lurker and passenger as well. But I don't see any reason why people would judge you for using the disabled gate, they are there to be used by anyone. Barriers really slow down the movement of people, why should they make us miss our train? I'm not physically disabled but will use any barrier that is free to enter the platform. Never been judged for that. Whoever the staff were, the problem is with them, not you! I've travelled around the rail network with a small suitcase that fits in the overhead racks and staff regularly encouraged me to use the disabled barrier. I've noticed some of the staff at the big really busy stations generally have attitude issues so don't worry about it. Also, come to think of it but airport rail stations with barriers usually have only or mostly disabled barriers, as it's easier for luggage. Pretty sure Heathrow's stations are only the wider disabled barriers?

 

[Mojo]

Not saying that they don’t at Waterloo, but I’ve never seen a wide eye gate to say that they are for disabled access only.

If you have luggage, then you almost certainly should be using the wide aisle gate and not the regular one, but even if I didn’t have luggage, then I would choose to use the wide aisle gate if the other ones were occupied by other customers.

 

[thejuggler]

If no one is using the wider gate I have no issue in doing so.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It is not frowned upon to use the wide gate under any circumstances.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 Jun 2025 ==

Bonus Q: Why don’t termini like Liverpool Street use reversible gates (like airports) during peaks? Seems a no-brainer!

The direction of the gates can in most cases be configured, though some older ones are fixed.

 

[styles]

I have never judged anybody for using the wider gates, nor have I heard of anybody doing so either.

That's not to say that it doesn't happen, but I expect it to be very rare.

In fact my main criticism of wide gates is how easy it is to use them to jump the barriers without paying a fare, but that's a whole other issue.

Use whichever barriers you need, you're grand!

 

[Cat Lechat]

Yeah, I was once very sharply informed that they're not disabled only when I was on crutches and had a minor go at two young women who had no baggage and no obvious mobility issues but were taking ages to get through the only wide one while all the standard gates were empty. (I still contend that they were in the wrong for not having their tickets ready for the barriers in London)

 

[styles]

Yeah, I was once very sharply informed that they're not disabled only when I was on crutches and had a minor go at two young women who had no baggage and no obvious mobility issues but were taking ages to get through the only wide one while all the standard gates were empty. (I still contend that they were in the wrong for not having their tickets ready for the barriers in London)

I get that it can seem frustrating in the moment, but there are a large number of reasons people may not be able to use the regular barriers.

I have a funny gait which leaves me with a twist in my walk and it has occasionally caught me out at barriers before, albeit I don't think I've ever had an issue with rail barriers.

 

[Starmill]

I echo the above you don't need to be concerned. It's nobody's business but yours if you prefer to use the wide gate. If you want to use that gate, use it, or ask to be let through it, whenever you need.

 

[Egg Centric]

I use the wide gate when I had luggage and it never even occurred to me that anyone would think you weren't supposed to use it. It literally has pictures of luggage on it iirc!

 

[8ace]

Get yourself a walking stick OP?

 

[Dr Hoo]

Going back to the Original Post, can anyone shed any light on why the OP ‘always sees huge queues at the few open gates in the evening peak’?

Why aren’t a lot more open (for departures)?

 

[jammmmmsssssss]

I've never even thought about not being allowed to use the wide gate. I just use whichever one has the shortest queue

 

[Horizon22]

It is not frowned upon to use the wide gate under any circumstances.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 Jun 2025 ==



The direction of the gates can in most cases be configured, though some older ones are fixed.

Wide-aisle gates (WAG) are often left in the "first come first serve" (i.e dual) direction (there's an official term but I forget it).

 

[jon0844]

Wide-aisle gates (WAG) are often left in the "first come first serve" (i.e dual) direction (there's an official term but I forget it).

Works okay at quieter stations but the swapping causes much confusion and if the passenger flows are quite high creates a bottleneck.

I can't see a major station using this mode, or even the half gate mode which keeps one paddle closed to simulate a normal gate width (I wonder if anyone has ever used that and why it's even an option?).

I usually use the first gate that is free and if that's a wide gate then so be it.

You wouldn't want to rock up at Heathrow for Heathrow Express or the Elizabeth Line, or Gatwick (probably Luton and others too), where I believe they're all wide gates! Now everyone must use them.

 

[officewalla]

Any gate in a storm.

 

[duffield]

Yeah, I was once very sharply informed that they're not disabled only when I was on crutches and had a minor go at two young women who had no baggage and no obvious mobility issues but were taking ages to get through the only wide one while all the standard gates were empty. (I still contend that they were in the wrong for not having their tickets ready for the barriers in London)

Blocking one gate (especially the wide gate) while messing about with your phone or tickets is bad enough. But one person blocking two gates really grinds my gears.

I see this all the time, people standing right between two gates, blocking them both while fumbling, and you just know that if you pick one of them and try to squeeze past, that will be the precise second that they suddenly attempt to open that same gate. What is wrong with these people? Can't they just block one gate like a normal idiot?

 

[urbophile]

I've often been told by staff to use the wide gate if I have luggage (even a small case which will easily get through the normal ones).

 

[Cat Lechat]

I get that it can seem frustrating in the moment, but there are a large number of reasons people may not be able to use the regular barriers.

I have a funny gait which leaves me with a twist in my walk and it has occasionally caught me out at barriers before, albeit I don't think I've ever had an issue with rail barriers.

Whilst I can sometimes be rude to other passengers on public transport who I think are misbehaving, I am usually better than this. Especially as the injury that put me on crutches left me with iffy stability for a while after I was off them, and it made me realise how little allowance people make if you're not obviously injured/impaired (and they weren't making an enormous amount when it was obvious - the users of the Paris metro put London to shame on that).

In this instance I believe the staff member who told me off thought the women were having issues with the gate, because he only came over after they had been stood in front of it for a while. Actually, they had just spent an inordinately long time saying goodbye to each other and ignoring my pointed throat clearing while I stood behind them. After continued faffing by one of them, I snapped at her, something like 'If you're going to take that long, can you at least block the standard gate, can you not see I'm on crutches?' and got told off by the staff member. Which was fair - she had every right to use the gate and the fact that I was in pain and worried about not getting a seat with enough leg room due to the delay meant I overreacted. But honestly, my frustration was mostly the standard London commuter bugbear of tourists being completely oblivious to anyone else around them, and their inability to realise that you can't just stop in front of stuff without getting in people's way. It was about half seven in the evening, so it was still pretty busy, and I just think it's so rude to hold other people up for no real reason - like you're so important that you can't step to one side if you're not ready. Especially as I have no clue why these two needed to say goodbye in front of a gate which they then both went through - just say goodbye on the other side! Anyway, I'm apparently still annoyed about this over ten years later, so I need to go chill out.

So, in summary, no judgement for using the wide gate, tons of judgement for stopping in stupid places

 

[londonbridge]

I'm only really a lurker and passenger as well. But I don't see any reason why people would judge you for using the disabled gate, they are there to be used by anyone.

When TFL ran mobility buses, one of them used to come past my workplace on a Thursday afternoon and I would sometimes use it to travel home, I had more than one person have a go at me saying I wasn’t meant to be using it because I wasn’t disabled.

 

[Palmerston]

Scenario: At Waterloo (evening peak), I always see huge queues for the few open ticket gates. Meanwhile, staffed wide-aisle gates sit empty with a "disabled access only" sign.

Question: Is it frowned upon to use the wide gate if:

• You’ve got heavy luggage (no trolleys)?
• No visibly disabled passengers are waiting?
• Queues for standard gates are 15+ deep

One of the problems at Waterloo is people who only seem able to use the gate closest to their train. If they're getting on a train at platform 14, the gates at platform 17 might have no queue, and you can simply go through and walk across, but they don't. Even worse in the morning if you're trying to exit as the queue can stop people from walking 10 yards to a free gate.

 

[norbitonflyer]

When TFL ran mobility buses, one of them used to come past my workplace on a Thursday afternoon and I would sometimes use it to travel home, I had more than one person have a go at me saying I wasn’t meant to be using it because I wasn’t disabled.

I've had the same funny looks when I've boarded a TfL bus on a 6xx route - these are once-a-day variants of normal routes diverted or extended to serve schools, but are in fact available to all.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

I use the wide gate at Wigan quite a bit (I just treat it like any other and use the one I think will get me out the quickest).

I still contend that they were in the wrong for not having their tickets ready for the barriers in London)

I think that's the greater problem.
The gates at Wigan Wallgate get swapped direction during the day, so sometimes I've had someone failing to get their ticket standing directly in the one gate going into the station (they could at least stand to the side)

 

[Big Sam]

I'm a huge supporter improving accesability. The able-bodied of this world should subsidise those less fortunate in terms of mobility. But there's a misconception that anything "accesible" is reserved solely for the use of people with mobility issues, be that toilets or whatever. Why should that be the case? A disabled toliet marked as "disabled" is a toilet that anybody can use. It just happens to be adpated to make it easier for people with mobility issues.

 

[bleeder4]

I'm a huge supporter improving accesability. The able-bodied of this world should subsidise those less fortunate in terms of mobility. But there's a misconception that anything "accesible" is reserved solely for the use of people with mobility issues, be that toilets or whatever. Why should that be the case? A disabled toliet marked as "disabled" is a toilet that anybody can use. It just happens to be adpated to make it easier for people with mobility issues.

Yes I agree. Well said. I'm not disabled but I use whichever toilet is available, unless it's the ladies. I even carry a radar key in case the regular toilets are locked and I need to unlock the disabled one. To be honest, it was only by reading threads in this forum just a few months ago that I realised that when the railway refers to something as "accessible" it means that it is suitable for disabled people. I thought it just meant accessible in the general sense, as in no boxes blocking the door etc.

 

[Bletchleyite]

One of the problems at Waterloo is people who only seem able to use the gate closest to their train. If they're getting on a train at platform 14, the gates at platform 17 might have no queue, and you can simply go through and walk across, but they don't. Even worse in the morning if you're trying to exit as the queue can stop people from walking 10 yards to a free gate.

It doesn't help that it isn't obvious that you can do that. At Manchester Piccadilly you didn't used to be able to (but aside from 13/14 I think you can now).

 

[DarloRich]

• Used it once with a suitcase—got a death stare from staff.
• Avoided it since, but missed my train twice due to gate queues.

you have missed a train, twice, because "someone looked at you funny"?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? The wide gate has pictures of luggage on it for goodness sake! That is what it is for!

You haven't done anything wrong and there aren't any rules to follow. Do what you like!

 

[lachlan]

It doesn't help that it isn't obvious that you can do that. At Manchester Piccadilly you didn't used to be able to (but aside from 13/14 I think you can now).

Indeed in Paddington you usually can't get from one platform to the other (unless you go all the way back to the bridge).

I have never seen a wide gate for disabled use only. Sounds like a localised case.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 Jun 2025 ==

Bonus Q: Why don’t termini like Liverpool Street use reversible gates (like airports) during peaks? Seems a no-brainer!

Cheers for any insights—this forum’s been gold for decoding rail quirks!

In my experience they want to prevent people boarding the train until 5mins before departure and so the gates are exit only, then changed to entry.

 

[TUC]

Why I do find odd/annoying is when the gates are open but when some people insist on holding everyone up by feeding their ticket in anyway,

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Why I do find odd/annoying is when the gates are open but when some people insist on holding everyone up by feeding their ticket in anyway,

I've many times seen people struggling to get large suitcases or bicycles through narrow gates - immediately adjacent to a wide gate... so nothing other passengers can do with gates will surprise me these days...