Pompey00
Member
Please let me know the worse and best thing to happen during your time doing Gateline.
It can vary hugely based on location! Best is probably when everything runs well, you get some nice passengers that appreciate you helping them plan their journey or advise on tickets.Please let me know the worse and best thing to happen during your time doing Gateline.
Yh but the. Get others who get defensive cause to lazy to get a ticket and trust me I’ve been abused and nearly attacked and my colleagues have been spat at and had things thrown at them exactly doing Gateline. And if only revenue could be around more often.That. I would say most interactions are very pleasant and getting nice passengers reminds you of why you're on the gates.
Ultimately, I would say that the job is as difficult as you want it to be. I don't like fare evasion as much as the next paying customer, but I'd rather leave dealing with fare evasion to the people employed to do that, rather than risk getting assaulted or have people injure themselves. In my opinion & in an ideal world, Gateline wouldn't be challenging people, and there'd be Revenue on hand to help out.
You have to take the good with the bad, and, in the end, there is definitely more good.
That’s what us Gateline have deal with we should have to I just had someone up in my face worst working as they tried push in stations and caused criminal damages to gates by kicking them and pulling decorations down and Atleast in ticket office there’s big window in the way.Not mine, but at my first depot, we had full barriers/gates protecting all the platforms from the main entrance. Later in my tenure there, a gate line staff got smashed in the face (blood bruises, the lot) and tae-kwondo-kicked in the ribcage hard, and ended up in hospital bigtime. He came back after three or so months, but he was never the same. I think he moved to ticket office, fair play to him. The offender I believe is still at large, as my particular excuse of a TOC weren't able to create a full prosecution.
Sorry it’s the odd occasion it happens just part of the job .Probably not the best idea to reading this when I've got an interview for a gateline job. Any tips on what the job entails outwith what was on yhe job post.
Weekends can be manic and the blocks by revenue are the best .Whilst gateline isn't my primary role, I do cover the odd gateline shift and the worst for me is weekends if I'm honest, where you get the passengers that don't travel very often, it can be trying.
Best is when we have a revenue block at gatelines.
It does depend on your approach, and I found that after a while in the role I stopped caring about the Revenue protection element of the job, there's no way to sell tickets to those arriving ticketless and the company doesn't back you up when it comes to defending yourself and has strict no touch policy so the best is to distance yourself from such situations and turn a blind eye, by all means report incidents via the means your TOC gives you, but don't expect them to make any changesSorry it’s the odd occasion it happens just part of the job .
Obviously varies by TOC, GWR gateline staff are fully ticket trained and have Ticket machines, some are PF trained too though PF training for gateline staff is now optional, but all can complete Travel Irregularity Reports and Unpaid Fare Notices. The only caveat is that some ex Wessex station gatelines can be single staffed for short periods, but during these short periods of single staffing they cannot handle cash due to cash handling rules. But as a rule all GWR gatelines have to have at least two staff.It does depend on your approach, and I found that after a while in the role I stopped caring about the Revenue protection element of the job, there's no way to sell tickets to those arriving ticketless and the company doesn't back you up when it comes to defending yourself and has strict no touch policy so the best is to distance yourself from such situations and turn a blind eye, by all means report incidents via the means your TOC gives you, but don't expect them to make any changes
That's much better really, my experience was at SWR where the Gateline Assistants don't sell any tickets, hugely pointless as Pompey00 points out, as 99% of the time no RPI will be working with you so all you can do is let the ticketless out and tell them to pay at the ticket office, which not many do of course!Obviously varies by TOC, GWR gateline staff are fully ticket trained and have Ticket machines, some are PF trained too though PF training for gateline staff is now optional, but all can complete Travel Irregularity Reports and Unpaid Fare Notices. The only caveat is that some ex Wessex station gatelines can be single staffed for short periods, but during these short periods of single staffing they cannot handle cash due to cash handling rules. But as a rule all GWR gatelines have to have at least two staff.
Those were the days when fare evaders actually made an effort, nowadays they just force through the wide aisle gate and nothing can be done about it unless you're lucky enough to have security/BTP thereI covered gatelines at some rough stations, and didn't have any problems. If someone arrived without a ticket and asked to be let out, I'd tell them that I won't let them out but I'm not going to chase them. Most understood, and would go behind someone/under/over.
My job used to be RPI + Gateline and I had it all up to someone graphically describing how they were going to murder me because I asked them to finish their bottle of beer before they came through. That was certainly a low point!
I worked for a certain light rail operator that had a permanent dry policy..!For a dry train, presumably? Don't BTP normally do the enforcement for those?
(Though speaking to you like that is unacceptable regardless of why!)
Thing is places like Portsmouth and southsea for example has 5 gates and when a busy train comes in 3 is exit and 2 entry and one of them gates it’s the wide gate which I personally normally put on first come first served meaning can come through wide gate either way. But anyway when loads people tickets stop working and there one of you then you find yourself going from one to the other and it’s very frastrauting.As a passenger I hate queues at Gatelines. Some are remotely manned on one side of the station and it's the worst thing after a lengthy journey to be held up. I imagine Gateline staff get much abuse for this?
So many tickers aren't accepted and you suddenly get someone turning around which slows everyone down