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Have the barriers at P13/P14 at London Victoria been reprogrammed to charge the same fares as P1-P12/P15-P19 for people arriving from Gatwick Airport?

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As the Gatwick Express service has been temporarily suspended for over a year and a half since March 2020 does anyone know if the ticket barriers at P13 and P14 have been reprogrammed to charge the same fares as the P1 to P12 and P15 to P19 barriers when using an Oyster or Contactless card? Or are these still charging the Gatwick Express fares which are over double the price? It would be good to know as many trains which have called at Gatwick Airport regularly arrive in to P13 and P14 still! I did ask three staff members when i was at London Victoria yesterday but they all said that they did not know!
 
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matt_world2004

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As the Gatwick Express service has been temporarily suspended for over a year and a half since March 2020 does anyone know if the ticket barriers at P13 and P14 have been reprogrammed to charge the same fares as the P1 to P12 and P15 to P19 barriers when using an Oyster or Contactless card? Or are these still charging the Gatwick Express fares which are over double the price? It would be good to know as many trains which have called at Gatwick Airport regularly arrive in to P13 and P14 still! I did ask three staff members when i was at London Victoria yesterday but they all said that they did not know!
No I came into platform 13/14 the other day from East Croydon on a Gatwick express branded train and we were directed to the other barriers with arrows pointing to the side gates

Edit I'm misremembering I made the journey to East Croydon on a Gatwick Express branded train but the return journey was on a southern branded train where we were directed to other barriers.


That was the train I was on.
 
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No I came into platform 13/14 the other day from East Croydon on a Gatwick express branded train and we were directed to the other barriers with arrows pointing to the side gates
Thank you for the reply. That is shocking. The service had been suspended for a year and a half and they still have not bothered to update the barriers. Although i suppose it is GTR so i am not really that surprised.
 

robbeech

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It sounds as if people are directed to the right place to stop them being overcharged though? Unless I’ve misunderstood.

Obviously it’s poor but it’s what we expect.
 

matt_world2004

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It sounds as if people are directed to the right place to stop them being overcharged though? Unless I’ve misunderstood.

Obviously it’s poor but it’s what we expect.
I think the op is saying the barriers should be reprogrammed given that there is no Gatwick Express.
 

Haywain

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I think the op is saying the barriers should be reprogrammed given that there is no Gatwick Express.
I think we should hold off on criticising unless we know that people are actually being overcharged. It is, I suspect, quite a simple matter for the Oyster back office to adjust any overpayments automatically. Perhaps @MikeWh could confirm?
 

matt_world2004

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I think we should hold off on criticising unless we know that people are actually being overcharged. It is, I suspect, quite a simple matter for the Oyster back office to adjust any overpayments automatically. Perhaps @MikeWh could confirm?
I don't think people are being overcharged unless they fail to put the barrier redirections up but having ticket barriers out for no good reason causes capacity issues and there have been a few occasions at Victoria where it has been difficult to get out of the station
 

Haywain

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My point is that you don’t know that people are being overcharged at all, redirection or not.
 

matt_world2004

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My point is that you don’t know that people are being overcharged at all, redirection or not
The barriers are blocked off so either they still overcharge people or the barrier staff think they overcharge people.Either way this is a loss of capacity.
 

Haywain

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The barriers are blocked off so either they still overcharge people or the barrier staff think they overcharge people.Either way this is a loss of capacity.
But doesn’t result in people being overcharged. So there isn’t really a problem.
 

Jan Mayen

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I routinely arrive and depart from P13/14. I've got used to using the P11/12 entrance, and it's only a minor inconvenience.
However, it would be nice to have the P13/14 entrance back in use for Smart card users.
 

jon0844

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Well it kind of is if it contributes to overcrowding 15 minutes to leave the Gateline in this bank of gates the other day

15 minutes to get through? Surely some exaggeration because I'd have expected the plunger to have been used to let people out long before that level of time had passed.
 

matt_world2004

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15 minutes to get through? Surely some exaggeration because I'd have expected the plunger to have been used to let people out long before that level of time had passed
Boarded a train at 12:03 Gatwick Airport. Got to Victoria at 12:35 . Google latitude detected me arriving at the underground station in Victoria at 13:00 so clearly 15 minutes there. Saturday 14th August.
 

jon0844

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That is crazy then. How could they keep people on the platform for that long? If it was, as I assume, hundreds of people then there's a clear safety issue that could have even prevented trains being dispatched.

I can't even begin to picture how people would wait that long to get through a gateline without forcing their way through or hitting the plunger.
 

matt_world2004

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That is crazy then. How could they keep people on the platform for that long? If it was, as I assume, hundreds of people then there's a clear safety issue that could have even prevented trains being dispatched.

I can't even begin to picture how people would wait that long to get through a gateline without forcing their way through or hitting the plunger.
They pressed the plunger but a little too late. It was when I was near the front of the queue. There was some sort of event or festival where people were wearing posh hats by the look of the crowd coming through
 
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I also had a very similar experience about a month ago just after the lockdown restrictions had been abolished similar to what matt_world2004 describes where it took me sixteen minutes to exit the barriers.

Two twelve coach trains both arrived at P13 and P14 at almost the same time during the morning peak and yet everyone was directed to the P9/P10/P11/P12 barriers to exit the station. The gate to go between P13 and P14 and the P9/P10/P11/P12 barriers is very small so only one person can go through at a time and then you have to go through the barriers. At the same time lots of the metro trains are arriving in to P9/P10/P11/P12 so those barriers are already very busy. So if you are at the rear of the train like i was then it can easily take fifteen minutes or more to exit the barriers. In my case it took me sixteen minutes.

If the corona virus had never happened this situation would be even worse with trains at full overcrowded capacity. I was hoping that now all the the lockdown restrictions have been gone for over a month that GTR would have reprogrammed the barriers by now. But it seems that they have not. Trains are getting busier every day and it makes me wonder how long GTR will let this madness go on for before the finally reprogram these barriers.

There is also a second very wide gate on the Western side of P13 and P14 but they do not like to open this gate as there are no barriers there so anyone could walk through without a ticket or people may forget to touch out on their Oyster and Contactless cards on the reader on the side. Although this gate is normally left wide open in the late evening. But at the busy times when it is most needed it is kept shut.
 

yorkie

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If anyone is ever overcharged I would be very interested to hear about it.

Is it impossible to be overcharged as the barriers are out of use? Or does it rely on staff redirecting people? or something else?
 

Hadders

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When I travelled through Victoria a couple of weeks ago there were tensa barriers and notices across the platform 13/14 gateline. Passengers were directed to the gateline by platform 12 to exit, the manual gate between platform 13 and 12 being open to facilitate this.
 

matt_world2004

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If anyone is ever overcharged I would be very interested to hear about it.

Is it impossible to be overcharged as the barriers are out of use? Or does it rely on staff redirecting people? or something else?
They have tenserbarriers tied around the barriers together with a big noticeboard pointing people to the other barriers
 

jon0844

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Out of interest, given the other gates were previously for Gatwick Express anyway, is there any explanation as to why there are 15, or 16, minute queues to get out from trains that wouldn't have had access to those gates previously either?

Given the passenger numbers from Gatwick, plus reduced numbers of 'normal' passengers, I can't see why there would be substantially larger passenger flows than normal.
 

Bletchleyite

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They have tenserbarriers tied around the barriers together with a big noticeboard pointing people to the other barriers

I went to Brighton a week or so ago and at those gates the Oyster pads were taped over with a note on the pads saying to use the other gates if using Oyster or contactless. You would only miss it if you were half asleep, as I find a "different" contactless pad really sticks out.
 

jon0844

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I went to Victoria to go to Brighton on Saturday just gone and the train was using platform 14 there and back. The gates were staffed and people let through manually via the wide gate, or directed to the gatelines for the platforms to the east, with the platform 13/14 gateline card readers covered and big signs/posters and photos to tell you to use a standalone card validator to tap in/out.

Despite our train back from Brighton being a very well loaded 12 car 387, there was absolutely no hassle to get out.

In my opinion there was/is no problem at all.
 

Jona26

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I arrived at Victoria platform 13 today at 12:12 from Gatwick (my local station so not a tourist and I consider myself comparatively "fare savvy") on a "Southern service operated by Gatwick Express".

The 13/14 gateline did not have Tensa barriers in place but the contactless pads are papered over with the instruction that Oyster/Contactless users should use platforms 9-12 gateline. I don't know if the pads are actually active though.

Paper tickets were being accepted via 13/14 but as I was using Oyster I don't know if a Southern only ticket would open the gates. Next time I shall have to use a paper Day Travelcard to see it will!

The original above gateline metal signage re-directing Southern passengers is still in place.

I was at the front of a 12 carriage train so my exit wasn't delayed.

What I consider worse than potential gateline confusion and overcharging is that Gatwick Express tickets are still available from the ticket machines at Gatwick and other stations in the area with no signage to say that the service is not operating and not to select that option.

With the Gatwick station redevelopment taking place more tourists (from my limited observation!) seem to be using the machines rather than the counter, so even less opportunity to interact with a member staff to discuss the most "appropriate" ticket for their journey.

The only time I've ever seen any signage at the ticket machines at Gatwick is when engineering works have taken place and it refers to mutual acceptance of tickets on Southern/Thameslink services, but again no mention of Gatwick Express tickets.

EDITED TO ADD: I was back at Victoria again today (Sat 20th), again arriving at playform 13 but this time with a paper Thameslink only Day Travelcard from Gatwick.

I can confirm that it did open the barriers at the Platform 13/14 gateline so no issue there for paper tickets.
 
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