This indeed is a thorny issue.
Not helped by the fact no two stations are alike. Some barriers are erected at stations and they stick out like a sore thumb. Either they are totally out of keeping with the station or worse they are designed poorly - i.e Poor layout.
I have no problem with them in major cities. These places are heaving with folk and I think they actually can speed things up.
Some smaller cities and towns, barriers seem like a waste of money.
I haven't had a really bad time at one but I remember being at Bristol Temple Meads a few years back and I had purposely left myself time there.
I had only ever changed trains, never been out of the station to see that great facade and some of the city.
I didn't even need to change trains that day, just left a northbound crosscountry service and planned to get a later one after my little sight seeing.
All going well, till I arrived at the barriers. I had a pass back then, so my only option was the manual gate.
Lo and behold there's nobody there!
Don't think it was long, someone did eventually come and let me through.
Thankfully it didn't ruin my sightseeing.
I did however have a terrible feeling of being trapped.
That brings me on to another point. They work too well as barriers sometimes.
As others have mentioned , if you need to just pop through them you start to question whether or not its worth the hassle.
I'd like to pop outside of a station to see a little of the new place i'm go to, but if there are barriers, I think better of it.
Say i'm going from A-B and change trains at C, I think the barriers are bound to refuse exit or worse still refuse entry.
Sure the option is to use the manual gate, but as mentioned above - Not always that there is someone there.
I've always been bias against them, yes I see the good points. As I have already said, they can actually speed things up and deter/catch fare dodgers.
However having seen many stations go from no barriers to having them, you can't help but be bias as they take away a little freedom.
I just to enjoy going onto the platforms, even if I wasn't getting a train at Aberdeen and Glasgow Queen Street but the barriers block all this off.
Even make getting to see the trains really hard.
Worse at Aberdeen. I was there at the end of last year, the first time in years and the first since the barriers were erected. Your encased on the concourse, I remember the station being so much more open. The car park that butts onto the platform at the north end is now blocked by a great long metal fence. I did not like it.
I always like to think the folk of the past did things better but in this aspect, you have to say if the technology had been available would the railway companies have done the same?
Most certainly
Have to agree with other posters that, to hell with the cost, I would happily replace most barriers with the same number of staff.
Its not like tickets are cheap, and you can bet fares will continue to rise.
If barriers are so worthwhile, why the higher and higher fares?
I don't say replace barriers with staff just because I don't really like barriers, but because people need work. Too many people unemployed as it is, we really don't need people to be replaced by machines on top of that.
I'm in a catch 22 though, as I am not a Luddite, technology must progress.
Tied myself in knots there at the end. The result - In some ways they are good, others not so. You just can't have it both ways.
