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Southern Barriers

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GlosRail

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I had an advance ticket from Balham to Swindon. Is there any reason why the barrier at Balham, then again at Victoria rejected the ticket?

The underground barrier at Victoria accepted it, and the same at Paddington undergound, and going onto the mainline platform at Paddington.

It didn't matter much as both times I just showed it to the ticket man who then opened the gate for me.

Just wondered from the barriers at Victoria and Balham didn't like the ticket?
 
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calc7

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Poor quality coding or condition of magnetic strip would be my guess.
 

ushawk

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National Rail Barriers dont like advance tickets i think, they certainly dont down here on the Southern !! LUL are fine though.
 

Robsignals

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Victoria always rejects my Advances, must want them to be checked for time though with so many it's not possible.
 

island

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Probably Southern has programmed the barriers to reject advances in order that the reservation can be manually checked. Mrs. island had this happen the last time she used a Southern advance.
 

ert47

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I've always had this problem travelling around on advances, but also have this problem with Super off Peak return tickets.

Just wondering, are you using a railcard?
 

GlosRail

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Well as long as it isn't just me.

It was a adult advance ticket, with no rail card. Normally I'd do this trip with a travelcard, but this time used an advance ticket.
 

Robinson

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I use Southern Advances pretty often and they always get rejected by the barriers at Victoria. I'm fairly certain it will be programmed as island describes.
 

TrainBoy98

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I dont use advances very often, but every week I go out and if my journey goes via Victoria, my ticket is never accepted by the machine, but it is accepted on the way back?
 

johnnycache

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I work for Southern. Our gates are deliberately set to reject Advance tickets so we can check that people are going to travel/have travelled on the right train. That's a hassle for long distance passengers who have no need to travel on a particular Southern train (sorry) but we feel the need to police the use of our tickets which we offer at very low prices (the best value tickets on the network according to Passenger Focus) and gates can't distinguish different types of Advance.
 

johnnycache

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I will ask our experts about that - although that code is used for other Southern only products eg Gatwick to Victoria route Southern only
Thanks for the suggestion
 

Brucey

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I assume they've chosen to block all advances because some routes (e.g. EC & Connections) can generate a mandatory reservation on a Southern service.
 

island

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GTW-VIC route SOUTHERN ONLY is 00777, route AP SOUTHERN ONLY is 07777.
 

Robsignals

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On longer distance services using P15 - 19 at Victoria the guard should check tickets more effectively than a quick glance by the usually overwhelmed barrier staff, couldn't those barriers be set to accept? Pax for Clapham Jct & E Croydon won't be checked but is that a big risk, both are barriered so only those changing trains are a concern. Anyway what are the allowed time margins at the barriers, not more than 20 mins before departure etc?
 

causton

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I presume that common sense is used to know when to let people in the barriers, i.e. as soon as the inbound train arrives/the train is announced/5-10 minutes before departure whichever is latest!

Also, Southern/South West Trains barriers always seem to reject my Super Off-Peak Travelcard weirdly!
 

Mojo

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On longer distance services using P15 - 19 at Victoria the guard should check tickets more effectively than a quick glance by the usually overwhelmed barrier staff, couldn't those barriers be set to accept?

The 8 or 10-car 'Brighton Express' services which I usually travel on are DOO, so there is nobody on board to check tickets, and I'd imagine these make up a lot of Southern's Advance tickets. For their longer distance Advance routes perhaps yes where there is a Guard on board this could happen.
 

Pumbaa

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DOO is up to 9 cars I think. Not sure if they got approval from within to run 10 car WES as DOO. Would appreciate any knowledge on this!

As a result, most peak time Express workings are manned by a Guard as they are 12 car.
 

ushawk

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DOO is up to 9 cars I think. Not sure if they got approval from within to run 10 car WES as DOO. Would appreciate any knowledge on this!

As a result, most peak time Express workings are manned by a Guard as they are 12 car.

I am fairly sure the 442 i was on the other day from VIC to BTN didnt have a guard, it did have some RPOs on it checking tickets though.
 

Mojo

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DOO is up to 9 cars I think. Not sure if they got approval from within to run 10 car WES as DOO. Would appreciate any knowledge on this!

In my experience the ten car class 442 services are run as DOO.
 

A-driver

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The current DOO rules are max 9car length except a class 442 which can run as 10 car DOO.
 

David Goddard

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Also, Southern/South West Trains barriers always seem to reject my Super Off-Peak Travelcard weirdly!

We experienced this at Clapham Junction, when trying to leave the station having gone up to town for the evening.
The gateline chap said it was to catch those using Super Off Peaks to go back out of the TC zone. Bit pointless rejecting for exiting the station really, and as a SuperOffPeak is still valid for travel within the zones through the evening peak then all would let through on the way in (unless they were silly enough to say "I'm going back to Staines")
 

A-driver

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I thought FCC ran 12-car sets on some of their peak time services and did so without a guard?

They do. They also do on the GN route and southeastern run 10 cars DOO. I thing anglia also run 12 doo stuff in the peak? The DOO rules I quoted are southern specific. Will most probably change in the new franchise. I know when FCC started running to Brighton DOO with 12s southern guards started getting jittery.
 
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