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Author Topic: Oxford station gate to be shut to stop fare dodgers  (Read 9966 times)
Chris from Nailsea
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« on: December 08, 2012, 17:18:55 »

From the Oxford Times:

Quote
Rail bosses are shutting the back entrance to Oxford Station to stop fare dodgers.

The gate off platform two is open during the morning and evening peak hours and leads out into Roger Dudman Way for commuters heading to and from West Oxford.

But First Great Western, which runs the station, is sealing off the exit from January 1. It estimates up to one in five passengers using it haven^t paid their fare because it does not have a ticket barrier.

First Great Western spokesman James Davis said: ^Unfortunately, as many as 20 per cent of people using this gate do so without a valid ticket or without a ticket at all, which clearly isn^t fair on the majority of customers who choose to pay the correct fare for their journey.

^To reduce ticket fraud, and ensure that those who are paying for their tickets are not subsidising those who don^t, we plan to close the platform two exit from January 1, 2013.

^Customers will still be able to access the station from the main entrance, a short walk away, and those with bikes will be able to use the customer lifts provided.

^We^re sorry for any inconvenience caused to our paying customers. We will continue to monitor the situation and keep this under review.^

Yesterday, some passengers raised concerns about extra crowding at the main exit barriers off platform one and inconvenience for people wanting to go to West Oxford and Botley.

Sally Grover, 61, from Tackley, is a library manager in Oxford and uses the station every day. She said: ^It will seriously inconvenience a large number of people, particularly those who live and work in Botley, those who carry cycles, and those who simply do not want to queue at the platform one barriers at busy times. People have to rush across the platform and bridge banging their bikes against people^s ankles.

^It happens, I use my bike and it is inevitable. A bike is an unwieldy thing to carry. We pay over the odds for our tickets and the station facilities should meet the needs of passengers, not the convenience of the station staff.^

Another rail user, who did not want to be named, added: ^I only use it if I have an off peak ticket and the trip, usually with delays, has meant I end up arriving in peak times.^

The gate is open from 6.30am to 9.30am and 5pm and 8pm on week days. Occasionally First Great Western will station staff there to check passengers^ tickets.

Mr Davis would not comment about how much it would cost to install a ticket barrier at the exit.
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« Reply #1 on: December 08, 2012, 18:38:01 »

Inconvenience 4 out of 5 of the passengers who use the exit because 1 out of 5 take advantage.

Nice one FGW (First Great Western). Great customer service.  Roll Eyes

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« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2012, 19:01:43 »

According to the plan at (Oxford - next trains)/plan.html?rtnloc=oxf" target="_blank">http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/sjp/OXF/plan.html?rtnloc=OXF this gate gives access to the accessible parking.  So presumably it will become inaccessible accessible parking  Wink

I've not been round the back of Oxford station, but as I recall it's quite a long way around.   If you want to get to the accessible parking in the future when arriving from London, you'll need to go over the footbridge, out through the main building, turn right outside, go round the bike park, under the bridge, and turn right up the road the the parking.  Or have I missed something?
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« Reply #3 on: December 08, 2012, 20:02:00 »

I've not been round the back of Oxford station, but as I recall it's quite a long way around.   If you want to get to the accessible parking in the future when arriving from London, you'll need to go over the footbridge, out through the main building, turn right outside, go round the bike park, under the bridge, and turn right up the road the the parking.  Or have I missed something?

It's worth pointing out that this exit is closed for the majority of the day anyway, so it'll be no less accessible than it would be at, say, midday.  I'm not sure if there's any disabled parking on that side of the station (though as you point out is does say there is on the map), but I think there's a help point for arriving passengers to contact station staff, so that anyone with disability issues can be escorted through the gate by station staff (it works on a magnetic swipe card) as they do now 'out of hours'.

I'm not defending this decision on a customer service basis though, as it is a useful exit, and I would have thought that ramping up the number of times ticket inspections are made, to say a couple of times a week, would be a better option for everybody.  When the gates were originally installed there were inspections more often than not, but in the last year or so I can't remember a single occasion when revenue/gateline staff have been checking tickets there.
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« Reply #4 on: December 09, 2012, 09:18:29 »

I'm not defending this decision on a customer service basis though, as it is a useful exit, and I would have thought that ramping up the number of times ticket inspections are made, to say a couple of times a week, would be a better option for everybody.  When the gates were originally installed there were inspections more often than not, but in the last year or so I can't remember a single occasion when revenue/gateline staff have been checking tickets there.

Given they are close to the end of the franchise I guess First don't want to invest in something they may not get a return on; it does smack of FGW (First Great Western) taking the easiest and cheapest option by not providing RP staff at that exit when its open.
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« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2012, 16:22:55 »

I don^t think it^s a good idea to close this gate as the entrance/exit on platform 1 is not very well designed and is already very busy and when this gate is closed then more bicycles/people will  need to use it and cause more and longer queues. For those not familiar with Oxford there is a set of sliding doors directly in front of the ticket gates and this causes 2 issues:
1)   There is always a long queue of people either waiting to buy tickets or with bicycles/cases/pushchairs waiting to use the wide gate that causes the entrance doors to be blocked meaning that people have to use the exit doors OR
2)   As the doors are close to the gates, the gates in the middle don^t get used as people wait to use the gates nearest the doors and again cause the doors to be blocked. This is an obvious flow issue and could be resolved by removing the doors , widening the doors or moving the gates further away from the doors.

I can understand why they would want to close the gate but why can^t they just have someone stood on this gate checking tickets and/or more people selling tickets on platform 1 , if 20% of people don^t currently have tickets then it would soon pay for itself and more.
Mind you I don^t actually believe that train companies are serious about fare evasion given the amount of times that the ticket gates are unmanned (evenings and weekends) and the number of times I have had my ticket checked on a train. They seem a bit like HMRC and only interested in  tackling the easy cases to make it look like they are doing something.
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paul7575
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« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2012, 16:25:45 »

From the Oxford Times:

Quote
Another rail user, who did not want to be named, added: ^I only use it if I have an off peak ticket and the trip, usually with delays, has meant I end up arriving in peak times.^

Just noticed the above line, but that's bit of a serious misunderstanding of the implications of a delay isn't it?  By printing that without checking anything, the paper have probably just confused dozens of people...

Paul
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« Reply #7 on: December 19, 2012, 23:10:15 »

Noticed tonight that the poster on Oxford platform 2  advising of the forthcoming closure of the gate is no longer there, nor the laminated paper sign on the gate itself. Is this still going ahead?

The gate was wide open with no checking of tickets tonight.
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ray951
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« Reply #8 on: December 20, 2012, 10:16:17 »

Noticed tonight that the poster on Oxford platform 2  advising of the forthcoming closure of the gate is no longer there, nor the laminated paper sign on the gate itself. Is this still going ahead?

The gate was wide open with no checking of tickets tonight.


I agree the large signs were gone this morning but they still had some A4 size notices on the actual gate itself stating that it was going to be closed from 1st January.
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« Reply #9 on: December 20, 2012, 22:51:54 »

Received a message from local councillor earlier this evening {Thurs 20th] as follows:

> The official statement -- after discussions late into the night
last night:

>*We've decided in the light of customer and stakeholder feedback, and
the emergence of a number of potential alternative approaches, to defer
closure of the Oxford Platform 2 gate until further notice.
>In the meantime, we will be reviewing the usage of the gate and its
interaction with the wider station environment.  This will help inform
the decisions that we're making about access to this entrance in future.
We will also be discussing the future access to the gate with the
Department of Transport in the context of potential wider plans for the station.*
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JayMac
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« Reply #10 on: December 21, 2012, 02:28:24 »

Well that is excellent news for the majority of honest passengers who use this access to/from the station.

FGW (First Great Western) should now concentrate their efforts on the 1 in 5 who don't have a ticket. But only when they have had an opportunity to buy and have chosen not to.
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Chris from Nailsea
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« Reply #11 on: December 21, 2012, 10:56:50 »

I drew the attention of certain people at First Great Western to this particular topic in an e-mail on 8 December: they haven't replied to me directly, but I do suspect that the feedback they will have gathered here, as well as elsewhere, has helped to produce this result. Wink
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Andrew1939 from West Oxon
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« Reply #12 on: December 23, 2012, 16:20:15 »

The Oxford Mail carries the following story:

Rail bosses halt plan to close station gate

7:00pm Saturday 22nd December 2012 in News By Katriona Ormiston

Councillor Susanna Pressel at the back gate of Oxford Rail Station Councillor Susanna Pressel at the back gate of Oxford Rail Station
RAIL bosses have reversed their decision to shut the back gate at Oxford Station after an outcry from passengers.
The Oxford Mail revealed this month that First Great Western chiefs were planning to close the entrance to stop fare dodgers.
The platform two gate, which leads out to Roger Dudman Way towards the Botley side of Oxford, is open at peak times. But plans to shut it on January 1 only became known when signs went up at the station earlier this month.
First Great Western staff estimated up to one in five passengers using the gate hadn^t paid their fare because it does not have a ticket barrier.
Commuters protested that the closure would cause even worse crowding in peak hours and bikes would have to be carried over the footbridge.
A campaign was sparked with dozens of people complaining to the station and Oxford city councillor for Jericho and Osney Ward, Susanna Pressel.
But on Wednesday, station manager Dave Martin met Cllr Pressel and regular commuter Dom Utton.
She said: ^I was all ready to be very angry. But he said straight away that they have changed their minds
^Our statement of protest and demand for a meeting put the wind up them so much that they said they are going to try to get money for two new barriers, one wider for bikes.
^d like to thank the Oxford Mail for publicising this dreadful idea and helping to get a campaign going which demonstrates the people power of the community.
^I think they were frightened of me. I can be quite frightening when I am really cross. I am not going to beat around the bush for something the people I represent want.^
Mr Utton, who commutes to London up to four days a week from Osney Island, said he wrote to First Great Western to complain about the plans.
The 40-year-old journalist, who attended Wednesday^s meeting, said: ^I think a lot of people wrote in. They hadn^t consulted anyone.
^My issue was, who are they running the station for?
^As soon as we kicked off about it, they saw sense. I go out the back way which is a lot easier. It wasn^t just commuters though. It is a drag for cyclists to haul their bike over the bridge and difficult for the elderly. The lift is just rubbish. I went along to the meeting with a whole list of questions but didn^t need them. Fair play to them though for listening.^
Spokesman for First Great Western, James Davis, refused to say how many complaints had been received, but he said: ^We^ve decided, in the light of customer and stakeholder feedback, and the emergence of a number of potential alternative approaches, to defer closure of the Oxford platform two gate until further notice.
^In the meantime, we will be reviewing the usage of the gate and its interaction with the wider station environment. This will help inform the decisions we^re making about access to this entrance in future.
^We will also be discussing the future access to the gate with the Department for Transport in the context of potential wider plans for the station.^

Comments (5)

Mr Utton sounds like he is a bit of a bully!

I don't understand this story, if one in five people get a freebie by nicking out through the back gate, and IF only a hundred people use it a day. then that is 20 people without tickets, say at an average ^15 a pop is ^300, so if they paid somebody only ^10 an hour to man it for the 6 hours it is open that is still ^240 profit a day. I'd happily stand there for that money.

This was a victory for commonsense and the Rail Passengers, and not Labour or Cllr Pressel. It's about time Oxford Cuty Councillors stopped trying to make 'political brownie points' and started tring to represent all the voters and council tax payers - the majority of whom will never vote Labour or Labour/Coop in the City, let alone County ...... but many of whom certainly do travel by train - and THAT is why First Great Western has kept the gate open for business!

Majority never vote Labour??? Remind me, who is the largest party in Oxford City Council?? Doh

surely the perfect solution is to open the gate at peak periods, with an attendant there. no one should be allowed to travel free, as that pushes fares up for everyone. maybe some of those complaining about the closure are some of those who travel for free!!!!
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