Those barriers - whose idea?

[whole diary]

[Tim]

You make a few valid points there tim, but the wide gates are a legal requirement, and they have to marked as such, as for the gate situation then that doesn't really have much to do with ticket barriers as Cheltenham is ungated (at the moment, but watch this space! along with Gloucester), at the end of the day whatever happens then you cant please everyone, but the truth is that the majority of regular passengers (the bread and butter) are in favour, the points that you've brought up are quite minor really.
[/quote]

I have noticed that LondonUnderground does the same thing with labelling wide gates with a disabled symbol even though nothing beyond the gate is accessible (Waterloo underground is a good example of this.  One of the ticket halls there is actually accesible.  The other is not but you can be tempted into the inaccessible hall by the wheelchair symbols on the gate you go through). 

You are correct, my points are fairly minor (although if I was in a wheelchair and couldn't get down the stairs and consequntly missed my train and ended up travelling on the next one on which my ticket wasnt valid and then got a penalty fare - I'd be more than just mildly annoyed and might decide to drive next time). 

[smokey]

1 The Underground Barriers have a Push through for cases and large items, FGW^▸ (First Great Western) barriers that I've seen do not, so I've seem people get traped when they go through carrying a case first, how long till someone sues?

2 All tickets issued should fit the Barriers not those Huge pink tickets.

3 As the Barriers may retain your ticket it means you can now claim compensation for a delayed journey without sending in your ticket, thats not very bright FGW.

[Ollie]

A replacement taking 7minutes. Not a chance. 2-4 mins max.

[vacman]

1 The Underground Barriers have a Push through for cases and large items, FGW^▸ (First Great Western) barriers that I've seen do not, so I've seem people get traped when they go through carrying a case first, how long till someone sues?

2 All tickets issued should fit the Barriers not those Huge pink tickets.

3 As the Barriers may retain your ticket it means you can now claim compensation for a delayed journey without sending in your ticket, thats not very bright FGW.

1, the wide gate has a big picture of a suitcase on it indicating that people with luggage should use that,
2, Yes, tell me about it!!!
3, Ticket remains property of the railway at all times, it can be retained at any time, i've seen many undesireables looking through bins at non gated stations for used tickets so barriers keeping them is actually a good idea.

[tom-langley]

If the barriers are introduced, they need to be sensible about using them. Barriers should be active late evenings and early morning. Slough has such barriers, but are not in use late at night, (presumably because they don^t want to put staff out to man the barriers) If you ask me the most of the fare evasion happens late at night out of Paddington on the local lines. The majority of people catching these trains are coming back from a night out and have not bought tickets. This is not helped by the fact that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) NEVER check tickets on these trains, and they are often so full that it would be impossible to check the tickets anyway.

I hate travelling on the trains late at night or earlier in the morning, both myself and my girlfriend do on a regular basis. My girlfriend has even told me of an occasion when a man has flashed a gun (only caught a gimps of it) in an argument with another passenger. If ticket barriers are introduced this would hopefully increase the security for passengers on these services.

My point is that these barriers need to be introduced and used properly:
1) In use 24/7
2) Standard ticket sizes
3) Not used as replacements for onboard ticket inspections

[Ollie]

I wouldn't say no ticket checks are done on local services.
On the few occasions I have been on one of the local stoppers it has been checked by Revenue Protection.