Paddington overbridge ticket barriers

[whole diary]

[Oxman]

Just to add to thread on the lifts at Reading, both lifts are monitored by CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) which is viewed from the Gateline supervisors office. When the call button is pressed, a buzzer goes off in the office and the supervisor will look at the CCTV to see if the use of the lifts is justified - i.e. for prams, luggage, wheelchairs etc. If it is, they press a button which allows the lifts to be used - the cage moves to the level it is needed and the doors open. Hence the possibility of a delay. If it isn't justified - usually some oiks attempting to evade the ticket check - the lifts are not released and the oiks hang around waiting for a genuine ticket holder to come along. There is an intercom that allows the supervisor to speak to people waiting for lifts, e.g. to advise them to use the escalators and come through the gateline.

When oiks do manage to get into the lifts alongside a genuine user, they are often surprised to be met at the next level by the gateline or platform supervisor, who have monitored events and communicated by radio.

The situation is complicated by members of the public with pushchairs using the overbridge to cross from Vastern Road to the town centre, and then using the lift on platform 4 to get down to concourse level. They then approach the gates and ask to be let out without a ticket.

Its a situation that demands common sense and awareness. On the whole, it works quite well.

When the gates are unstaffed, the lifts are switched to automatic operation.

[Mookiemoo]

Well just to re-iterate the study I did last year when I had a season and I worked out what I COULD have gotten away with if I wanted to.....

Over the last five weeks I could have gotten away with ONE return ticket a week only a couple of one way singles in the morning.

Reason: My tickets were never gripped - except on three notable occasions - I know the trains and the times - ive been keeping a record in case anyone here doubted me!

So buy a return on the monday - the out is valid for five days - covers me to friday.  The return for a month.  The only times my tickets became invalid were when the barrier guys - on four occasions in the last five weeks - insisted on putting a hole in my ticket for me to keep it as a receipt.  When changing trains at Reading I have used the lift to avoid the bottleneck at the manned gate when going to M&S.....and they never seem to look at the ticket on the way in - quick flash of the ticket wallet and bobs your uncle.

In fact ti seems that the TM^‡(resolve)'s only check the to and from stations since one morning I thought I had bought a ticket the previous week - I buy one the train on the way home for the next journey - but my plans got screwed up and I got confused.  The ticket I flashed during his inspection in fact wasnt valid!  I had bought it on the tuesday for travel on the wednesday but ended up WFH^▸ (Working From Home) rest of the week  - by the time Monday came around, it wasnt valid.  On his next ticket check, I asked to buy a ticket - looked confused - so I explained - and he said "easy mistake to make and I didnt see the date" - hmmmmmm

Armed with the above - just what could one get away with if they are bright enough

[Mookiemoo]

Just to add to thread on the lifts at Reading, both lifts are monitored by CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) which is viewed from the Gateline supervisors office. When the call button is pressed, a buzzer goes off in the office and the supervisor will look at the CCTV to see if the use of the lifts is justified - i.e. for prams, luggage, wheelchairs etc. If it is, they press a button which allows the lifts to be used - the cage moves to the level it is needed and the doors open. Hence the possibility of a delay. If it isn't justified - usually some oiks attempting to evade the ticket check - the lifts are not released and the oiks hang around waiting for a genuine ticket holder to come along. There is an intercom that allows the supervisor to speak to people waiting for lifts, e.g. to advise them to use the escalators and come through the gateline.

Great in theory - except I have used it myself when getting off on six at the wrong end of the turbo and seen the masses trying to get up the escalator.......Now im fat (although not as fat as I was and getting smaller - but still fat) and usually have a back pack - but you could not look at me and say I cant use the escalator or the lift - its not a trailblazers backpack - just a large laptop one

Never not been held or met at the top.........me thinks its a flawed system - maybe  I look innocent.  I am - but I have in the last few years worked out so many ways you could play the system and get away with it - WITHOUT PROPER TICKET CHECKS ON THE TRAIN!

[Oxman]

I think you miss the point. Its a system that relies on common sense. So, if you have not had a problem using the lift, someone has made a call which has turned out to be a good one. The staff there are not in the habit of chasing apparently genuine customers.

Of course, it is a flawed system - the gateline was installed after the bridge and lifts had been built - and anyone with a bit of nouse, which is most of the users of this site, could get round it. The point is that it works most of the time.

Anyway, it won't be for much longer. The overbridge will be an early casualty of the rebuild.

[IndustryInsider]

Of course, it is a flawed system - the gateline was installed after the bridge and lifts had been built - and anyone with a bit of nouse, which is most of the users of this site, could get round it. The point is that it works most of the time.

Exactly. If 0.1% of the punters are intelligent enough to work it out for themselves, or 'in the know' by reading about it on sites like this, the 99.9% who don't make whatever they get away with a drop in the ocean in terms of lost revenue. Reading's footbridge design means that the only possible solution has been adopted.

[Tim]

I'm I supose to be flattered that I didn't look like an oik or insulted that I looked too feeble and unfit to barry my rucksack up the escalator?

 

[paul7575]

The Reading situation will be resolved in the rebuild won't it, when the subway becomes the 'land side' north-south through route?

Paul

[Zoe]

Is there not a direct route from the overbridge to the multi-storey car park that would bypass the barriers?

[johoare]

Is there not a direct route from the overbridge to the multi-storey car park that would bypass the barriers?

The route from the car park to the station concourse is outside the barriers completely as far as I can remember.. There is half of the overbridge within the barriers, and part outside..

[Mookiemoo]

Is there not a direct route from the overbridge to the multi-storey car park that would bypass the barriers?

The route from the car park to the station concourse is outside the barriers completely as far as I can remember.. There is half of the overbridge within the barriers, and part outside..
[/quote

yes - down onto platform 5 - up in the aforementioned lift, out through the car park