The automated ticket gate has become quietly ubiquitous on the UK’s rail network. A few years ago there were very few stations with automated gates outside of London, but now many major stations and even many minor stations have automated ticket gates installed. In my opinion this is a regrettable trend. Automated gates are inconvenient, they are not fit for purpose, and they are a waste of money. (I should note that I think automated gates in London work well, for the most part, so I don’t include them in most of my criticism.)
Inconvenient
Firstly, if you’ve ever tried to feed a ticket into an automated gate whilst holding a suitcase and a cup of coffee (or any items which require you to use both hands) then you’ll know why I say that gates are inconvenient. Secondly, at some stations there are a very small amount of ticket gates, meaning that one has to queue to exit the station after getting off the train. This is the case at Norwich station. Thirdly, automated gates remove the possibility to “wave someone off” at a station. Finally, the system unfairly penalises innocuous mistakes like leaving your tickets on the train. Since you need a valid ticket to exit the station, if you leave your ticket on the train you would — as I understand it — have to buy a new ticket.
All of these inconveniences would be tolerable if ticket gates served a worthwhile purpose. But as far as I can see, they do not:
Not fit for purpose
Automated gates are supposed to help with revenue protection and increase security at stations. But it’s hard to see how they could contribute towards either goal. The ‘security’ claim is simply ridiculous — couldn’t someone who was set on causing trouble at a station simply buy a ticket? As for revenue protection: while gates may prevent people without tickets from getting on trains, they do not prevent people with the wrong tickets from getting on trains; for example, I might buy a ticket to Burley Park (a station five minutes away from Leeds) but stay on the train until Harrogate, or I might buy a ticket with a railcard discount when I don’t possess a railcard. So even with ticket gates, you still require train conductors to check tickets — when I board a train at Leeds, a station with ticket gates, my ticket is checked within the first ten minutes of the journey. But if conductors are checking tickets, why bother to have inconvenient gates at stations checking them too?
Waste of money
I can’t imagine that those hi-tech devices are cheap. Given the above, couldn’t National Rail be spending its money better elsewhere, by upgrading track or refurbishing trains?
What’s more, I wouldn’t be surprised if automated gates have increased staff costs for stations: each set of gates has several ‘supervisors’ to help when the gates (inevitably) don’t work properly.
Automated ticket gates are an irritating system that our (much more efficient) friends on the continent seem to do without, for the most part. Widely-used systems which require one to ‘validate’ a ticket before boarding a mode of transport, subject to a fine if one is found without a validated ticket, seem much more convenient and cheaper — and not obviously worse in terms of revenue protection.
Are there some major advantages of the system that I’ve missed?
