I understand why they do it when expecting very high footfall such as a concert ending. But why are the gates sometimes open on a quiet Sunday afternoon for example?
I always travel with an open return and I’ve used the same one about 4 times now because the barrier is always open. If they were closed I’d have happily spent an extra £100 on tickets this month.
At what point does a staff member at the station just decide to open some of them!?
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I think sometimes they’re left open if the station is left unmanned.
I heard somewhere that ticket gates have to be staffed in case there’s a fire and they have to be opened, or if people have problems with their tickets and can’t get out.
I could be wrong though
Some stations are only staffed during certain hours. Outside of those hours, they leave the gates open in case there is a problem with gates not working. They don’t want people getting stuck in the station
Sometimes it’s staffing.
Either there is nobody there to man them if a person is struggling so you leave them open or you don’t have enough staff on shift to man them properly so it’s easier to leave them open instead of having one person deal with all the barriers.
One thing I find really funny though is when places enforce the barriers when you have other ways in/out of the station.
Where I live, the barriers in the main concourse are nearly always in operation but you can actually get from the platform up to the tram stop/adjacent street (and vice versa) without ever going through a barrier.
It’s almost always when they don’t have the staff working to man the gates. They can’t leave them closed in case there is an emergency requiring evacuation or their ticket has issues.
Staffing.
In my experience it’s normally after the staff have gone home. They have to be staffed in case they need to let you through.
Mostly staging, also probably economics – most people will be honest in any event, and depending on the route others will have gone through a barrier to get on to the train, so the actual loss will be low and likely less than the cost of paying staff.
Have you experienced having a valid ticket and the gate not opening? If not, you’re a lucky person. But it’s common, and therefore imagine if there was no staff around to sort that out.
Speaking from the perspective of London Underground, as this is what I know, it is to do with staffing availability. If no member of staff is available to actively monitor the barrier, they have to be opened for safety. I imagine it is the same principle for all operating companies.
Thanks for the replies everyone. It amazes me that they cannot hire a security guard for £15 per hour to watch over the gates, to prevent hundreds of pounds worth of lost ticket revenue. Even if all they did was open them when somebody got stuck.
However in contrary to what you all suggest, when I got in to Cambridge yesterday, the barriers were open while 2 staff members watched everyone walk through.