Ticketing and Concessionary Travel on Public Transport - United ...

Ticket gates—not the only solution
56. The Government has recognised the unsatisfactory situation regarding lost rail
revenue.
Lastly, the Government will review with operators the role of gating across the
network. Operators estimate that around five per cent of revenue is lost on the
network due to ticket-less travel. The Government considers this to be an
underestimate, since every recent survey conducted on individual parts of the rail
network has shown losses to be considerably higher. 58
57. Gates (ticket barriers) clearly have value on a closed system such as the Tube <strong>and</strong> there
are certainly those who support additional gating of National Rail stations. However, the
focus on gates is too narrow <strong>and</strong> overlooks the complexities of the situation. According to
Transport Solutions, “station gating.[…] is not necessarily cost effective, is often customer
unfriendly <strong>and</strong> many of the benefits claimed for such equipment are overstated or
misapplied.” 59
58. The types of ticket gate deployed on the National Rail network accept only the credit
card size magnetic paper tickets, <strong>and</strong> not the larger format tickets often delivered for
internet or telesales, nor the number of other pass styles without any encoding. Further,
there is a significant rejection rate on magnetic tickets, even when valid. As smartcards are
introduced into the National Rail network, beyond the existing application of Oyster, these
gates would require substantial modification. Taken with proposals to extend the reading
by gates of mobile phones <strong>and</strong> barcodes on print-at-home tickets, this becomes an
increasingly complex challenge, both for operation <strong>and</strong> systems support.
59. Passengers with tickets that do not, for whatever reason, work the barriers correctly,
have bulky items of luggage or are in wheelchairs cannot pass the regular gates. They
require prompt assistance. “Meeters <strong>and</strong> greeters” are effectively barred from platforms
<strong>and</strong> general passenger movement is restricted or delayed. Gates can take up valuable space
<strong>and</strong> isolate station trading facilities, while detracting from the appearance <strong>and</strong> customer
environment of many historic or Listed stations. When no staff are available to supervise
them they must be left open which rather defeats their purpose. 60
60. There are moves to install ticket gates at more rail stations. Yet ticket gates are not a
panacea. They cannot be used by all passengers <strong>and</strong> staff are still required to be present.
Gates introduce new drawbacks including delays <strong>and</strong> obstructions for passengers; they
are not in keeping with historic stations; <strong>and</strong> they are not always the best method of
protecting rail revenue. The Government, in consultation with the rail industry <strong>and</strong>
passenger groups, needs to review this one-track approach <strong>and</strong> develop a more holistic
policy.
58 Cm 7176, para 10.44
59 Ev 95
60 Passenger Focus, whilst generally in favour of additional gating, identifies other shortcomings. See Ev 182.
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