The LNER Encyclopedia

i was told the other day by a lorry driver he had taken a load of new barrier rails to be shot blasted and painted for newcastle central

I posted a while ago on these forums that this would eventually happen, they have used temp barriers on several ocassions recently, not surprised tho as Newcastle Central has never even in steam days been enthusiast friendly. Many a time I spent my last coppers (bus fare home) on a platform ticket from the machine and been refused entry to the platform area, they were always a miserable bunch and probably still are.

There was one in particular, who if I remember rightly, was called Dixon and he always used to say "1 hour only". One of natures cheerful chaps.

Keith

Barriers are mostly installed at Newcastle though I don't know implementation date. I am afraid this is the result of the good old British public who will try to evade paying their fares at any cost. The abolition of barriers was an experiment which was allowed to run for far too long.

Sadly a grand old case of "give 'em and inch and they'll take a mile" I guess. Very sad.

52A wrote:Barriers are mostly installed at Newcastle though I don't know implementation date. I am afraid this is the result of the good old British public who will try to evade paying their fares at any cost. The abolition of barriers was an experiment which was allowed to run for far too long.

I have mentioned the problem of fare evasion before on this forum; it appears to be a major problem and I suppose barriers are the only effective way of controlling it. The problem with the existing system is that ticket inspectors do not have the time (and sometimes the inclination) to get to everyone who gets on at intermediate stations, and unfortunately the travelling public know this. I occasionally travel on the North Berwick to Edinburgh service and see this happening a lot, and have also seen it when travelling between Sheffield and Worksop, I suppose it happens everywhere.
An aquaintance of mine travels regularly from Alnmouth to Newcastle and boasts that he has never bought a ticket, maybe the barriers will stop him.
One problem I can see is that there wil be nothing to stop people buying a platform ticket (I assume these will be available) before boarding a train then getting off at an unstaffed station without barriers.
I can never understand why train operating companies do not employ more TTI's, with the high fares charged today, they would not need to catch many fare evaders to earn their wages.

Yes, hardly ever see Travelling Ticket Inspectors nowadays on some TOCs such as FGW or SWT, certainly on the latter's 'outers' and this is probably because they pay 5% commision to guards on the tickets they sell, so a good incentive for them to check tickets. Other TOCs don't pay as much (if anything at all) to their guards/train managers/senior conductors and those that have gone for Driver Only Operation have to rely on TTIs because, apart from ticket barriers, there's not a lot else they can do.

Wonder if some companies are reluctant to have a lot of TTIs through viewing that as some sort of expensive semi-duplication of staff, as, when they put these barriers in, every set has to be manned while operational, to make manual admittance and exit possible for the holders of the many types of perfectly valid tickets, passes, warrants, etc., which are either not designed to operate the barriers, or won't do so because the ticket encoding data is erroneous, or is defective through having been magnetically disrupted by ticket mistreatment or other magnetic source proximity.

Visited the Homeland for Christmas and was interested to see that the barriers were working when we got there on the 22nd but were all open when we returned on the 28th. Obviously they didnt think that anybody would be travelling that day.

Keith

As ive said elsewhere on this forum,the barriers at Leeds have to be opened regularly,as they are always breaking down.

60041 wrote:

52A wrote:Barriers are mostly installed at Newcastle though I don't know implementation date. I am afraid this is the result of the good old British public who will try to evade paying their fares at any cost. The abolition of barriers was an experiment which was allowed to run for far too long.

I have mentioned the problem of fare evasion before on this forum; it appears to be a major problem and I suppose barriers are the only effective way of controlling it. The problem with the existing system is that ticket inspectors do not have the time (and sometimes the inclination) to get to everyone who gets on at intermediate stations, and unfortunately the travelling public know this. I occasionally travel on the North Berwick to Edinburgh service and see this happening a lot, and have also seen it when travelling between Sheffield and Worksop, I suppose it happens everywhere.
An aquaintance of mine travels regularly from Alnmouth to Newcastle and boasts that he has never bought a ticket, maybe the barriers will stop him.
One problem I can see is that there wil be nothing to stop people buying a platform ticket (I assume these will be available) before boarding a train then getting off at an unstaffed station without barriers.
I can never understand why train operating companies do not employ more TTI's, with the high fares charged today, they would not need to catch many fare evaders to earn their wages.

Fare evasion isn't just about lost revenue. The anti-railway lobby are always eager to claim that, as only a small proportion of passenger journeys are made by rail, they could be easily absorbed by the road network without anyone noticing. We all know that is nonsense, and a misleading use of statistics, but they still keep it up. If installing barriers means a reduction in fare evasion and its concomitant anti-social behaviour, then it will be worthwhile.

Welcome aboard L&y Man!My local company.Apparently,in the not so distant past,we had an "L&y club"at Knottingley station-gone i think before i came into the world.

Its bit since i been on Darlington railway station and im wondering if they have installed barriers on there.
I had a problem with over zealous security there last year whilst wanting to go and photograph a steamer coming through.

Last time i was down south in Hitchin there seemd to be new barriers on the station and more stringent checks on trains.
like it or loathe it, its the shape of things to come.

In recent times Bristol Temple Meads was the most restrictive I have visited as far as barriers are concerned.

Ferrybridge Flyer wrote:Welcome aboard L&y Man!My local company.Apparently,in the not so distant past,we had an "L&y club"at Knottingley station-gone i think before i came into the world.

Thankyou for your kind welcome. I am finding this forum very interesting, as I am learning more about the LNER. The L&Y is, of course, my "home" company,but I am interested in most railway aspects.

L&Y Man