Ticket Gates

Ticket check gates at stations can protect revenue, and we know that the Department of Transport is obsessive about them.   This can lead to absurd arrangements.   Take Waterloo East, for example.

The east exist leads only to Southwark Underground station and here we have two lines of gates - one for South Eastern and one for London Underground - separated by about three metres.   There is nowhere to go once you are through one ticket line but through he second.   But both are there, both independently staffed, and both usually needing different tickets to make them work.   Given so many national rail/LU interchange stations have barrier free interchange it is hard to see the justification for even one barrier line, let alone two.   It is hard to see how the costs are justified, although it makes it administratively easier for London Underground in the case of ticketless passengers arriving at the street exit from Southwark station.

It might also have been easier to understand if the Western exit from Waterloo East was fully gated, but it isn't.   The bridge to Waterloo is too narrow to have a gate line big enough for the passenger flow.   So tickets here are checked manually and are likely to remain so.   So money has been spent at the eastern exit plugging one hole, but the much bigger hole at the other end is still wide open.

But it gets worse.   There is a flight of stairs from the bridge linking Waterloo East and Waterloo, lading to to Waterloo Road.   This flight of stairs is on the street side of the manual check of tickets coming from Waterloo East and also on the street side of the ticket line for Waterloo.   However, there is a line of gates at he top of this flight which seems to serve no purpose of any sort because no ticket is needed on either side of it.   This can only be the DfT's obsession really getting hold.   And complete absence of brain power.