Reader Comments:

Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.

• Ben, Gloucester, uk

  Can Lord Ardonis also rip out the Gates at Bath Spa as they are a serious safety hazard. There a 5 gates but only 1 going in 1 for luggage and 3 going out and they are very slow and hardly react to a ticket so have to be opened manually anyway. Also the layout of Bath station is very narrow so when you get 2 trains arriving at the same time there is dangerous congestion at the barriers.

• Keith Ashington MEng CEng MICE MInstRE, Coatbridge

  One other benefit - barrier gates don't go on strike. Introduce driver only operations (as is the case in Strathclyde), and their is no need for guards/ conductors.

• martin, brighton

  Gating apart from metro is unacceptable. Reading the comments just shows how uninformed the British Public really are.
  
  Lets look at the underground you have one fare. Most people travel on short journeys the trains are crowded and they are DOO (Driver Only)
  
  Now lets look at intercity. There is a guard if not severel that come through and check your ticket and if they think you are trying to avoid the fare they can charge full price! Also from London to peterbrough is like 40 mins so plenty of time to check eveyone tickets!
  
  So I don't see how eveyone can get away for free. It's a complete waste of money all trains should have guards on and revenue who can simply block a station and anyone without a ticket can be charged a penalty. It's not rocket science and it is a DaFT policy.
  
  Barriers should be ripped out unless a proper saftety case has been done. Stations where trains are intercity do not need to be done. Local services should introduce penalty fares everywhere and make sure you have a lot of RPO's to enforce the scheme. Therefore you would hardly need any so called 'auto gates' Get rid of them now, useless things and besides 'auto gates' are easy to get around you simply double up behind someone else or buy a single to the next stop for £2 and then jump on the intercity anyway defeating the object of a barrier!
  
  Waste of time and fares only rise to pay for them.

• Graham Collett, York, UK

  Contrary to the views expressed by some of the "pro-barriers" camp, the gates at Leeds created considerable problems when they were introduced. Many pefectly valid tickets were rejected (causing long queues) whilst outdated tickets (as demonstrated by BBC Look North) were accepted!
  
  Leeds is a modern station where the location allows one large set of barriers whilst still allowing the use of several entrances to the concourse. The situation at York (opened 1877) and Sheffield is quite different - in both cases the station provides an important through pedestrian and cycle access route. Well done campaigners and Lord Adonis!

• Notabanker, London, uk

  All such barriers should be scrapped including even on London's tube but we need to all carry ID cards first . In Germany it is easy to board any train but [unlike in the UK] fare evasion is stictly controlled with spot checks and on the spot fines . If a fare is unpaid there is a fine which can easily be enforced since carrying a national ID card is compulsory . In contrast fare evasion is tacitly allowed in the UK particularly in the evenings when our stations are largely unmanned, with essential facilities such as loos locked up ,yet with a 'free for all' open gates policy ! An insult to people who still pay .

• Steve, Leeds, England

  Nice situation this. Where members of the public can get on and off a train without paying. Maybe Lord Adonis will be picking up any shortfall in revenue out of his own pocket. Or should I say the tax payer and the honest fare paying passenger will be. Please dont say the conductor should get the fare. A lot of the time the train can be that full he cannot even do that. I know of no other company that presides over such a situation. This is not rocket science. There used to be staffed barriers at York before some BR idiot introduced open stations and free travel for those that decide not to buy a ticket.

• Anthony Simkins, Chesterfield, Derbyshire

  The system works at Leeds station, which I do believe, is the largest English railway station outside of London. The only reasons that the system wouldnt work on stations such as Sheffield and York is that they are poorly designed stations which have more than one entrance and exit route, which some of these would not be suitable for gates. I agree with Andrew from Guildford that the barriers form no problem for intercity passengers, and as I have previously stated they operate efficiently in Leeds which sees a very high number of both intercity and local passengers use the barriers every day.

• Ernest Dobson, Newcastle

  What a pity they are already being installed at Newcastle station. They are a hinderance to customers, deeply unpopular, unjustified, out of keeping with a listed building, and a waste of money.

• Simon Jones, Cardiff

  Was this not a franchise committment? If Nat Ex had been able to drop franchise committments as easily as this, could they have made more of a success at running East Coast?

• Andrew, Guildford, UK

  Properly planned, gatelines are perfectly sensible and acceptable. It's a ridiculous argument that they present an unacceptable barrier to intercity passengers. If barriers can work on the London Underground during the morning peak without the place collapsing under the volume of passenger numbers trying to get through them, they really can work anywhere without causing anyone inconvenience/.

• H Harvey, Birmingham

  Hooray
  
  Yet another DafT policy thrown out. Its good to see that the mandarins are being put in their place and are beginning to listen to the travelling public.
  
  Adonis must be hated within the walls of the Kremlin.

• Jeanne Foster, sheffield, england

  Thank goodness that Lord Adonis has confirmed that gating is not suitable for stations like Sheffield and York.