Leeds City Station

aviator · October 28th, 2008, 12:14 PM

YEP today:

Leeds rail station ticket barrier problem

28 October 2008

By Sophie Hazan

Computer technicians got Leeds City Station's new ticket barriers clicking with minutes to spare before rail chiefs arrived for the grand switch-on – 24 hours late. But by rush hour last night the system was down again, leaving thousands of commuters to pass through with their tickets unchecked. The barriers were still out of action at 6.30am today.

All day Sunday and earlier yesterday passengers were allowed to pass in and out with no checks as the station's new £1.6m ticket barriers failed to go live. Computer glitches pushed the planned weekend opening to Monday. All 25 gates, installed to replace the manual ticket checking booths, were due to be switched on on Sunday.

But none was working when the YEP dropped by to capture the moment. Instead hundreds of weekend travellers were faced with red crosses and "out of service" signs.

Engineers were seen hard at work fixing the teething problems and explaining the glitch to passengers. Trains arriving on Monday had on-board announcements that the barriers would be in action when people arrived in Leeds but they were not operational.

A spokeswoman for Northern Rail, the train operator that funded the project, yesterday blamed computer failures.

"The barriers are in situ but we have had lots of computer technical problems and there was a slight glitch today."

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October 28th, 2008, 12:14 PM	#11
aviator Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Location: Leeds Posts: 3,038 Likes (Received): 40	YEP today: Leeds rail station ticket barrier problem 28 October 2008 By Sophie Hazan Computer technicians got Leeds City Station's new ticket barriers clicking with minutes to spare before rail chiefs arrived for the grand switch-on – 24 hours late. But by rush hour last night the system was down again, leaving thousands of commuters to pass through with their tickets unchecked. The barriers were still out of action at 6.30am today. All day Sunday and earlier yesterday passengers were allowed to pass in and out with no checks as the station's new £1.6m ticket barriers failed to go live. Computer glitches pushed the planned weekend opening to Monday. All 25 gates, installed to replace the manual ticket checking booths, were due to be switched on on Sunday. But none was working when the YEP dropped by to capture the moment. Instead hundreds of weekend travellers were faced with red crosses and "out of service" signs. Engineers were seen hard at work fixing the teething problems and explaining the glitch to passengers. Trains arriving on Monday had on-board announcements that the barriers would be in action when people arrived in Leeds but they were not operational. A spokeswoman for Northern Rail, the train operator that funded the project, yesterday blamed computer failures. "The barriers are in situ but we have had lots of computer technical problems and there was a slight glitch today."