Leeds City Station

[aviator]

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."

[jayo]

Can someone give me the lo-down of whats going to happen here please? Are they going to replace the station roof and do the whole station out or are they just going to do minor(ish) things?

[Stefan88]

As far as Im aware it's just the ticket barriers at the moment. I don't think there has been any proposal to change the station roof.
The manned ticket barriers have been removed now and it looks alot better already. The unmanned barriers were still out of action when I went caught the train at 2 o clock. If I had of known I wouldn't of bought a ticket

[Immunda Leodis]

They were working when I got in at about 18:00 and they seemed to be working ok! I wouldn't say it was 'smooth' but the line I was in flew through. I reckon that in a very short space of time this will lead to a big improvement in 'traffic' flow once people have got used to taking their ticket back before going through the gate.

[Leeds No.1]

I was at City station from around 2245 to 2329 and the ticket gates were open. I'm guessing therefore they weren't working. How hard is it to get some ticket gates working, really.

No plans to replace the station roof, that was done in 2001. The future plans to be delivered in perhaps 2010 include a new entrance to the south to Granary Wharf that would connect to the bridge in the station.

[Suburban Knight]

It's quite novel seeing all the confusion about ticket barriers up here - London and the South East have hadden them for yonks!

[Leeds No.1]

Mm. I'm not sure people are confused about how to use them though, it's just the computer problems with them. But I don't really see why there is so many teething problems when ticket barriers are tried and tested (and have been for ages in the SE). Having said that, the ticket barriers at Covent Garden Tube never work for me. I don't know why; I always have enough credit =/

[Immunda Leodis]

Totally agree, I had no problem using them yesterday when they were working, that wasn't the case to day as I made futile attempts to feed my ticket into an unwilling aperture. I really don't know why they were working yesterday and not today. Surely once they're on they're on???!!! FFS!

[wiggleyleeds]

Originally Posted by Suburban Knight

It's quite novel seeing all the confusion about ticket barriers up here - London and the South East have hadden them for yonks!

decades infact. i thought everywhere had them except leeds station which actively prefered to have the friendly face style.

Im sure manchester and birmingham has had them for years?

[Immunda Leodis]

Originally Posted by wiggleyleeds

decades infact. i thought everywhere had them except leeds station which actively prefered to have the friendly face style.

Im sure manchester and birmingham has had them for years?

Not the last time I went! New Street had inspectors manning the exits at busy times and I've never been stopped at Picadilly by an inspector, the only times I've been stopped in there was by the rozzers when changing trains on the way to the football!

[LoveTheCity]

manc don't have any form of ticket barrier, as far as I have experienced the only train other train station with barriers is Leicester..

[Leeds No.1]

Until recently, Leeds City and Liverpool Lime Street (Platforms 1-6 only though) had ticket barriers. No Manchester stations had ticket checks in operation, nor did Sheffield, Newcastle or York. I don't know about stations in the midlands.

Recently, automatic ticket gates have come to Manchester Oxford Road, Blackpool North and they have replaced the barriers at Leeds. Apparently Sheffield, Manchester Piccadilly and Doncaster have ticket gates proposed eventually.

[cmj]

Originally Posted by Leeds No.1

I was at City station from around 2245 to 2329 and the ticket gates were open. I'm guessing therefore they weren't working. How hard is it to get some ticket gates working, really.

Some stations leave the barriers open 'outside hours' (you can't have a barrier in use if there isn't a member of staff near it to deal with any problems). I hope that doesn't happen at Leeds, at least with the manual barriers you had to get a ticket to get to the trains (unless you were a determined faredodger, i guess).

[Leeds No.1]

You could show the people at the ticket barriers anything and they would let you through; thats on the occasions they actually looked.

I can't see the ticket barriers being left open 'outside hours' as you say. Whenever I have been through City station, regardless of the time of day, there have been people near the ticket barriers.

[Suburban Knight]

has the excess fares window disappeared? If so, does this spell the end of pretending you only came from Burley Park? And if so, and you get on at a small station and no conductor comes by, how do you pay?!

[Leeds No.1]

The excess fares window has gone but there are those temporary-looking ticket stands where you can purchase tickets in the same way. The new information box also has a window onto Platform 8, so that might sell tickets too?

I read that Zone 6 was meant to be introduced 1st Jan 2009 (although don't see how/not heard much of it so...), but I also read that Zone 6 would be introduced when smartcards were introduced. So perhaps it's not too long until we see the introduction of smartcards; therefore this means that ticketing may no longer be a problem as people must touch in at their boarding station.

If ticket machines on stations don't work due to vandalism, couldn't a local store sell them like on Merseyrail or Oyster Top Up Shops; there's a CO-OP next to Burley Park station for example.

[lazygamer]

Originally Posted by Suburban Knight

has the excess fares window disappeared? If so, does this spell the end of pretending you only came from Burley Park? And if so, and you get on at a small station and no conductor comes by, how do you pay?!

They have 2 excess ticket stands on the end of platform 1 and one on the main footbridge. Each stand is usually manned by one member of staff, but each stand has two portable ticket machines (so I guess that's either as a failsafe in case one machine packs in, or for peak times could be manned by two staff per stand)

It would be interesting to see if they intend to replace these with permanent stands, they look a little out of place (if that's possible for a ticket booth in a train station!)

[Val Verde]

Apparantly there are still problems at Leeds station with the new ticket barriers according to the YEP: http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.u...hes.4642570.jp

Leeds train ticket barriers headaches continue


Ticket barriers at Leeds station

« Previous « PreviousNext » Next »View GalleryADVERTISEMENTPublished Date:
30 October 2008
By Paul Robinson
New automatic ticket barriers at Leeds City Station have left rail passengers with a nasty case of travel sickness.
The £1.6m London Underground-style gates were due to click into life for the first time on Sunday.

But technical glitches meant it was Tuesday before the majority of the 25 barriers started to work.

Then, during yesterdaymorning's rush hour, the set-up was out of action once again – triggering a delay in part of the station.

Rail managers had decided in advance to turn the system off and leave all the gates open for the rush hour, mindful of the disruption which would ensue if the technology suddenly went down in the middle of the busiest period of the day.

That meant most people were able to go straight through the barriers without having their tickets electronically checked.

Passengers on a service from Skipton which arrived at a platform near the gates at about 8.15am had no such luck, however.

They claim a member of the station staff tried to funnel them through a single barrier, leading to major queues.

What do you think? Click here to email us your opinions. We'll publish the lot.

"It was absolute mayhem," one disgruntled commuter told the Yorkshire Evening Post.
"When I got off the train, there was a wall of people in front of me.

"It took us about five minutes just to shuffle down to the end of the platform.

"I couldn't understand why so much effort was being made to get us through this one gate when people coming from other parts of the station could basically wander through whichever they liked."

The new barriers have replaced the line of manned ticket booths which until now have divided the station's platforms from its main concourse area.

Train operator Northern Rail funded their introduction to try to reduce congestion at peak periods and discourage fare-dodgers.

A spokeswoman for the firm said it was hoped the computer software problems responsible for this week's disruption would be ironed out as soon as possible.

She also said 20 out of the 25 barriers had been in operation for Tuesday evening's rush-hour and had performed "very well".

The spokeswoman said she had received no reports of lengthy delays during Wednesday's morning peak.

Well personally speaking I haven't had any problems since the automatic barriers were introduced a couple of days back and at least it means an end to people who cause a queue at the old manned ticket barriers by asking inane questions such as asking is this where tickets are bought or asking which platform a particular service departs from even though close by there are signs pointing to ticket machines / booths, help desks at both the concourse and platform area of the station and the big departures sign in the concourse and platform area.

I think it is a good thing that Leeds now has automatic barriers. Is there a timeframe at launching barriers anywhere else in the near future as I believe such barriers are planned at Wakefield Westgate, Doncaster and Sheffield stations and are there barriers planned for anywhere else which I guess in time could be introduced at all full time manned stations?

[Leeds No.1]

When I've been through, the gates have been open.

York might get ticket gates?

[Immunda Leodis]

They were working very well today hallefuckinglujah!!!!