Ticket gates are now being installed at Paddington station to wall off most of the suburban platforms and resolve the lack of full gating on the mainline platforms. They should come into use in the next month or two, hopefully coinciding with the extension of Oyster PAYG.The current setup is fairly interesting. Platforms 2-5 are gated at the concourse end, but the footbridge halfway along allows free access from the ungated platforms. Similarly, the gates on the footbridge for the Hammersmith & City Line (15-16) also include platforms 13-14, which are ungated at the concourse end, again making it easy to slip behind them.
The plan is to put a new gateline across the north side of the concourse (pictured) to enclose platforms 10-16, and move the H&C gateline along the footbridge to match. New gates on the footbridge will properly close off 2-5 (this diagram from the planning application should make everything clear).
Of the remaining platforms 1 is used for access and essentially ungateable; 6 and 7 are dedicated to Heathrow Express; leaving only 8-9 conspicuously ungated.
[diagram via uk.railway]
That's rather disappointing - I was hoping they'd turn the whole footbridge into a gated area, integrating the LUL and FGW ticket-compulsory bits rather than making you go through 2 gates to get on the Tube...
ReplyDeleteThey have integrated the LU and FGW compulsory ticket area on the suburban side. The footbridge has to be outside the gated area because it provides a NW entrance into the station, via the central platforms - it may even be a public right of way...
ReplyDeleteHmm, I can't see the Caffe Nero Express or Excess Baggage Company people being too happy about this. How is left luggage going to work (particularly from people going to/from Heathrow)? I imagine this will become the killer excuse for those seeking to evade fares...
ReplyDeleteAlso blocks access to the bike racks on platform 10.
On the plus side, unlike when they gated King's Cross Suburban, they haven't left the ticket machines behind the gates :)
Yeah, I also found it odd that some ticket machines were left behind the new gatelines at King's Cross, but now one has been shifted to a more sensible place (i.e. not in the paid-area) while the other has been removed altogether and replaced by two new machines. Apparently they weren't moved straight away because the wires connecting them were effectively under the platform track bed so an engineering possession of the lines into those platforms was required.
ReplyDelete"The footbridge has to be outside the gated area because it provides a NW entrance into the station, via the central platforms - it may even be a public right of way..."
ReplyDeleteThe footbridge at Guildford is both a gated area and a public right-of-way [you're issued a platform ticket should you wish to cross, and then prosecuted for fraud if you're caught boarding a train with it...]
Surely you could add an extra gate and a ticket machine at the footbridge entrance, controlled from the same place as the [putative] HEx barriers that this plan would also require?