Does anyone else have problems with the barriers to/from the mainline
platforms at Marylebone? On at least one morning every week my Gold Card is
rejected with a 'Seek Assistance' message (which is easily resolved by
putting through the wide-aisle gate to revalidate it). This is not peculiar
to my current Gold Card as it happened with my previous ticket and with the
replacement that was issued once that one had become worn.

The problem only ever occurs on leaving the platforms, never on accessing
the platforms in the evening, and never occurs anywhere else on the mainline
or Underground network in London. It isn't an earth-shattering problem, now
that I know to revalidate it by using the wide-aisle gate (otherwise every
other gate throughout the Underground network will reject it for the
remainder of the day), it's just damned annoying and inconvenient when you
have a queue of other passengers virtually on your heels in the morning
peak, as you come to a halt and have to try to reverse back through them to
get to the wide-aisle gate.

This just seems a particularly strange problem, in that it only ever occurs
in that particular barrier line and only ever in the one direction. It's
clearly not a ticket fault as I'm using a new Gold Card and the problem also
occurred on the previous card and its replacement.

Jack Taylor wrote:
Does anyone else have problems with the barriers to/from the mainline
platforms at Marylebone? On at least one morning every week my Gold Card is
rejected with a 'Seek Assistance' message (which is easily resolved by
putting through the wide-aisle gate to revalidate it). This is not peculiar
to my current Gold Card as it happened with my previous ticket and with the
replacement that was issued once that one had become worn.

It does seem to be a peculiar "feature" of the gate line at Marylebone,
in that a ticket issued at Marylebone will quite happily work in any of
the gates, but one issued elsewhere (even another Chiltern station) will
sometimes only work in either the old gates (by the end of Platforms 1
and 2) or the wide gates.

And I think it's fairly safe to say that keeping a magstripe ticket next
to an Oyster and/or mobile phone does *not* affect it, as I do just that
and it generally lasts at least three months before needing replacement.

Cheers,

Barry

Barry Salter wrote:

It does seem to be a peculiar "feature" of the gate line at
Marylebone, in that a ticket issued at Marylebone will quite happily
work in any of the gates, but one issued elsewhere (even another
Chiltern station) will sometimes only work in either the old gates
(by the end of Platforms 1 and 2) or the wide gates.

Mine's a Chiltern-issue - and it's the old barrier line gates that I have
the problem with (although, to be fair, I can't comment with too much
authority on the new line, as I tend not to use them to exit the platforms,
as I'm generally heading for Melcombe Street, so try and avoid any crossing
manoeuvres with incoming passengers!). I've got into the habit in the last
couple of weeks of heading for the wide-aisle gate as a matter of course
now, although on Saturday night I didn't and again got caught by the old
gates (which is less of a problem when the station is quiet).

"Jack Taylor" wrote in message
...
Does anyone else have problems with the barriers to/from the mainline
platforms at Marylebone? On at least one morning every week my Gold Card
is rejected with a 'Seek Assistance' message (which is easily resolved by
putting through the wide-aisle gate to revalidate it). This is not
peculiar to my current Gold Card as it happened with my previous ticket
and with the replacement that was issued once that one had become worn.

The problem only ever occurs on leaving the platforms, never on accessing
the platforms in the evening, and never occurs anywhere else on the
mainline or Underground network in London. It isn't an earth-shattering
problem, now that I know to revalidate it by using the wide-aisle gate
(otherwise every other gate throughout the Underground network will reject
it for the remainder of the day), it's just damned annoying and
inconvenient when you have a queue of other passengers virtually on your
heels in the morning peak, as you come to a halt and have to try to
reverse back through them to get to the wide-aisle gate.

This just seems a particularly strange problem, in that it only ever
occurs in that particular barrier line and only ever in the one direction.
It's clearly not a ticket fault as I'm using a new Gold Card and the
problem also occurred on the previous card and its replacement.

Do they still have those scanners for the e-tickets?

wrote:

Do they still have those scanners for the e-tickets?

Yes.