ONscotland ) gurgled happily, sounding much like

they were saying :

I was sure that barriers were placed on the footbridge too...

Yes there are LU barriers on the footbridge, but they are placed so
they 'enclose' two of Paddington's suburban platforms from which First
Great Western Link services run (the gates are obviously programmed to
allow FGWL tickets as well as LU tickets). However you can also access
these suburban platforms by walking up one of them from the main
Paddington concourse - and this is the route that isn't gated.

LU knows about this route as the have provided Oyster readers on the
H&C platforms for those Pre-Pay passengers who enter via this route. I
presume the placement of the LU gates on the footbridge was determined
in part by space and safety considerations, and they could not merely
have enclosed the H&C platforms. As for why there are no gates on the
route from the concourse to the FGWL platforms, I don't know. But I don
know there arn't any, at the moment at least.

My ASCII skills are rubbish but here is an attempt to illustrate the
situation:

= is the footbridge
/ is the LU gates
_ are the stairs down from footbridge to platforms
'H&C' is the Underground H&C island platform s
'FGWL' is the FGWL suburban island platforms, with ungated access to
the concourse.


FGWL H&C
_ _
_ _
_ _
_ _
===/===_=====_