Jonathan Morris wrote:

Paul Corfield wrote:
I post here for *fun* - this isn't my job or even an extension of it. I
hope I add something to the group by commenting or sharing information.
If people are going to expect more from me than I can ever hope to
deliver - and it's happened once before - I'll simply have to go. (Don't
all cheer at once!).

Time to go on the defensive here...!

I am not holding you responsible WHATSOEVER, but when you stuck up for
them and other people criticised them, I felt it was okay to ask what
you thought about them. It doesn't matter either way, and it doesn't
bother me /that/ much.

Yes, I am concerned that people can avoid paying their fare as a
result. Part of this is because in the space of a week I had two people
double up on me, but I don't lose that much sleep over it. I'm not
about to pin them down to the ground and place them under citizens
arrest! Maybe I should (!) and the possible upside would be that you
wouldn't be reading this now; I'd be in hospital, or worse.

You got me wrong the last time too. I have an opinion, just like you
do, and it seems to be shared by passengers and officials alike. You
did say you were involved in their roll out so please excuse me if I
didn't see elsewhere that it was a long time ago. I am not fully up to
speed on when these gates first appeared anywhere, although I know
Kings Cross was obviously not the first.

While I'm sure it would be lovely to imagine that I'm personally
accountable for everything that happens on LU I'm afraid I'm not. I
can't take ownership of every issue or go round quoting one post from a
newsgroup as some grounds for doing something.

I have a great deal of respect for you, and your postings. I would have
to say that the gates are about the only thing I have a beef about, so
it's not all bad is it?

You obviously have an enormous "bee in your bonnet" about these gates
and you should therefore raise your concerns through the correct
channels if you have not already done so.

See my comment above. I have written on more than one occasion about
them, but I write a lot (such is life for a journalist) and that
doesn't mean it's a crusade or a personal attack on you.

FCC are already noticing the
problem with the new gates on the GN branch, where people are managing
to get through pretty easily.

I assume you have also complained to FCC.

I don't really need to complain. I have contacts that I can and do
speak to about such matters. I also deal with the PR for TfL and have
met them before (albeit about things like the journey planner service
and other online/mobile services and not so much the actual train
service), but it isn't a big enough deal to start complaining about the
gates. Should I meet anyone from TfL about something else, I may well
slip it in to conversation - we shall see.

I picked on you because you claimed to have some involvement and seem
to know just about everything you need to know about the tube. As I was
mistaken about all the facts, I can simply go away and whinge like
everyone else in private. Doesn't change the fact that the gates are
too slow though.

I have not been involved in Prestige or ticket gates for 8 years. The KX
gates are a further development of the Mk1 electric "slim" gate - I was
involved with that development and while not perfect [1] I think it has
done very well given it was used to extend LU gating and has been used
extensively on the TOCs. The fact I can talk about the gates is a sign
of my elephantine memory rather than knowledge of recent developments.

Fair enough.

Jonathan

I've no desire to start a spat, that's neither my style nor how things
are done here on utl.

However I would just say that it's possible you've slightly misjudged
the tone of utl - we don't do "picking" on people. I'd add that your
mild invective seems to have been fired by a misunderstanding of the
situation (I'm going to avoid the rather obvious ribbing one could make
about facts and journalists). Paul has not AFAICS specifically stuck up
for the KX gates whatsoever - as he says himself, he was involved in
the development of their predecessor, the Mk1 slim gate. If you search
the archives you'll see that these new KX gates have not got a good
write up (I've no idea if the gates FCC has used on the GN are the
conventional Mk1 or the newer model as used at KX).

I'm quite sure that if someone in LU came up to Paul and said "hey, our
new gates are the bees knees aren't they" he would demur, but I suspect
that the issue is well known about in LU so no-one would have the
temerity to say such a thing!

Anyway, the man posts here in his spare time, in an unofficial capacity
yet has the honesty to both post in his own name (something I've
totally failed to do) and not only acknoledge that he works for LU but
discuss some of the past projects he's been involved in. He has readily
spoken of some of the compromises that had to be made when it came to
gating the whole LU network, of the total reluctance of the TOCs to
even believe that the Oyster system was ever going to happen let alone
get involved in it, of the good and bad aspects of LU's working culture
and many other things. And I'm not suggesting that Paul is a wilting
violet, far from it, but why on earth would anyone wish to finish the
day at work and then sit down to read a load of people giving him a
hard time - especially for something he wasn't involved in. I don't
think I'd stick around.

OK, thankfully my spiel is over! I eagerly await accusations of my
outright brass neckery, considering my relative usenet newbie status
compared to your pedigree ;-)

By the by, I did once have someone try to sneek ahead of me through
ticket gates. They didn't succeed and ended up on the floor, much to
the amusement of the LU staff (and, dare I say, much to my
satisfaction!).