On 13 Dec, 14:10, Paul Corfield wrote:

[Ungated Waterloo W&C platforms]

There is no practical or safe way of gating Waterloo W&C. *The long
gallery is too narrow and to place them at the ends of the ramps /
stairs would offer too little space. Also it is madness to place gates
at the tops of stairs or ramps with no reservoir or run off area. *The
same argument applies to the exits at Waterloo - gates would be placed
in corridors or very busy circulating areas. *I understand there are
huge queues at Waterloo for the W&C in the peaks and that these extend
right up the stairs and ramps - another factor making gating unsafe and
impractical. * There is no point in sacrificing common sense just to
stick gates in and I say that as an advocate of them!


In this context 'safety first' makes absolute sense.

Re the W&C overcrowding - I finally managed to pursuade someone I know
who works on Queen Vic Street in the City that instead of bitching
about the packed W&C line it would just be easier and more relaxing if
they just walked, and now she's full of the joys of the non-wobbly
Millenium Bridge, the Tate Modern and the pubs in the backstreets of
Waterloo!


I wasn't aware that the DLR corridor gateline had gone at Bank as it's
yonks since I have been there. However the LU system is not fully gated
and never, ever will be in my view. There are too many places where
cross platform interchange exists and where it is completely impossible
to gate that there is always a risk of "leakage". *


I think I'm right in saying that in days of yore the W&C platforms at
Bank were ungated - that's when there were gates along the passageway
to the DLR and the rest of the station (i.e. the passageway with the
tunneling shield embedded in it). Then a few years ago the W&C
platforms were gated, thus bringing them inside the 'fare-paid zone'
of the rest of the station - hence the gates in the aforementioned
passageway were removed (though you can still see the marks on the
floor and at least until fairly recently there was an empty glass-
fronted control cabinet for the gates still in place).


This is why LU uses validators for such locations where there is a
boundary between fare systems - I devised the concept of the Prestige
validator and wrote it into the specification. *At that time I was not
aware that it would become quite so well used at places like DLR and
Tramlink and NR locations but generally it works. *I'd prefer there to
be more publicity to aid passengers using them so the circumstances in
which you touch or not were clearer.


Aha, so you're behind the standalone validators then - I was under the
impression that Kulveer dreamt up the whole Prestige system himself...
I jest, I jest!

Interesting that you didn't think they would be so widespread - what
was the thinking about the DLR and Prestige then, were you expecting
DLR not to participate in PAYG? And did you and the team think
National Rail stations would mostly be gated, or had you given up in
exasperation of any idea that the railways might join in too?