Paul Corfield wrote:
I am also the person who spent a lot of time explaining the benefits of
gating and the business case issues to a wide range of TOCs as well as
the first private owners (Prism) of what is now C2C.

I don't see any bad side to 'gates', but the fact is the ones at Kings
Cross are inadequate. Now, I will accept your explanation for this
deficiency, but that doesn't change the fact that they may be narrower
- so you can have more gates - but they're slow and cause all sorts of
problems. Others have commented on how they're bad at accepting
tickets, especially Oyster cards.

There are many different suppliers of gates and
while Cubic have the biggest share of the market they are not without
competitors.

Sure, but I doubt First will change supplier for the roll-out on the
remainder of the Thameslink branch and Great Northern - based on what
they already use.

Gates are a good thing, for sure, and I can't wait to see them at ALL
stations - but if they're that easy to get around, then there's a
serious issue to be dealt with. The use of gates will be a possible
justification to reduce staffing, and/or physical ticket checks. So,
they should be much more successful at stopping fare evaders.

What we have is a situation where fare evasion is a piece of p**s (for
want of better words), which means they gates are almost there just to
validate Oyster cards, collect tickets from the ordinary passenger and
maybe regulate the flow! We queue, while the others just double up and
get through scot free. Something is fundamentally wrong here!

Jonathan