On Apr 21, 10:15*am, "Paul Scott"
wrote:

"Matthew T^Dickinson" wrote:

On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:54:33 -0700 (PDT), Abigail Brady
wrote:

Are the HEX platforms at Paddington gated; and is there anywhere to
touch out at the Heathrow end?

There are no gates or validators at Heathrow or Paddington. The gates
on platforms 2-5 don't seem to accept any kind of Oyster card either.

The latter presumably being a sensible measure to avoid arguments with pax
expecting to touch out at Reading or Bristol etc...


Of course there's already some potential for such things to happen
when starting a journey at Euston (suburban platforms), Kings Cross
(suburban), Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street, as well as pax from
Paddington going beyond West Drayton on Thames Valley stoppers, plus
all the central London Thameslink stations as well [1].

And there'll obviously be plenty more opportunities for such things to
happen once Oyster PAYG on NR is introduced - one can inevitably,
unfortunately, see fare evaders willing to take the £5 unresolved
journey charge (as applies at NR termini stations) to get through the
gates at termini stations and then travelling out to gateless stations
in the hope that they won't encounter a ticket check en-route. I'm
certain this has been one of the TOCs concerns with regards to Oyster
PAYG - unlike LU, they do not benefit from having a more or less
comprehensively gated network of course.


-----
[1] Re Thameslink at London Bridge - none of the gates are currently
set-up to use Oyster PAYG, instead there are readers on the Thameslink
platforms that a passenger must use (on platform posters explain
this), and then at the gates you need to explain yourself to the
gateline staff before they'll let you though. Not an ideal
arrangement, but I'd say it's far preferable to hordes of folk
erroneously thinking they can use Oyster PAYG for all suburban London
journeys from London Bridge and then ending up with unresolved
journeys, plus also effectively travelling ticketless and so being
liable to penalty fares as well.