Gates for East Midlands Trains
Sometimes I get the impression that companies do things purely because they have the ability to. I can think of no other reason why barriers have been installed at St Pancras Station for East Midlands trains arriving from the north.
This is something that has clearly happened in the last month, as the barriers weren’t there when I came back from Australia in June.
The result is that passengers disembarking from the train now have to put their ticket through a machine, and wait for a gate to open before getting into the main part of the station.
Given that half of the tickets don’t swipe properly and have to be checked manually, this is a maddening annoyance – particularly if you’ve got a tight connection.
It means a huddle of passengers builds up, trying to get through the entirely superfluous gates, and just gets even bigger as the frazzled souls attempt to get down the solitary escalator.
Reasons for installation of St Pancras barriers
I’ve tried my best to think of a single good reason for installing these barriers, but draw a complete blank. It can’t be for fare dodging, as the tickets are all checked on the train anyway. And if people are clinging on to the top of trains Indiana Jones-style, there are clearly bigger problems to worry about.
Perhaps it is to cut down on staffing costs? After all, before the barriers were installed, all passengers departing St Pancras to glamorous locales such as Derby, Leicester and Chesterfield had their tickets manually checked before boarding.
Well that would make sense – if it wasn’t for the fact that there are more staff members sat by the barriers than there ever were manually checking tickets.
It seems to me a classic case of a company getting a technology and deciding that if they’ve spent that much money on it, then they’d better use it. The customer experience seems to be a minor concern. So what if it annoys and delays a few people? So what if it takes the place of a system that was working perfectly well beforehand? The new toy must be used…
Have you come across equally pointless examples of technology hindering rather than boosting the customer experience? Preferably in a travel context – although I’m sure we’d all happily smash those self-service checkouts in Tesco*. If so, please share your thoughts by leaving a comment.
Tags: East Midlands Trains, St Pancras Station, technology, train travel, Transport
Do driving licences count?
I’ve long had the feeling that a UK driving licence looked like a well-worn laundry bill, and welcomed the new plastic photocard ones … which are only valid if accompanied by a piece of paper that looks like a laundry bill!
Sorry for veering off travel, but those bloody handheld keypads that the banks are now sending out to everybody. In order to bank online, you have to insert your card into a little 1980s-style calculator thing which then gives you a code that you type into the bank website in order to continue.
I know security is important and all that – but what a bloody faff! The whole point of online banking is you can do it anywhere and it’s quick and convenient. Now, these bloody keypads erase all 3 of those advantages. You can only bank if you have a keypad (so remember to pack one on holiday), it’s slows the whole process down to a crawl and it’s oh-so-convenient of course.
Message to banks: you should have used your vast profits last year to make your online systems better, not bring these bloody keypads in and then rob the country of billions of pounds. Don’t force us to fart around with fiddly, cheap, outdated technology and strings of meaningless code numbers. Infuriating.
@Matthew – Yes, yes, yes! I must have spent hours on the phone to my bank raging about those card readers. I don’t want one, and it does nothing for my security. It just annoys me, and makes everything take longer. Woe betide I forget to pack it and need to make a transaction whilst abroad.
On this note, special kudos has to go to:
1. St George in Australia. They have a secure code system, where they will phone your landline to check it’s genuine every time you make a transaction. So, completely defeating the object of internet banking, you can only make a transaction while you’re sat at home. After months of frustration, I finally got them to remove this ever so helpful security device from my account.
2. Lloyds TSB Airmiles credit cards. I got them because I can get Airmiles every time I use them. They advertise the cards at frequent travellers. Why, therefore, do they put a bloody block on transactions so frequently when the cards are used abroad? Come on chaps – some joined-up thinking wouldn’t go amiss. Of course people collecting Air Miles are likely to use cards abroad. Is it more likely to be someone on holiday or a Moldovan scamming scheme?
Dear Mr Grumpy
As a very occasional user of St Pancras, this post slightly went over my head until . . . UNTIL, the comment about Tesco. I did think I was in the same supermarket as my blogging fellow travellers. Now I’m not so sure. Do you mean to say you actually visit the supermarket of shame?!
Tesco? Diablo. Don’t go.
Otherwise, bon voyage with a very good blog.
Richard
(NOTE FROM DAVID WHITLEY: I edited this comment slightly for legal reasons – apologies Richard).