I can understand IE's need to protect their revenue, but the implementation of exit validation has been badly managed from the start, with a lot of people getting treated like criminals for doing what has been normal practice for decades.
The exit validators have a very annoying 2-second delay when validating tickets. Aren't they the latest technology? I've been using the gates on the London Underground for years and you can walk through them inserting and collecting an old card ticket without breaking your stride (and even easier with an Oyster card).
Second, there is also a delay before the gates close, allowing hard core fare evaders to follow a genuine passenger. I think this is largely because of the sliding door design. The London gates open by swinging in the direction the passenger is travelling, and swinging back to shut very quickly after. This means that someone trying to follow through finds themselves pushed back by the closing doors, and unable to get through.
Perhaps the IE gates can be fine tuned, but in their current mode they are not catching the real cause of the problem.
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