Quote:
Originally Posted by James Shields
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.
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Hear hear. I haven't yet gone through Heuston with my usual cross-city ticket (Sandymount to Cork), but I know that I will have trouble with it when I get back to Heuston because it will say "no journeys left".
Quote:
Originally Posted by James Shields
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).
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The gate generally doesn't open until you take your ticket, to prevent people leaving it behind. It also doesn't open if there is someone right up next to the gate, because it thinks you're trying to get two people through.
Quote:
Originally Posted by James Shields
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.
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This is a safety thing, so that someone doesn't get crushed. The principal problem is that the gates are bi-directional (and have to be because there isn't enough space in most stations for more than three or four on each side). Therefore, the London-style gates won't work. There is an alarm that sounds (a "choo-choo" sound) when multiple people go through on a single ticket, but IÉ staff seem to studiously ignore it.
For myself, I block people from coming through behind without putting in a ticket. Most of the people I have stopped have been on an annual ticket that they say is malfunctioning :/
Quote:
Originally Posted by James Shields
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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Like most other similar inventions (scrambling of cable TV, having to activate MS Office, and making people go to an interview to get a passport in the UK), the gates reduce casual violations without really addressing the core of the problem, and due to the deficiencies in their programming, they are just getting on people's nerves now.