To do this on the train?

[Wheresthesandman]

I travel to and from work on the train every day, always at rush hour. It’s a busy station in a university city. I buy a monthly paper season ticket, which has to be shown with a photo card when the inspector asks for it. You also have to go through barriers to get to and from the platforms. Normally I remove my ticket from the holder, put it through the machine and then put it back in the holder. However there is always a member of staff on duty by one of the barriers, generally they just look at the tickets and wave people through (sometimes the barrier they stand by is permanently open, sometimes they open it by holding their card to it) as the paper tickets often don’t last the whole month before they stop working and when the station is busy it gets people through the barriers quickly.

Today I got to the station a few minutes later than usual, and joined the queue of people at the manned barrier as it was the shortest one. The teenage girl in front of me had her ticket in her hand and was waved through, but when I showed him my ticket the guard said “Why aren’t you using your ticket?”. I obviously looked a bit confused so he said “Why are you coming though here?”. I laughed/smiled a bit awkwardly and said “Just because it’s quicker?” as that is the only reason why. It was the shortest queue to get through the barriers/gates so I joined it. He laughed, but not in a nice way, and said sarcastically “Oh because it’s quicker? Wow...” and turned his back on me. I don’t think it is unreasonable of me to do it (nobody has ever mentioned it if I’ve done it before) and to be honest even if it was then he was still really rude.

Am I being unreasonable to do this when there is a guard stood there anyway, opening the barrier for people? I don’t think I am (or I wouldn’t do it!) but I’ll stop if I’m being rude!

Should say “At the train station”, obviously

Of course it's not unreasonable but in my experience people on barriers can be rather unpleasant.

Years ago at Reading, I wanted to go through the manned barrier because I knew the automatic barrier would swallow my ticket and I hadn't got a receipt. The guy on the barrier was such a twotsit and refused to open the barrier for me, saying I should have got the receipt.

I wouldn't stand for it now and would just tail-gate. I've done it when my smartcard hasn't worked at Waterloo or the ticket hasn't worked (because I've kept it within 10 meters of my mobile phone, perhaps) and there's nobody around to help or they won't help.

Ignore them. it's not a very nice job and it tends to attract not very nice people, although the people who work at Woking have been quite nice in my experience, Not so the people at Waterloo or Reading!

That makes me feel better, thank you. I really didn’t think it was, but I was a bit thrown by how pissed off he seemed about it!

I always thought that the manned barriers were for people who had a problem with their ticket for instance it wasn't accepted by a machine, or people with lots of luggage/children/a pushchair?

Everyone uses the manned barriers when it's the quickest way through, most commuters would do the same as you, don't worry about it.

I've also experienced unpleasant staff at stations by the barrier. Our local station has no ticket machine. We don't buy a ticket on the app before catching the train as the train is frequently cancelled. Once on the platform/train wifi/4G is patchy (rural area) so the standard practice is to buy the tickets off the conductor on the train. Sometimes the conductor doesn't come round so you can't get a ticket and therefore can't get out of the barrier at the station in the main town. On one such occasion, we raced down the steps and immediately asked the person at the bottom for tickets. The jobsworth told us to WAIT in a very abrupt and stern tone (as if we'd done something wrong!) They made us wait until all the passengers off that train had gone through the barriers (even though there were 2 staff members there) before they would sell us a ticket - by which time I counted 15 people in the queue to buy tickets because they hadn't been able to get one on the train. Some people are just unecessarily rude when doing their jobs!

Perfectly sensible of you. I use a couple of stations where there aren't enough barriers for the number of passengers (a whole other gripe...) and often the staff will lock open the wide gate and wave through paper ticket people to speed things up. It's also less faff than having to get your ticket out of the wallet.

Seems like he was just being a bit obnoxious then!

@ConstanceL I guess it’s primarily for people with ticket issues, yes. There is an extra wide barrier for pushchairs, etc. That is often the one they choose to stand at, but not always!

You were using the access barrier because it's quicker? Not ok imo. I have to use access barriers regularly and if everyone did what you did it would remove the benefit for many people.

Just use the normal barrier?

ok.. fwiw, people like you annoy me, OP.

my workplace is 3+ miles from station*, so i bring my bike on train.
I can only go thru one set of barriers b/c they stupidly redesigned the barriers so only one barrier gate is wide enough for bikes.
Then I have to wait behind people who could go to to ANY barriers. Yet so many don't know how to use tickets so need staff help & end up at the only barriers that I am allowed to use.

If the Qs really aren't any shorter at the other barriers, then whatever.

but ime, it's always the staffed barrier that has longest Q, and the staff usually end up at the only wide barrier. So...

I feel same about train doors; there is only one I am supposed to use due to bike. My heart sinks when it's the door closest to the barriers. People will Q waiting to board for ages at the first door they see, long after everyone has boarded at the other train doors 40 feet away. Irk. Even though exit at actual stations where we go will be faster from the doors furthest from barriers.

*Taking bus home from work in rush hour is so slow that I'd be better off walking the 3+ miles, sometimes I do, but that's an extra 80-120 minutes/day commuting.

You’re technically in the wrong if you haven’t scanned/put your ticket through the barrier. Mainly because if you don’t do so, you could claim a refund after as your ticket wouldn’t be registered/marked as used, which happens once it’s scanned/put through. Albeit you have a season ticket so the fraud aspect isn’t as prominent with a standard single/return ticket.

You just need to reframe it as ‘to help with people flow’ and then it’s fine, I reckon.

He was a cunt. There's a lot of it about.

The worst jobsworths always used to be at Reading station, where they made you put your ticket through the barriers to prove it wasn’t working before they’d let you through. I don’t miss using that station.

Everybody does it too, don't worry about it. Some of the staff is incredibly rude. Maybe they are fed up with dealing with the public, but they can look for another job. The public, the clients are fed up with the shit and expensive service. They don't have a choice though.

Ignore and forget the pathetic idiot.

In defence of staff at manned barriers, since I’ve had to use crutches to walk, I’ve found they always wave me over to them!

Sometimes the conductor doesn't come round so you can't get a ticket

I think you’re supposed to go to the conductor.

I can't believe pp's have called this person a jobsworth, and idiot and a cunt for telling an able bodied traveller to use the barrier, thus leaving access barrier free for those who need it!

I have a discounted price ticket that will not scan and so have to use the manned wider exit - several occasions I have experienced unhelpfulness of staff usually at non peak times who don't open the barrier but ignore me trying to show my ticket and carry on their conversations with colleagues - sometimes they wave me away to the other exits and I have to stand there trying to show my ticket and explaining that it won't scan -it's frustrating but more so when I'm trying to get through to board a train as I'm concerned I could miss it whilst they don't let me through - Stratford and St Pancras and Waterloo have been the worst to date.

Tell him to bugger off and mind his own business.

@zoobincan Just to clarify, there is a wide barrier (If that’s what you mean by access, as opposed to the manned one) that is designed for wheelchairs, pushchairs, suitcases etc., that is not the one that he was standing at. They do sometimes stand at that one, but yesterday evening it was the one at the other end. That barrier gets used like any other one when the station is busy, but I very rarely use it. It’s actually the furthest away one from where I get on and off.

I wouldn’t go as far as to describe him as a cunt (anyone is allowed to have a bad day!) but he was rude. If he feels I shouldn’t be using the manned barrier there were much more professional ways of phrasing it than he did. He also didn’t say anything to the girl in front of me who seemed to do the same thing!

Sorry OP, my mistake.