To definitely jump the turnstile in this situation

[CurdinHenry]

https://x.com/MichelleDewbs/status/2064993574341513645

She has a ticket, it won't scan, staff insanely refuse to help so she can't get through and misses her train.

This in a city increasingly famous for tailgating.

I'd be hopping straight over.

I get the idea but they’re pretty high to actually jump over OP!!

'A city increasingly famous for tailgating' - bollocks. Indefensible claim.

'as soon as the platform was announced' - didn't happen.

There are loads of annoying things about real travel in this country but I just don't buy this and I am SICK of people trying to make London sound crap when it really, really isn't. It is a deliberate political campaign and it is a fucking annoying one.

You can absolutely tap in and out when using national rail if your journey is within London travelcard zones.

You can even tap in and out on some routes outside of travelcard zones, for instance all the way down to Gatwick.

You must live/work in a nicer part of London to me, then, because I see tailgating, or people just pushing through the barriers, every single day. I honestly don’t know why they bother with having staff at the ticket barriers, they never do anything about it.

And yes, at some mainline stations, the trains are only announced a few minutes before departure time. Euston is particularly well known for it and it’s a nightmare.

You wouldn't need to if the slackjawed staff pressed one button (which they often randomly do anyway to alleviate crowding)

Next you'll be saying no one ever got their phone snatched by a moped mugger in West Hampstead "fake news!!"

I mean London is still better than Paris (except for moped muggings)

And yes, at some mainline stations, the trains are only announced a few minutes before departure time. Euston is particularly well known for it and it’s a nightmare.

Agree. This seems the bigger issue to me. I am not in London all that often but when I am Euston is the station I need to use to get home. It seems like every time the concourse is rammed with people waiting and then the platform for the Manchester train is announced with 5 minutes to go and hundreds of people start the mad dash.

Why do they make you wait like that? Seriously, doe anyone know?

Same. Dewberry is a poor woman’s Katie Hopkins.

Yup. DH and I have had our wallets stolen twice on the Paris Metro.

Oh and last time I used the RER I did have to tailgate DH. I had a ticket but it wouldn't work.

Yes the RER is on purpose insane with often no one to help. I assume some people are stuck down there for many years.

And this is why I hate going to London.
Euston is full of beggars and the train company seems incapable of putting on the train service I've booked.

Last time two train worth of people tried to squeeze on to one train. That was awful.

I have no beef with Michelled Dewberry. But I really am surprised at this. I comnute into London, asmitedly London Bridge and London Victoria and, at one pount last year, every single time I wpuld pick up prebooked tickets at my station, no bartiers, and by the time I got to London they would be demagnetised and not work at the barriers and I'd spend all day asking people to open the barriers (I eventually worked out my mag safe phone case was dping it). In over a year, I never missed a train becasue of it and the first person I approached would take a quick look and open the nearest barrier for me, tube and trains.

At busy times at LV they would just open the suitcase barrier and visually look at tickets.

I am at Waterloo all the time. I'm not defending the train punctuality record but they give plenty of time for platform announcements and the staff are extremely helpful. If you stroll up via pret at the last minute and can't work a qr code then that's on you isn't it.

Euston is, I agree, a different matter.

London is not a halcyon glade of safety but nor is it the hellscape that casual expressions slagging it off without any supporting evidence make it seem. Increasingly famous for tailgating among whom? And is the increase a thing or a reputation? It's just unthinking bandwagon jumping and it's really annoying among a deliberate campaign against London in certain quarters.

Agree with @Poppingby in that I use Waterloo daily and have never had an issue with late announcements or queuing. I've had to get my ticket checked to be let through because the turnstile was playing up and never missed a train. Just one regular beggar as far as I've encountered but plenty of delays due to signalling failures or suicides.

Euston is indeed a dump and badly run in comparison

I use the tube regularly too and have only ever seen one instance of someone tailgating through having not bought a ticket.

I'm not saying these things don't happen occasionally but certainly not as often as certain commentators with agendas would have us believe (and often haven't actually happened to them either despite saying so).

I think it is so the cleaners can prep the train without the inconvenience of passengers boarding. At waterloo I don’t think they bother cleaning the trains.

I find it hard to believe that the staff wouldn’t help. My experience is that if there’s a problem, you show the ticket to staff, they check it and then let you through. That’s partly why they’re there.

Also, I discovered recently that if you book online, the app shows you which platform your train is leaving from before it goes up on the screen. I’ve wondered for ages how people knew.

Why not use digital tickets?

You absolutely can for many destinations. I do it daily.

I’ve been using public transport extensively for 30+ years. I have never encounter this issue. And I think have seen someone fare dodging a handful of times. Endless rage bait is so draining for our society.

Trains don't run every 30 minutes to most destinations; try 1-2 hours.
The vast majority of train users are commuters, of course 30 minutes is a huge amount of time if you are traveling to work or an appointment.
Seats are reserved on the train you are booked on. So not only is the ticket not valid on the next train, but you might have to stand for the whole journey too.

I don't have any experience of Waterloo so no idea if her story is likely, but I do have experience of Euston and can absolutely imagine it there.

She should’ve got there earlier so there was time to solve the issue

No idea who she is but what a twat! It's frustrating, but just get the next train.

She's a businesswoman that won the second series of The Apprentice, thought she was special enough to write her autobiography the following year, then after a few years of silence started appearing on reality TV, then got into politics (standing twice for Parliament for the Brexit Party and failing dismally), and then took the GB News shilling which is why she regularly posts crap on X to give her something to rant about on her show having gained "opinions".

So, yeah, twat

If you jump the barrier you would stopped by staff immediately. You’d definitely miss your train then.