Forum topic: Open the gate!

No way out. The newly installed gate at Palmers Green station is a serious impediment to anyone with a heavy load or who has difficulty climbing stairs

On the Sunday before last I arrived at Palmers Green station after a couple of weeks away.  I had with me a very heavy suitcase, but was easily able to pull it up the three small steps between Platform 2 and the car park and then wheel it home.  If I had returned one day later, I would have been in trouble, because the gate to the car park was well and truly closed off.  Having injured my back, I'm not supposed to lift heavy loads, but the only way out of the station would have been to carry the suitcase up the stairs to the booking office.

The following day (Monday 19th June) I again arrived on a northbound train, thankfully this time without a suitcase, but in the middle of the evening rush hour.  A very large number of people got off the train (the previous train had been cancelled "due to the unavailability of a member of staff", ie no driver) but the side gate was firmly closed and a hundred or more people had to make their way up the narrow staircase and through the confined space in the lobby, while other people were vainly attempting to get into the station.  It took about ten minutes from train to street, with people spilling out onto the narrow pavement.  Many of them then had to make their way down the even narrower pavement to the car park, adding an additional delay to that caused by the cancellation.

Potential health and safety incidents

Well, even Govia Great Northern seem to have realised that they had created a potential for health and safety incidents by forcing so many people to use the stairs and they have now started opening the side gate during the evening rush.  But at other times it is locked.

This has clearly been done to reduce fare evasion.  But it is a serious insult to the thousands of fare paying passengers who use the side gate in order to get to their cars or to avoid the crowded stairs and lobby. Even more importantly, it discriminates against people with heavy loads or who have difficulty climbing stairs.

Worst performing railway company in the UK

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), to use the full official designation, is officially the worst peforming railway company in the UK (see this report and notice that GTR is the only operator to have a separate section describing its inadequacies) .  A while back we had the prospect of a transfer of the Moorgate services to London Overground, renowned for its high standards of customer service, but this idea is now ruled out because the Mayor of London happens to be a member of the wrong political party.

It's bad enough that we have to put up with almost daily cancellations and a pathetic service at weekends and travel in scruffy trains with dirty windows.  But this latest change adds insult to injury.  It means that for many local people train travel will become less convenient;  more importantly, it discriminates against many passengers. I think we need to campaign to have the gate permanently open (or better still, completely removed).