South London stations to see new ticket gates as part of £33m fund
Funding of £33.4 million has been announced by the Department for Transport for new ticket gates at a number of stations across the country including Gipsy Hill and Elephant & Castle.
Elephant and Castle is of note as it’s one of the stations in Zone 1 London without any gates at present.
The station sits beside a major redevelopment project which includes the former shopping centre, with one exit formerly leading directly to the post-war shopping mall.
Whilst Elephant & Castle tube station is seeing vast investment as part of the area’s redevelopment totalling at least £185 million, far less funds have been allocated to the railway station despite frequent links to various central London stations such as Farringdon and St Pancras.
This investment is still a fraction amount compared to Underground spend after today’s announcement. Rail is very much second best.
It’ll be interesting to see where gates will be located in the cramped station, as it could easily lead to congestion for passengers without substantial work on the station itself.
Work in the area includes thousands of new homes alongside new shops and a campus for London College of Communication (LCC). Upon opening in 2027 over 5,500 students and staff will be located on site.
Other stations across the country set to receive a share of £33.4 million include:
- Avanti West Coast: Stafford, Liverpool Lime Street
- East Midlands Railway: Market Harborough
- Greater Anglia: Witham, Rayleigh, Ware, Hertford East and Manningtree
- Thameslink Southern Great Northern: Royston, Stevenage, Elephant and Castle, Worthing and Gipsy Hill
- TransPennine Express: Manchester Piccadilly
- West Midlands Trains: Tamworth, Nuneaton, Worcester Foregate Street and Worcester Shrub Hill
Southeastern
No Southeastern stations are included including the Metro network where most stations are ungated and also see minimal staffing levels alongside no onboard customer facing staff on trains.
On the Greenwich line, for example, between Deptford and Slade Green there are 12 stations. Only one is gated by Southeastern (Woolwich Arsenal) with TfL managing and gating Abbey Wood. The other ten are open.
When TfL took over management of Abbey Wood station, counted passenger numbers immediately jumped 50 per cent as ticket gates were installed and in operation all day suggesting the real number of passengers along the line is far higher than what is counted.
That wasn’t due to the Elizabeth line as TfL took over Abbey Wood station years before the line commenced.
It may be factor that the correct passenger counts are not being made and so the area has seen service cuts in recent years.
Other Southeastern Metro lines lack staffing and gates including major growth areas such as Kidbrooke with 5,500 new homes alongside stations such as Crayford, where work has just commenced on nearly 600 new homes.
Hi
All financing of the railways will now be based of political expediency ie have they any money…not on commercial decisions…are lots of people not paying so we need more staff in security areas…
A Govt with a large Control Agenda but no brains….nothing new
Royal Dean i could not agree with you more. We need more station staff on stations from first train to last train. More gates at stations to stop the massive fare evasion problems on all our transport networks costing millions of pounds each year in lost revenue. Which could have been spent on improving services and making our public transport network much safer for passengers..
Security also needs to be stepped up at stations with more visible security officers.
People will just barge through the ticket barriers as staff manning the gates cannot challenge those without a ticket unless BTP start patrolling at stations more and work with revenue protection.
I have to say that when I catch the train from Charing Cross station in the evening, the gates are always open, and pretty much everyone walks through without tapping in.
I have to say that when I catch the train from Charing Cross station in the evening, the gates are always open, and pretty much everyone walks through without tapping in.
Rayleigh railway station can’t have ticket barriers because there isn’t any room for ticket barriers to be installed and same with Wickford, Hockley, Rochford and Prittlewell. I know that Billericay, Southend Airport and Southend Victoria stations do have ticket barriers.
Great British Railways who are to dominate England’s railway lines, trains and railway stations next year will have the opportunity to install new ticket barriers at stations. That haven’t got ticket barriers and to stop fare dodgers from avoiding paying a train ticket. Which I think it’s a great idea to install ticket barriers to stop fare dodgers and people who have invalid tickets.