Platform security

It is to stop people boarding trains that they don't have tickets for. I have a few months back been allowed on to the platform at Ipswich station to sit with my girlfriend as she had just missed the earlier train and there was half an hour to wait for the next one. The person on the gates seen what happened and opened the gate for me without my having to ask. It was early on a Sunday morning. I think it really depends on who you get as to how strictly they adhere to the rules.

It is all due to the flawed and costly idea that all stations have to have ticket barriers. It has some value on commuter routes where a high volume of tickets need to be checked, but in France the passenger validates their own ticket, and pays heavily if they are caught travelling without a validated ticket

As barriers generally fail to pass around 10% of tickets, and there are vouchers and passes which don't work the barrier, there is a requirement to have staff at the station when barriers are operating. Thus you will often find these expensive barriers left open for all to come and go as they please. Naturally many individuals will by now have worked out which stations have ticket barriers left open and the times at which this happens. It is often surprisingly early in the evening, even on major stations like Kings Cross.

The problem will be solved when DfT heeds the commonsense ideas of people like Richard Malins, based on the more sensible regimes used elsewhere in Europe. Basically a barriers solve evertything approach iis wrong, and a very expensive 'solution'

At Newcastle Central Station I was given a platform pass when seeing my children onto the train. Another time I was allowed through without being given a pass which a bit concerning as I was then the wrong side of the barriers without any evidence that I had not travelled!