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@quixoticgeek Makes me happy once more to to live in #Vienna where those things work like this: If you have a ticket, you walk through. Otherwise, too (but you'd pay a fine when they catch you in one of the rare random checks).

@quixoticgeek the bad design goes very very very very deep with this one

Actually it goes to the very core of "why is it there to begin with?"

It shouldn't exist, most sane countries do just fine without gates. ESPECIALLY without gates that don't let you exit freely

@quixoticgeek adding 3 more of my own:

1. With an Aztec ticket, like an Interrail or one bought from DB, you have to scan it on an NS gate. This is counter-intuitive if you want to go/went on a different provider's train.
2. If you scan your Aztec at a wrong time, it might be considered invalid, and will be cached as invalid at a time it should be valid on.
3. Some gates are green from both sides unless the sensor is tripped on the other side, say, the entire wall of gates in Zwolle on Stationsplein Zuid side. If there is a large number of passengers on one side trying to go through, say, morning rush commuters going from a train to the bus station, succes finding a gate to pass the other way.

@quixoticgeek Fare gates in Japan (at least when I visited 20 years ago) work differently. Their default state is open - if you try to pass without scanning a ticket, it closes. So the throughput is insane.

All systems have errors, but with this one they decided a few people getting through without paying is worth making it slower for everyone else. The default position is that most people are not criminals, unlike these types of gate which come from the point of view that everyone is potentially a criminal and given half a chance will defraud anything.

The ticket scanners were amazing too: two different sizes of ticket, you could put them in upside down, back to front, even sideways and they'd still read it in a fraction of a second.

@quixoticgeek great thread, everyone working on these things or planning NS stations should have to read it.

Bonus annoyance for non-locals: some of these gates stand next to slightly different ones which will check you in to another transport provider (e.g. the Amsterdam metro) so you will think you have a ticket and still get fined on the train.

@quixoticgeek As someone used to UK gatelines, something about the design of these ones makes them feel very cramped and stressful. Mostly to do with the gate height I think?

@quixoticgeek bonus points when you try to exit the station with your DB (ICE) ticket

@quixoticgeek I would much rather have these gates than the "ticket control" thugs roaming the Oslo metro. You don't know how good you have it.

@quixoticgeek Beware the (The!) alternative! https://aus.social/@augustusbrown/116056539132449510

@quixoticgeek We almost got stuck with something like this in Oslo too. Fortunately the project was a total failure and now we just use an app for tickets. No gates. Just random ticket inspections with fairly high fines.

@quixoticgeek great rant, tnx for this one!

@quixoticgeek After having read this thread, I now understand why Belgium wants to install these in train stations. They're the perfect amount of awful to make Belgian public transport even worse. And that certainly isn't an easy thing to do. Well done for building something SO FUCKING AWFUL that it can actually make Belgium worse.

@quixoticgeek @fanf

@quixoticgeek oh we were stuck by these in Amsterdam, couldn’t figure out how to get in/out