First Great Western is installing ticket gates at Plymouth and Exeter St David’s stations in a bid to improve station security and cut travel without a ticket.Work on the new gates began this week at Plymouth station and starts at Exeter St David’s next week. Plymouth ticket gates will be fully operational by the end of this week (December 8).

The move is an expansion of a policy that started with the introduction of automatic ticket gates at London Paddington station in 2004, which was hailed as an "enormous success".“These gates really make sense,” says Jim Beckwith, First Great Western’s Head of Revenue Protection. “The principal reason for installing ticket barriers is to safeguard ticket revenue. Only customers with a valid ticket can enter the platform area and then board trains. We obviously need to protect our revenue if we are to invest in making improvements to our services for customers. “These gates will make travelling without a ticket almost impossible. You need a ticket to enter the station, you need to show a ticket on the train and you need a ticket to leave the platform too. “There are definite security benefits for our customers too. We see a clear link between ticketless travel and crime on the railways. Criminals apprehended for theft on stations or vandalising railway property rarely have a ticket.“The gates are simple for customers to operate. They open when a valid rail ticket is inserted into a slot.There will be four gates at Plymouth station and four at Exeter St David’s, as passenger levels are very similar at both stations. Both stations will feature a wide aisle gate, which will be staffed at all times, for customers with wheelchairs, pushchairs and bicycles, and for any customers experiencing difficulties.

The gates at Exeter and Plymouth will be able to handle 120 people every minute, which means that there is plenty of capacity available. The highest monitored number of passengers passing the ticket barrier at Exeter St David’s station is 85 people in five minutes.

In London, where customers have become used to ticket gates, throughput is often recorded at more than 60 passengers passing through individual ticket gates in less than a minute.