London Transport
SIR.---The two electronic " ticket gates at Tumham Green station, which Giles Playfair writes about
in your issue of August 6, are part of a major ex- periment London Transport is conducting into the possibility of introducing a completely new auto- matic ticket system on the London Underground. The system envisaged takes advantage of the most modern electronic techniques. Its potentialities in reducing staff costs and virtually eliminating fraudu- lent travel are of such far-reaching importance to London Transport—and. as a method of keeping costs down, to the fare-paying passenger—that the experiment is being pushed ahead with all possible speed.
The trials are still at an early stage, with different types of inward and outward gates being tested in public service at a number of stations in West London. Snags and difficulties, inevitable in an ex- periment of this kind, are being tackled systemati- cally as they arise in practice. and remedies are being found. The problem of luggage is one of them: that is why passengers with baggage have the alternative of using the normal ticket-collector's barrier alongside the new gates.
To be acceptable, any system which the Board finally adopts, together with its associated automatic ticket and change-giving arrangements, must be made to work so speedily that passengers can go through the barriers as quickly as they do today. The present indications are that each gate will have a capacity which will be as high as an ordinary ticket barrier under full control.
In all this development the 'co-operation of pas- sengers is. of course, essential. The great majority have taken the changes in good spirit, despite some initial delays, and London Transport is grateful to them.
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