Platform lock
The platform lock - also called platform lock - ensures that only people with a ticket or platform card can enter or leave the platform .
Today it is largely possible in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to stay unhindered on the freely accessible platforms. Exceptions are regional trains within several transport networks , the platform areas, or in underground separated -powered areas behind ticket validators , only with a valid ticket or card platform may be entered; but this only applies locally.
history
At the beginning of the railway age, access for travelers to the new, unfamiliar and therefore dangerous means of transport was strictly regulated. The travelers were only allowed onto the platform when the train was there, and were trapped in it after they stepped onto the train.
Since at the end of the 19th century compartment cars still predominated without a transition from one compartment to the other, the conductors often had to shimmy from compartment to compartment on stepping boards on the outside of the car , which repeatedly led to serious accidents. In some railway administrations, tickets were checked while the trains were standing in stations, which took a lot of time. Therefore, ticket control was relocated to the access to the platform. For this purpose, barriers were set up at which railway officials checked the tickets when entering the platform areas, and in many cases also when leaving. After passenger coaches with wagon crossings had reached a significant share of the total stock and because of the increasing pressure on personnel costs, access to the platforms at any time was given in the mid-1960s, which at the same time improved the ability to cope with the increasing number of travelers; the tickets were only checked regularly on the train.
Barring access to the platform is still practiced at some long-distance train stations, such as the Paris-Nord train station for Thalys , but mostly has other reasons, such as the previous security check.
Country specifics
In Great Britain, platform barriers in the London area are an essential part of the payment system. They are also used in various subway systems, for example in Paris or Barcelona . Around 1912 there were platform closures in Belgium , Bulgaria , Italy , Austria-Hungary and Spain, among others . Platform closures were in place at larger train stations in Denmark , France , the Netherlands , Romania , Sweden and Norway . In Switzerland , however, they were only to be found in exceptional cases as temporary facilities at major events or on public holidays, for example on the occasion of the 1st Swiss Exhibition for Health Care and Sport , or Hyspa for short , which took place in Bern from July 24 to September 20, 1931 . Apart from that, it was already available from May 24, 1905 in the stations of Schaffhausen (platform 3 only) and Basel Bad Bf operated by the respective German railway administration , which led to incomprehension and massive protests from cantonal travelers.
In the subways of many metropolises outside Germany, such as the London Underground and the Métro Paris , access barriers to control tickets are part of the system that suppresses fare - dodging. Since the 1980s, tickets with magnetic strips have also been used. Often such blocks, as on the Paris RER routes (comparable to a German S-Bahn), are also used at the exit: A computer checks whether the ticket was valid for the distance traveled. In the case of subways in the USSR and in other countries that were built according to the Soviet model, platform barriers that were open in the basic position and were connected to coin-operated machines were used. Since 1961 a single trip has cost the standard price of five kopecks. To ensure reliable operation, five-kopeck coins that are noticeably large in relation to the other coins were introduced. When trying to pass a lock without paying, it closed with a loud clang for social control. Tickets were not issued, so and because of the uniform tariff, there were no exit controls.
On many European railways, tickets purchased in advance , including from ticket machines , have to be validated at the digital validators installed in the stations, otherwise they are not valid for the journey.
In some countries such as China , platform barriers are not only commonplace, but have even been further developed into systems that in some cases resemble a gate at an airport. China Railway High-speed stations in particular are similar in structure to them.
In Spain, platform closures were reintroduced when the high-speed line Madrid – Seville went into operation, initially provisionally and only temporarily before trains started moving towards a regular-gauge high-speed line. Around 2000, the establishment of permanent and permanent platform barriers began at all stations, from which trains are let down in the direction of a high-speed line. In addition to ticket inspections, luggage inspections also take place; passengers transferring usually have to be inspected again. Connections on the same platform are excluded. In Spain there are only exit controls in S-Bahn networks.
Germany
Procedure
In the territory of the Prussian railway administrations , ticket control was relocated to the access to the platform from October 1, 1893. As a rule, there were separate conductors' cabins ("tubs") for access to and exit from the platform area.
abolition
The Deutsche Reichsbahn began to abolish platform barriers around 1960. The first major station where the blockade was lifted in 1960 was Leipzig Hbf. For a long time, the exception was smaller stations in rural areas with intermediate platforms that could only be reached by crossing the tracks. In most cases, however, stationary ticket controls at the platform access were dispensed with by the 1970s at the latest. Only the Zoologischer Garten train station in West Berlin had platform closures until the 1980s.
In 1965 the Deutsche Bundesbahn announced that it would abolish the platform barriers at all stations where this is not necessary for safety reasons. The aim is to meet the passengers and avoid traffic jams at the controls during rush hour: There is no potential for savings, since most of the 5000 officers are "war-damaged or physically disabled" and cannot be deployed in other areas. However, a prerequisite is the prior approval of a fare surcharge of 20 D-Marks for fare dodgers . In a six-month test in Stuttgart's main train station , the passengers would have "cheated the train by the grain".
From September 1, 1965, the platform barriers were gradually abolished in individual stations in the area of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, and then nationwide in the summer of 1974. The income from the platform tickets by far no longer covered the costs for sales and inspection, and continuous inspections were possible on the trains. Above all, however, the increasing number of passengers made a modification of the traditional system necessary. The date of the final abolition corresponds to the soccer world championship in Germany in 1974 .
See also
literature
- Ulrich Gerke: Hole by hole . In: Eisenbahn-Geschichte 26 (February / March 2008), pp. 35–37
- Röll: Encyclopedia of the Railway System . 2nd edition 1912, volume 1, p. 431
- Albert Kuntzemüller: The platform lock . In: Jahrbuch des Eisenbahnwesens , 5th edition (1954), pp. 147–159
Individual evidence
- ↑ Royal Hanover Railway Directorate . Timeline: establishment - designation - dissolution. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
- ^ Röll, Encyclopedia of the Railway System. 2nd edition 1912, volume 1, p. 431
- ↑ Machine for issuing platform tickets on sbbhistoric.ch, accessed on March 25, 2019
- ^ Hans Wolfgang Scharf: The railway on the Upper Rhine. Volume 1: From Basel to Lake Constance 1840–1939. (= Southwest German Railway History, Volume 4). Eisenbahn-Kurier Verlag, Freiburg 1993, ISBN 3-88255-755-9 , p. 255
- ↑ The Prussian-Hessian Railway Association , which had been formed in 1896, followed suit in 1899 (Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (Ed.): Collection of the official gazettes published on October 21, 1899. Volume 3, No. 45. Announcement No. 434, p. 329f ); the stations of the later incorporated Main-Neckar Railway 1903 (Announcement No. 222, p. 205. In: Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (Hg.): Collection of the published Official Gazettes 7 (1903). Mainz 1904. Official Gazette of April 20, 1903. No. . 22.)
- ↑ Lock up, close your eyes: honesty test at Stuttgart main station . The time . April 23, 1965. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
- ↑ Without lock . The time . August 20, 1965. Retrieved May 14, 2011.