"2, 4, 6, 8, we don't want no station gates!"

By Fiona Correia

 

Crowds of people gathered outside Sheffield City Hall, to protest against the installation of automatic ticket barriers in Sheffield train station.

The protest march took place at 3.45pm on Friday 27th February from Barkers Pool in the city centre. Men, women, children and the elderly assembled in front of the City Hall steps, armed with placards and posters all opposing East Midlands Trains barrier plan.

East Midlands trains are proposing to install ticket barriers inside the station to catch out anybody trying to use the trains without a valid ticket. Unfortunately for many Sheffield residents, the barriers will prevent easy access through the train station, to the city centre or the tram stop and footbridge located at the back of the station. For many people the footbridge is a safe and well lit walkway between the City Centre and the Park Hill and Norfolk Park areas. The barriers would obstruct their convenient root and force pedestrians to take a longer journey around the station.

Leader of Sheffield City Council, Councillor Paul Scriven disputed against East Midlands Trains argument for the barriers: “Their telling us there’s no other solutions. Well what about putting extra inspectors on the trains. There are solutions, if we can put men on the moon we can come up with a solution, which means we can keep our footbridge open.”

Margaret Smith a local Sheffield resident and member of the Green Party had this to say: “I use the trams because I live at Middlewoods, so I use the trams quite regularly. If they put gates across, it’ll make it very difficult for me, it’s very inconvenient for me and everyone else.”