Liverpool Street station is replacing its food kiosks with loads more ticket barriers

Do you commute via Liverpool Street station? Your journey might be about to get easier. The east London station is axing some of the food kiosks that sit beside the ticket barriers and replacing them with more passenger gates.

Liverpool Street is following in the footsteps of Victoria station, which removed retail outlets along the gateline to provide more ticket barriers. 

We’ll be sad to wave goodbye to those food kiosks, many of which come in especially handy after a few after-work pints – special shout out to the Cornish Pasty Co. for pumping the sweet smells of pastry through the station. But we’ll also be glad to no longer have to fight for our lives just to get through the barriers. 

Passengers will gain an expected 24 additional gates to get to and from the trains. Platforms 1-10 will see their number of ticket barriers increase from 36 to 60 – an increase of 67 percent. Of the 24 new ticket barriers, four will be wide access gates.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: ‘Our planned project to install more ticket gates between platforms 1-10 will help to minimise crowding at busy times, making it quicker and easier for passengers to move around the station. A similar scheme to add more ticket gates between platforms 11-17 has already been carried out.

‘We’re always working with our partners to give everyone at Liverpool Street the warmest possible welcome. Other improvements have included fast and free WiFi, better seating, revamped retail areas and a deep clean of our Bishopsgate entrance dome. Most recently, we launched a new space called Calm Corner, which we are using to promote wellbeing and encourage everyone to look out for each other.’

The City of London is currently considering the planning application to increase the ticket barriers in the station. 

Elsewhere in the capital, AI is being used to crack down on tube fare-dodgers. Software that can identify passengers who are likely to jump the barriers was tested at Willesden Green station, and will soon be rolled out to other locations.