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Part of my three months global interrail I will be based in Northern London, close to suburban Mill Hill Broadway railway station, served by Thameslink. From there, for instance, I have a direct connection to Tate Modern. It has gates, like many other stations in and around London. You can't open them with your ticket, so you need railway staff.
(I do not mean the tube stations, were interrail is not valid.)

My question is: does anybody has experience with such railway stations, where there any difficulties? Was there always staff to help you in or out? Do they know interrail is valid?

I'm a little bit worried, because I'm from the Netherlands, where we have, in my opinion, quite a hostile gate system. And in another topic somebody mentioned problems getting into the Elisabeth Line, where interrail is valid. On the other hand, traveling through London before (with Oyster card), British staff was always friendly, very helpful and they usually managed to make me happy.

Thanks for experiences and tips!

 

In Great Britain, when a station has gates, there is either staff, or the gates are open.

In the Netherlands, you can always use the blue information button to have the gate opened remotely.

Thanks, rvdborgt. I wondered already why gates were open late evening. Two days from now I will have some British interrail experience. If everything goes smooth, or anything unusual or unexpected happens I will report it here.

Some experiences:

Outside London (Bexhill, Canterbury, Liverpool stations): staff everywhere. Greater London stations (St Pancras, Euston): lots of staff.

Smaller suburban stations however:

West Hampstead: closed gates, no staff. Had to leave close behind another passenger, gate almost destroyed the laptop in my backpack. Staff in a hall nearby apologized. Somebody knows what to do in such cases?

Mill Hill Broadway (my "home” station in northern London): on weekday mornings and Sundays gates are open. No staff. Weekday evenings: had to jump like an ape to get attention from the staff in the office. They had to come out, open some sort of computer cabinet and push a button in order to open the gate.

 

As far as I know, staff in GB are supposed to watch the gates when they are closed. In case of difficulties, you can file a complaint with the operator managing the station.

If you really can't get out, maybe call the police?

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