Interesting story. I came into LHR from Barcelona on a Monday night recently and none of the e-gates were open. Everyone was funnelled into the manned desks. There wasn't a large queue as such - it was after 2200 - but there seems little point in investing public money into a system which works so intermittently.

its the workers - defending their jobs by switching the gates off

If everyone used the gates they'd be standing aboiut doing nothing and Mrs May would have them out on the street in seconds.......

e'mail arrived today from the Border Agency, after my issue of 27th April, well thats not bad for HM Government, and t'was confirmed that 25 min wait is acceptable to them for EU passport holder and 45 min wait for non EU holders and they feel they are doing well!

However no comment as to why the machines are needed to be replaced after 18 months

Imagine if that was the wait in your local Asda

Words capitive customers spring to mind

That's an average, so 1/2 are waiting longer than 45 minutes.

That is one reason why I avoid LHR and LGW! LCY and BRS are better (due to fewer non-EU/CH - and they have to have 1 lane for us)

Why the hell can't they use APIS data to pre-clear (or not) arriving passengers? I travel to the UK 10-15 times a year, never overstayed, never worked illegally, never used the NHS, never broke the law and they (should) know this. Agents always ask the same questions usually repeating what's on the landing card. A waste of everyone's time.

Passed through LHRT3 yesterday and one thing did strike me as I weighed up the auto or manual queues (an chose the manual option). When did the once homely immigration officers morph from white shirted civil servants into the LAPD SWAT team style of work attire with handcuffs prominently in place on their shirts . Some still have a sense of humour tho'.

[PEDANT MODE] No, that's not what "average" implies. The average tells you nothing about how many are above and below it. It could be that almost everybody waits 44 minutes, and one poor sucker (probably me) waits 3 weeks.

Remember, nearly everyone has more than the average number of legs. [/PEDANT MODE]

Hmmm - and the longest I've ever waited at Singapore is 10 minutes.... these long waits are really damaging to the reputation of the UK

Depends on the definition of the term "average", which is often used loosely, especially by politicians telling porkies.

If you mean mean, OK. But if you mean median, it's not quite the same as I'm sure you know. (PEDANT MODE OFF).

PS; I've now got a problem trying to work out the median number of legs of a group of 100, 99 of whom have 2 legs, and one is deficient by 1 leg. Mean is 1.98 legs per person, and I guess the median is 2, but the lunchtime glass is intervening.

pax b.

I mentioned that to my wife (the black outfits).

The same seems to have happened to the UK police.

I'm not suggesting that they wear pink (what was wrong with blue?), but I do think it makes the police look aggressive.

Not conducive to defusing difficult situations in my opinion.

Guess where that came from? The same place as the changes in the NHS and schooling in the UK. Quite why we have to have so much US influence in the way we do things is beyond me.

The US are good at some things-logistics like FedEx for example but their education is shocking and health care for the uninsured little better than witch doctor standards .

Why anyone in UK-a tiny country full of people would borrow ideas from US , almost an entire continent and mostly uninhabited is equally beyond me.

Oh and the US police are an example to all , as we well , know. All of these things started under the last Government and continued apace with this one so maybe Tony Blair got some kickbacks for starting it and David C is too scared of his rabid right to introduce ideas from the satanic EU.

Fronted T4 with UK docs, partner has AU only. No signage, so I do the decent thing and queue in the strangers bar. 45 minutes pass we get to front:

"oh, next time you can both use the EU passport lane"

But there is no signage. How can you know? You would feel like a complete queue jumping twonk to ask, but why can't they say "...and accompanying partner/spouses" on the signage?

As for "pay GBP70 if you do this more than 4 times in the last 3 months with two partridges and a quarantine approved pear tree and we *might* let you in expedited" .. please. No. don't charge to speed up. Speed everything up and we all win.

The oddy? You can (I believe) now use US and UK biometric passports in the AU/NZ readers. No reciprocity. As my partner said, if the did, they'd have to let the rest of the commonwealth in and that would be .. common.

Well that is the opposite of what I've been told. My British spouse can come with me in the 'other passports' or 'all passport' lanes but I may not accompany her in the EU/EFTA/CH lane.

Doncha just love the consistency!

Probably safer to be slow. At least you're only accused of being less optimal instead of being a queue jumper.

And if it is up to the discretion of individual staff to decide, its a system designed to fail.

T2 LHR Thursday 3 September 2015 about 1130. Enormous queue for Non-EU, practically no queue for EU. e-Gates no queue at all; they seem to be different to the ones I've experienced before in T5. They work but seem slower than T5.

The last I heard only 3 out of 10 e passport readers were actually working at Luton. This is 6 months after they closed for upgrading.

some poeple seem to jam them full of matchsticks - I wonder who................

The whole thing about queues at airports is a question of lies, damn lies, and statistics.

The airport owners want to quote short queues for everything. So they measure the queue for, say, security, or passport control, once every hour. They do this every hour. Including those times when no-one is going through the airport.
So one awful queue at 7.30 am is averaged out by zero queues at 01.30 and etc.

Not bashing this time BUT landed 21.30 Gate 21.40 Gatwick 18 manned desks all open and no queues

8 out of 10 e gates green and working and no queues either

made the 22.08 train (no luggage belts needed) having stopped at duty free to get perfume for SWMBO

Well Done Gatwick / Border Force

Hmm Luton on 13 Oct lets see how that compares....

I travel regularly from Munich to London(weekly) and find that my 2 year old UK 'e'passport never works in the German machines - neither incoming nor outgoing- but has always worked in the UK machines. I presume there must be something the German machines don't like about my passport(maybe my nationality!!:oh:).