BigFlyer

What a pain.

Came through Schiphol last week - must have been about 20 people in line in front of me in the EU passports line, with only one officer staffing the line. The automated gates were roped off and all had red x's. Took about 20 minutes to get through.

I asked the Koninklijke Marechaussee agent looking at my passport about the epassport gates - and she said they are only opened when it is crowded.

I assume they prefer to turn off the automated gates so they can interact with the passengers. I remember in the not too distant past arriving at Schiphol with an EU passport and being asked nothing. Now, they tend to engage in some conversation like "are you here on holiday?"

Seems to be a unique attitude to epassport gates that I have not seen elsewhere.

Solevita

Maybe there's some hidden cost in having the gates open (or not...). I had a somewhat similar experience coming into MAN T3 in July. Was first off the plane, first to immigration, nothing else seemed to have arrived recently thus nobody ahead of me.

Made my way through the empty snaking queue system to get to the e-gates to be told by the lady stood by them I need to wait a minute or so for them to start up?! Why not turn them on in the morning then off at night....

Ditto

20 minutes in the EU queue sounds pretty crowded to me, although one KMAR handling it is more or less the standard...

caliform

They break at a certain predictable interval, apparently. I was told by some annoyed KMAR that 'they work for a half hour, tops, until they crash'. The results of the classic Dutch process of picking the lowest bidder for the contract in action yet again.

Goldorak

BigFlyer

Both the airport employee who was directing people and and the KMAR person I spoke with said they were not broken, they were just not being used.

I think this is just part of the tightening of borders - by limiting the usage of the automated gates, fewer people get to enter Schengen without being directly questioned by a border guard.

bodory

Also in France they (Police) sometimes turn the machines off to protest against working conditions.

mfkne

I'm just glad my tax money is being spent so wisely.

Ditto

That doesn't make much sense for 2 reasons:
1. It is only for EU citizens who enjoy freedom of movement, the KMAR can ask whatever he wants but he can't really deny you entry if he doesn't like your story
2. The gates have you scan your passports and will detect any issues with it (e.g. if you are trying to enter using a stolen passport), as well as verify your biometric picture which makes forgeries much harder. this actually increases the security at the border...

johan rebel

I've discussed these gates with several KMar officers on duty in the Privium Lounge, and been given various explanations for why the e-gates are not used.

- due to their unreliability, they can only be used when there's a technician on site to deal with any problems.

- they can only be used when there is an officer available to supervise them. That obviously won't be the case when there is only a single officer on duty.

Johan

nldogbert

On both reasons, it is just so sad, this is really such a big waste in the monies we (be it via normal tax or airport tax) paid to Schiphol for this type of service. Really not sure how such a "Western" country can have gone for such a lousy system and not demand the supplier to improve it rather than have them there as a white elephant. Even in countries like Italy, Portugal and Spain they can have true automated gates that work, how is it possible that at Schiphol it is so lousy.

For automated gates, I think the UK now is truly one of the best within the EU - they used to be bad, but in the last 1 year, it has been the best I've experienced and used from both time and effectiveness.

Cheers!

KLflyerRalph

For some reason, the gates at Schiphol require more supervision than in other countries.
I also heard an explanation that, when there are many minors are arriving, the gates are also not used as they cannot make use of the e-gates.

johan rebel

If my limited experience is anything to go by, supervision is sorely needed at times.

People clogs lanes up completely when they are rejected or do not follow the instructions. They then just stand there, presumably in the expectation that somebody will show up out of nowhere to sort it all out.

I've seen families using parallel lanes cause complete chaos when some were let through, and others rejected. Waving your passport in the face of a KMar officer is not going to help, and it doesn't get better when various family members then also get involved.

Johan

NickB

It seems to me that you are talking of a different kind of supervision here than in your earlier post. This one is numpty supervision, viz. having somebody holding the hand of the less experienced passengers. This does not need to be an officer but can be just any Schiphol member of staff. Supervision by an officer is supervision from the other side to ensure that nothing untoward is taking place and/or acting as a secondary border screening safety mechanism. I am not sure that all automated border gate systems require this but it is at least not uncommon. I think that it is the case both in the UK and France, for instance.

s0ssos

Wow, learned a new word. Numpty. I already knew viz was namely.
Wonder if people in America will understand. Now we have to go replacing kettles with numpties.