I'm a little late on this one, but the first day when the gates were closed I asked one of the men inside the station & he politely explained that the gates would be closed for two days to carry out passenger counts.

I then saw people doing counts on the platforms twice as I left the station. Once the guy had a counter in his coat pocket and was very unobtrusively doing the count, would have been easy to miss if I hadn't been looking for him.

I was glad they were doing a count, as maybe it will show somebody how many people are using the station, but of course I understand the safety concerns and annoyance. I also don't understand why they didn't just have another person at the bottom of the steps counting on the Perry Vale side.