Just in case this has not been mentioned: ALL ePassport gates at Heathrow Terminal 3 are currently non-operational. It looks like they might be adding more, or upgrading them. Currently they're sealed off completely.
I have come across two types of e-Passport gates in the UK. The old style ones were not good at all - it always took between 30 seconds and a minute to get through them. If there was only a short queue for the normal desks & a reasonable length queue for the e-gates, it was always quicker to wait for a desk. No idea what the problem was - can only suspect the e-gates were not over good at matching the face of the customer to the biometric photo, so the one person at a desk with the monitor overseeing the output from 6 or 8 e-gates was effectively processing this many people at once.
Passed through MAN T2 last month and they have a new type of e-gate - looks very different to the old ones (the new ones have a TFT monitor on the front to give instructions on). Was through this e-gate in under 10 seconds flat once it had read my passport and invited me to move forward to the camera.
Can only assume the Border Agency are upgrading the T3 machines to the newer ones? Why it was not done sooner is a good question, given what queues can be like in T3 immigration - even for UK / EEA passport holders.
