Over the last couple of years there's been a sporadic revenue protection presence at peak times at Bradford Forster, and after a break of a few weeks they returned again yesterday morning. However for whatever reason, the latest teams do not have the ability to sell tickets to passengers alighting from terminating services. It's not usually a problem but on this morning's 06:19 Ilkley - Bradford service the guard for whatever reason did not make it down the train to check / sell tickets to all the passengers (I boarded at Baildon @ 06:36).
This caused a level of confusion an arrival at BDQ as a number of passengers from Baildon (a station without staff or a ticket machine) were queried by the revenue staff as to why they had no ticket, and had to be waived through towards the ticket off where a sizeable queue was already forming. No doubt this was a theme throughout the day because this afternoon I headed for the 15:46 Ilkley & whilst waiting a series of garbled tannoy announcements were made which it seemed were aimed at people who had already passed through the checks without tickets, presumably for similar reasons as this morning.
It seems rather odd that Northern have taken the decision not to sell tickets at the barrier as they have previously, and instead expect potentially dozens of ticket-less passengers to queue at the office where there are only two counters & they are not always both staffed. I suppose people could use the ticket machine outside the office, but you would have to purchase an outgoing return from Bradford which could lead to it being questioned by the same revenue staff and/or guards.
I understand & applaud efforts to reduce revenue loss, but today's scenes where a bit of a mess & just cause delay & annoyance for passengers. Personally I wish the money could be found to improve the approach to Forster Square & allow the installation of barriers to prevent this kind of thing happening again, as many folk use the services as a free shuttle up towards Frizinghall & Shipley as guards often struggle to make their way through all 4 carriages before they reach these stations.
This caused a level of confusion an arrival at BDQ as a number of passengers from Baildon (a station without staff or a ticket machine) were queried by the revenue staff as to why they had no ticket, and had to be waived through towards the ticket off where a sizeable queue was already forming. No doubt this was a theme throughout the day because this afternoon I headed for the 15:46 Ilkley & whilst waiting a series of garbled tannoy announcements were made which it seemed were aimed at people who had already passed through the checks without tickets, presumably for similar reasons as this morning.
It seems rather odd that Northern have taken the decision not to sell tickets at the barrier as they have previously, and instead expect potentially dozens of ticket-less passengers to queue at the office where there are only two counters & they are not always both staffed. I suppose people could use the ticket machine outside the office, but you would have to purchase an outgoing return from Bradford which could lead to it being questioned by the same revenue staff and/or guards.
I understand & applaud efforts to reduce revenue loss, but today's scenes where a bit of a mess & just cause delay & annoyance for passengers. Personally I wish the money could be found to improve the approach to Forster Square & allow the installation of barriers to prevent this kind of thing happening again, as many folk use the services as a free shuttle up towards Frizinghall & Shipley as guards often struggle to make their way through all 4 carriages before they reach these stations.
