British Rail Free Travel

[Lawman]

Folks,
l have been reading some of the discussion from this forum regarding Fare evaders/Revenue protection issues.l was wondering what the setup regarding this topic was like under the old BR days.

For example,when l was younger me and my friends would regularly go into Glasgow on a saturday morning.We would walk up to station ticket office to buy tickets for the journey.Problem,blinds down on window with either,closed,agent completing paperwork,lunch break with a note saying buy ticket on train.

No problem,jump on train,get to Glasgow with no person checking ticket.Jump off train,head for exit,again no ticket check or barrier checks in those days.Cost of journey HEE HAW.

Return to Argyle st to head home.Many people walk past ticket booth without buying a ticket.l buy ticket.Friends do not.Whilst on train conductor check tickets.l show him mine,no problem.Friends then purchase ticket on board and it costs more or less the same as mine.However they gambled that they might not pay.

l know that l am rambling on however,this practice of gaining free travel in those days seemed common.My point is did BR actualy bother about persons not buying tickets in those days.

 

[exile]

When we had conductors on buses there was a series of techniques for getting a free ride. Getting drivers to take fares put a stop to that - at the expenses of slowing services down.

 

[Oracle]

When we were at Grammar school, post-1965, a lot of guys were into plane spotting. Guys used to get on at Isleworth and get a single to Syon Lane but continue to Clapham Junction, change, then get off at Gatwick Airport and claim that they got on at the last station before, which was Horley. However, on occasions gate staff used to ring up Horley to find out if the ticket office was open or not!

 

[N Levers]

When we had conductors on buses there was a series of techniques for getting a free ride. Getting drivers to take fares put a stop to that - at the expenses of slowing services down.

Are you suggesting train drivers should issue tickets???

 

[Butts]

Are you suggesting train drivers should issue tickets???

That would be interesting

 

[MidnightFlyer]

That would be interesting

I think there are some Japanese lines where that is the case...

 

[9K43]

What we had under BR was the open station concept . All the ticket examiners were made redundant , and the guards did the job.
This was BR days when you could choose to examine tickets or not as the mood took you.
This made it easy for fare evaders all over the system.
One Saturday Morning, I was taken off an MGR train and taxied to Sheffield Midland as they were short of a guard for a train from Sheffield to Huddersfield via Barnsley.
I told the Station Manager that I did not do tickets, and he told me to let all the passenger travel for nowt.
The DMU was crowded all the way to Huddersfield .
The fare to Huddersfield from Sheffield was £1.10p.
This would be the summer of 1982.

 

[scrapy]

Folks,
l have been reading some of the discussion from this forum regarding Fare evaders/Revenue protection issues.l was wondering what the setup regarding this topic was like under the old BR days.

For example,when l was younger me and my friends would regularly go into Glasgow on a saturday morning.We would walk up to station ticket office to buy tickets for the journey.Problem,blinds down on window with either,closed,agent completing paperwork,lunch break with a note saying buy ticket on train.

No problem,jump on train,get to Glasgow with no person checking ticket.Jump off train,head for exit,again no ticket check or barrier checks in those days.Cost of journey HEE HAW.

Return to Argyle st to head home.Many people walk past ticket booth without buying a ticket.l buy ticket.Friends do not.Whilst on train conductor check tickets.l show him mine,no problem.Friends then purchase ticket on board and it costs more or less the same as mine.However they gambled that they might not pay.

l know that l am rambling on however,this practice of gaining free travel in those days seemed common.My point is did BR actualy bother about persons not buying tickets in those days.

Isn't that the same as Northern now?