Recent content by Ritson

I have honestly never come across these machines. Am I being blind - are they at every station?

Somebody earllier posted a link to the Parliamentary debates from the 1980s. I was struck by the following passage: deferred fare authority machines at many stations. This is an entirely new concept. They will accept any coin between 5p and £1 and will issue a ticket to the value of the coin...

I'm curious, however, if you saw fare evasion going on, would you alert the guard/ticket inspector? Say if a group of lads got on and you could hear them bragging about how they got a free train ride, would you make a point of telling the guard? I don't think I would.

I merely said that some staff were more zealous in the execution of their duties than others were. Luckily in my case, I approached a guard and explained what happened and he took my word for it. That was a *reasonable* thing for the guard/whatever his job title was to do - no? My comment...

Didn't actually say it was the fault of the staff though, did I? Merely pointed out that there is no need for *some* Rail Staff to be so zealous - I reiterate: surely a "Excuse me, Sir, would you mind taking your bag/feet off the chair? Many thanks"

Maybe, but staff members are representatives of TOCs so one expects them to get their "advice" correct.

Or maybe just unreasonable. I lost my ticket once! And by the way, I was on a research trip and the university I work for paid all my fares upfront via expenses, so I was hardly a "fare dodger" (as I obviously wasn't profiting by it). Maybe there are reasonable and unreasonable people in the...

Well, if only rail staff would show such diligence at rush hour when people place their bags on seats!

What happened to Rail Staff being reasonable and simply asking someone to remove their feet?

Clip, I don't know what you meant by "a ticket seemingly falls out of your pocket." These things do happen.

Interesting piece. They haven't smended their online documents yet though-it still says that a Rail conviction will never become spent. http://www.northernrail.org/pdfs/Summons_Info_sheet.pdf

Northern Rail went immediately for the Regulations of Railway Act 1889 with me - I was not unpleasant, happily gave my details to them, etc. In the end, like, it never went to court. But it doesn't appear to be a guaranteed "first move" by the Rail Companies-at least in my case.

As I said, 'tis all meant as a theoretical discussion (or, rhetorical(?) not really sure which word suits here) But on a serious not, could a Rail Officer really "rugby tackle" a fare evader to the ground?

Flamingo, I wasn't advocating doing that, it was merely to enquire what powers a Rail Officer had to detain someone. What if they simply ran off? Some RPOs look pretty chunky/unfit-if a person of, say, athletic build simply ran out of the station and disappeared down a few side streets etc...

Ah ok, so, in effect, a Rail Officer at a quiet, unbarriered station would in effect be pretty powerless to stop you walking away?