Search results

I rarely catch local trains these days. Experiences I've had have mostly been on long distance routes and listening to a third party's ticket troubles. Based entirely on contributions to this thread, an objective reader would agree that approaches to ticket revenue collection is at best...

It's not a case of being sold a ticket, it's whether the passenger is reported for not having a ticket. For example railway company rules may insist a passenger must have a ticket before getting on a train. At the same station a passenger may get on another company's train to a similar...

Only that they vary in my experience (and from responses here) from capricious, to laissez faire to despotic. The discussion does seem to be a surreal, Alice in Wonderland one where tickets are never simply for a destination but are also 'very straightforward', and passengers are evil 'scrotes'...

That's the absurdity of the situation. Inspectors 'can't' habitually nail everyone without the correct ticket, they'd probably be hauled before their line manager if they did. So we have Solomon judgements on the deserving and undeserving ticket-less by amateurs in the human nature business. Or...

Have any studies been done on how much fare evasion costs the railway company? My impression is on some lines the chances of getting caught make fare dodging a financially viable option for those of a particular mentality, in much the same way that not having road tax makes sense if the fine is...

The complexity of ticketing (Advance, Anytime, Rovers, etc, etc) shouldn't be born by a guard. There's too much room for subjectivity in interpretation of offence. We've already had an inspector say he uses zero tolerance, others are lenient if travellers treat them the right way (!?) or...

Absolutely, unless TOCs introduce 100% ticketed stations. The current system is one of those arcane remnants everyone accepts because it's always been like that. Railways are using Victorian inspection systems in an era of immediate fund transfers. If ticketing was simpler there'd be no...

Even more reason to take revenue collection away from subjectivity and personal opinion. Zero tolerance or sell them a ticket. Your wage should not rely on moral judgements of people you've never met before.

I assume you're joking. In the remote chance you aren't, making commission on ticket evasion is an appalling way to run a railway and will alienate the travelling public and attract Blakey from On the Buses sensibilities to the job.

It can sound like guards get off on people sucking up to them and acting as judge and jury if they don't. I actually think TOCs put ticket inspectors in an unenviable if not impossible situation by giving them 'discretion'. IMHO revenue collection should be efficient enough that everyone can be...

That I find weird, I mean there are legit travellers and smart asses and if they are caught without a ticket there's a procedure. Unless they're threatening why personalise it? It sounds like it makes the inspector's day to catch someone, whereas I guess there are a hundred reasons for not...

There seems to be an authoritarian and frighteningly personal approach being taken by ticket inspectors on this thread. Surely fare dodgers are dealt with by transport police and the courts, why personalise the deed with observations about those without tickets? Do inspectors see themselves on a...

I'd guess their brief would go straight for threatening a minor with imprisonment.

Railway workers are people too. Same flaws, similar good points.

Guards vary. On Midland Mainline one stag party that was threatening to get out of order was rewarded for their trouble with a free bottle of wine. As they were already three sheets to the wind an over-zealous ticket op would have sent the situation into riot control. As it was the bottle, and a...

As the originator of the question used an analogy with unplanned pregnancy I find it hard to take seriously. The idea that a ticket collector's judgement is informed by unreconstructed views of female morals makes me disinclined to pursue his train (sic) of logic. He could of course be a...

I hope to God you're not a ticket inspector.

The thread is moving off topic but my point is that those who are arguing train operators offer good value are the ones most able to exploit 'empty seat' initiatives. I unashamedly believe a state owned rail system would be in the interests of the British public as a social and commercial...

Precisely. Ticket buffs know how to exploit multi-ticketing and promotions and have the enthusiasm to make them fit their leisure time. Those deals are completely atypical of normal rail travel and give a distorted perspective on the value for money offered by train operators. Because someone...

The drive to privatise railways was, presumably, to make them more efficient for the rail user and save subsidies from the public purse. They've failed miserably on both counts.