Rail Executive

[angelic88]

Hey,

im on a Thameslink train at the moment and have just had my ticket inspected. by two chaps both wearing suits with a badge named ''rail executive'' and a touch screen device.
is this a new thing? whenever i have had my ticket inspected before... its been by an official thameslink uniform wearing person.
i just find it a bit odd....

sorry about the lack of capitals. silly ipad!

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Rail Executive is the rail section of the DfT (central government, the people that specify, let and manage franchises, and who also regulate fares).
Maybe it was a spot check on how the new franchise was working?
A bit like an unannounced OFSTED school visit, perhaps.

 

[angelic88]

ahh that would make sense. it just seemed a bit odd as ive never seen non-uniformed people inspecting and neither of them were english shall we say.

 

[colchesterken]

A few weeks ago on a train back to what should be the capitol of East Anglia if we get devoloution.
My ticket was inspected by a private security person there were 2 of them with abello badges but in uniform of a private security company
I thought the train operators employed there own revenue protection staff

 

[SPADTrap]

..and neither of them were english shall we say.

Ahh that makes sense, must have been criminals as they were foreign! :roll:

:neutral:

 

[Stats]

It would have been the Ticketless Travel Survey which is required as part of the franchise agreement.

2.1 Ticketless Travel Surveys
(a) The Secretary of State (or a nominee on his behalf) shall carry out
Ticketless Travel Surveys in accordance with the Ticketless Travel Survey
Methodology.
(b) The Franchisee shall co-operate with the Secretary of State as he may
reasonably request from time to time to allow or facilitate the carrying out
of Ticketless Travel Surveys. When so requested by the Secretary of State
the Franchisee shall permit the Secretary of State (or a nominee on his
behalf) to have access to passengers and other persons who use the
Passenger Services (such access to be provided on relevant trains and/or
at relevant Stations or as otherwise reasonably required by the Secretary
of State) for the purposes of the Secretary of State (or his nominee on his
behalf) carrying out Ticketless Travel Surveys.

 

[Lrd]

A few weeks ago on a train back to what should be the capitol of East Anglia if we get devoloution.
My ticket was inspected by a private security person there were 2 of them with abello badges but in uniform of a private security company
I thought the train operators employed there own revenue protection staff

They would have been agency workers working on behalf of Abellio.

 

[185]

Abellio.

Blooming foreigners.

 

[brianthegiant]

ahh that would make sense. it just seemed a bit odd as ive never seen non-uniformed people inspecting and neither of them were english shall we say.

How do you know they weren't "English" How are you defining "English" - accent ?? colour of skin?? place of birth?? address of electoral registration??

And what does that have to do with a ticket inspection if they happen to be from Wales, Northern Ireland, Jamaica or wherever??

 

[Aictos]

It would have been the Ticketless Travel Survey which is required as part of the franchise agreement.

Yup, internal brief advises Revenue staff they are not to interfere with the survey and must stop carrying out ticket checks in the part of the train that the survey is being carried out - not sure how long it is going on for though.

 

[MP33]

I saw these on Greater Anglia a while back. They were checking tickets with their mobile devices. The only problem it was taking 5 minutes a ticket.

 

[Abpj17]

I posted about this on one of the Thameslink threads. The two I saw were both ethnic minority but were almost certainly British (at least second generation immigrant if not more). But, am not sure what colour of skin matters....

What did amuse me, however, is I suspected they were agency workers who weren't particularly used to public transport/trains.

 

[mikeg]

Had something similar on TPE when doing a North East rover w/c 3rd November. A couple of people, neither employed by TPE.

They explained they were doing a 'ticket survey'. Either way I got checked three times, twice when joining at Thirsk, once at Northallerton. I asked what the purpose of it was and one woman didn't seem very forthcoming (it was always the same people - an Asian woman with a foreign accent and a white man with an English accent). She just said TPE want to know what sort of tickets are being used and had an ID badge which I didn't quite see. Was this related? She said no when I asked if it was for market research, but then clearly identified it was TPE, not the rail executive or DafT or anyone else who had ordered the survey. Personally it's not something I've seen before.

 

[drbdrb]

I saw on Twitter a couple of weeks ago that BTP were called out to deal with some suspicious people on GNR asking to see tickets, but not showing any ID. Turned out to be DfT.