DanNCL
Established Member
Can only comment for the line I volunteer at - our policy is to allow people to purchase on the train if they wish so boarding without a ticket isn’t in itself an issue, indeed I’d estimate around half of our passengers buy onboard. If someone refused to buy a ticket then it would be reported to management for them to decide what course of action to take, the options they have available to them include going down the legal route.
I also volunteer as a crossing keeper and in that role we often get a lot of hassle from impatient motorists who seem to think that because we’re a heritage railway they don’t have to wait for the red lights at the level crossing for us. As such I’m used to dealing with confrontation and therefore on the rare occasions there is any confrontation onboard the train over tickets I’m comfortable handling it.
The legal route is complicated by the fact that we can’t directly prosecute people and that policing is virtually nil - local police won’t get involved as we’re a railway and therefore tell us to contact the BTP, the BTP won’t get involved as we’re a heritage line and therefore tell as to contact the local force.
When it comes to non-compliance at level crossings, such is the lack of help from the police that when a corporate vehicle recently failed to stop for the red lights and narrowly missed hitting the crossing keeper, the railway ended up contacting the company the vehicle belonged to directly, unfortunately we don’t have that option for private cars.
I’ve not yet had anyone refuse to buy a ticket, though I did recently have someone attempt to short fare. They were at the far end of a busy train and I was the only TTI, we’d already left the next stop by the time I’d reached them. Unfortunately for them I’d observed the passengers boarding at said intermediate stop, all zero of them!
I try to get through the entire train between each stop for precisely that reason.
