West Midlands Trains (LNR route) Guards doing more ticket checks?

[RPI]

Two “Surveyors” checking peoples tickets on the 21:32 out of Liverpool - Birmingham this evening. A haven for fare evasion, in fact almost everybody else in my carriage has no ticket to show, or an excuse.. they’ve all been directed to speak to the conductor, not that he can do much, it’s almost unenforceable when it’s the whole train!

The surveyors will be from Transport Investigations Ltd working on behalf of the DfT, they are more than likely ticketless travel surveys which are currently taking place nationally. Basically its in the National Rail contracts to reduce ticketless travel and this is measured by these surveys.

 

[Merle Haggard]

The surveyors will be from Transport Investigations Ltd working on behalf of the DfT, they are more than likely ticketless travel surveys which are currently taking place nationally. Basically its in the National Rail contracts to reduce ticketless travel and this is measured by these surveys.

Interesting.

I wonder if surveys that show a high proportion of ticketless travel might be used in the argument that conductors are ineffective at revenue protection and their other duties could be covered by the driver, i.e., D.O.O.. Should I have a tinfoil hat in thinking that?

 

[Travelmonkey]

As a semi regular on the trent valley lines I do think it's the short platforms that get the guard on the PA I mainly notice although I've still seen passengers stood mystified at a rear coach door then rush forward when they realise their not in the correct S.D.O part of the train. Although more checks is always preferable I always feel a little cheated when there is no checks, I know soon I'm likely to be on a LNWR up to London & Avanti down home be intriguing to see if I get checked either way.

 

[SCDR_WMR]

Interesting.

I wonder if surveys that show a high proportion of ticketless travel might be used in the argument that conductors are ineffective at revenue protection and their other duties could be covered by the driver, i.e., D.O.O.. Should I have a tinfoil hat in thinking that?

LNWR have reduced ticketless travel overall each time there is a survey done. The average is over 100k tickets scanned for the company each week which equates to around 40-50% of tickets sold.

Yes there are spots and times where less checks are completed, but the overall picture is one that is improving.

Add that to the hugely successful digital fraud team's performance.

 

[Matt123]

Both were wearing hijabs - which should be irrelevant but mentioned anyway.

Why did you mention it then?

 

[John R]

or YTS

Do you bank at the Midland, get your phone service from the GPO and enjoy the occasional Marathon bar by any chance?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Nov 2023 ==

Both were wearing hijabs - which should be irrelevant but mentioned anyway.

In other words, I’m going to say something completely inappropriate, and I don’t care.

 

[Kite159]

Two “Surveyors” checking peoples tickets on the 21:32 out of Liverpool - Birmingham this evening. A haven for fare evasion, in fact almost everybody else in my carriage has no ticket to show, or an excuse.. they’ve all been directed to speak to the conductor, not that he can do much, it’s almost unenforceable when it’s the whole train!

Those Liverpool trains are a haven for the pay when challenged, especially from Runcorn passengers. That time of night the barriers at Crewe will be wide open (they normally get thrown open at 10pm).

What Liverpool Lime Street needs is all the platforms to be behind a gateline, although no doubt sales from Edge Hill will increase. (Although the easiest way is to disable eTickets fulfillment assuming an Edge Hill - Liverpool stations ticket isn't paper only due to acceptance on merseyrail).

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As for LNR, some guards are better than others at checking on the Trent Valley services, although some do have a habit of doing a full ticket check from Euston reaching the front by Milton Keynes then goes into 'hiding' so any local passengers get away without buying tickets