Where are the ticket inspectors?

[Jack D]

Hi all,

When I started commuting regularly to university and later to my various jobs over the years in London my parents would always warn me about ticket inspectors on the trains. Occasionally I've heard stories of friends of friends who have been caught out by an inspector while traveling without a ticket or with the wrong ticket. The last story I heard, however, was years ago.

I think I've only seen three ticket inspectors over my many years of traveling on buses, DLR, Southeastern Trains and Thameslinks. I can't see how they would navigate up and down carriages at peak times during rush hour.

Are ticket inspectors still a thing?

 

[Russel]

I've only had one ticket check on the DLR since Covid, never on the tube and as for National Rail services, ticket checks by train managers seem few and far between these days and I can't remember the last time I was asked for my railcard...

 

[tram21]

They certainly are, and TfL are ramping up their revenue protection at the moment so you may see more around.

TfLs revenue operations are more intelligence based, so as a fare evader you may never be caught in person but the back office will notice you and put together a case towards you.

 

[Failed Unit]

I haven’t seen any on trains on TfL, station blockades however (including the DLR) are more likely.

 

[tram21]

Revenue protection is also much more common on National Rail services. This is mostly due to fewer ticket gates, as ticket gates help to protect at least some revenue

 

[AlterEgo]

If you look in the subforum just below this one there’s plenty of proof of ticket inspection.

 

[Sonic1234]

There's plenty of people getting caught, so there must be some inspectors about. Based on my travelling experience, if it wasn't for this forum, I would have said Thameslink and TfL do not have inspectors.

 

[OscarH]

If you look in the subforum just below this one there’s plenty of proof of ticket inspection.

Alternatively the length of time many have gotten away with it shows how woeful the revenue protection resource is

 

[Hadders]

Revenue protection isn’t just about on train inspection.

Ticket barriers and back-office investigation also play a large part.

 

[D6130]

It's very rare to make a journey on Northern or Trans Pennine Express services without at least one inspection,.in my experience. If there isn't one, it's usually because either:

The conductor's ticket machine is defective.

The conductor feels threatened (mainly on late night trains).

or

The train has changed crew at a location where very few - if any - passengers have joined and the relieving conductor has been assured by their predecessor that all tickets have already been checked. (Rarely).

I think that will be similar on most double-staffed regional services....but I realise that the situation is rather different on DOO services.

 

[Wolfie]

Ironically l have been ticket inspected twice on the Overground and once on the DLR, all on trains, so far this week. That after very little for about six months.

 

[Ianigsy]

It's very rare to make a journey on Northern or Trans Pennine Express services without at least one inspection,.in my experience. If there isn't one, it's usually because either:

The conductor's ticket machine is defective.

The conductor feels threatened (mainly on late night trains).

or

The train has changed crew at a location where very few - if any - passengers have joined and the relieving conductor has been assured by their predecessor that all tickets have already been checked. (Rarely).

I think that will be similar on most double-staffed regional services....but I realise that the situation is rather different on DOO services.

I travel Leeds-Liverpool and return probably once every two or three weeks and I suspect that another factor is the number of gated stations and the number of passengers who will be travelling on seasons or PTE tickets. Anybody getting on or off at Leeds, Dewsbury, Huddersfield or Victoria will have to pass through a barrier, and anybody boarding at Lea Green or Newton-le-Willows without a ticket will be picked up at the barrier at Lime Street.

I’ve had a bit of a meandering journey over the last few days and can report as follows:

Leeds-London LNER - barrier at Leeds and checked on board; barriers at Kings Cross open because of disruption and congestion on Monday

Waterloo-Salisbury SWR - barrier at Waterloo; no onboard check probably due to overcrowding (Waterloo-Yeovil Junction short formed 2 car 158 rather than 158+159).


Salisbury-Bristol TM (GWR) - no onboard check, probably due to disruption and being a lightly loaded pair of 158s, barrier at Bristol

Bristol TM - Newport (GWR) - barrier at Bristol, onboard check


Newport - Crewe (TfW) - onboard check -as this was a pair of 197s vice a 67 and Mark 4s, the conductor needed to identify anybody who’d booked First Class and advise them how to get a refund

Crewe-Chester (Avanti) - no check but not unexpected on the last leg of a journey between two gated stations

Chester-Birkenhead North (Merseyrail) - onboard check on both legs

 

[frankmoh]

I have seen ticket inspectors (well nowadays it's all Oyster) on many TfL services across London, but I have never seen one on a "full-sized" train when making journeys inside the city, or on the Tube for that matter.

Maybe it's because the DLR, buses and trams don't have barriers for hopping on? (then again most "full-sized" stations outside of Zone 3 don't have barriers)

 

[styles]

Maybe it's a south east England thing.

Up here in Scotland I encounter a ticket inspector on almost every train journey. When I travel south (LNER, Avanti, TPE mainly), I encounter them very often also.

On the DLR I don't think I saw them once. Southern services similarly but then almost all their stations have gatelines.

 

[frankmoh]

Maybe it's a south east England thing.
[...]
Southern services similarly but then almost all their stations have gatelines.

From what I've seen, the only big-ish station without barriers on Southern is Beckenham Junction, but I blame Southeastern for that. There's also Birkbeck on that branch but that station is in the top 10 least used stations in London. There really just seems to be a big difference in how relaxed operating companies want to be with fares.

The entire Hayes Line on Southeastern has no barriers and I have never seen a ticket inspector on ANY train in my 15+ years of travelling up and down it.

 

[Vexed]

Based on my travelling experience, if it wasn't for this forum, I would have said Thameslink and TfL do not have inspectors.

From my experience, I'm probably inspected on one in 10 Thameslink journeys. My last one was around 9pm on a Friday.

Interestingly when I did 4 days of commuting Hatfield to Stevenage I got inspected on 2 of the 4 morning Great Northern trains.

I also got inspected on my second ever journey on Metrolink. Never on TfL though.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Just about every LNER train I catch and I travel a lot has a ticket inspection.

 

[jfollows]

Avanti Wilmslow-Manchester, probably once ever in each direction, in what will have been hundreds of trips. Barriers at Stockport & Manchester, though. No inspectors.
TfW I never use down (too unreliable and crowded) but in the up direction quite often tickets are checked, but no inspectors.
Northern most of the time, but they always sell tickets on the train in spite of all the stations having ticket issuing facilities, I’ve never seen anyone being reported or given a Penalty Fare. Hence why so many people come here with “I intended to buy my ticket on the train, as usual”. They won’t be ticket inspectors, though, and I don’t recall ever seeing them.

 

[PeterC]

For most of my working life I commuted by rail, variously on Metropolitan Line or various local services in East London and Essex. In all those 50 years I saw two on train inspections. Plenty of revenue blocks at stations including ones inside the barrier at interchanges.

When travelling in intercity and rural services a check by a conductor/guard has been the norm.

 

[Uk125]

I had my ticket inspected at Victoria Station, Platform 2, upon arriving at 6 AM. I was quite surprised to see a group of inspectors that early in the morning, especially since the gates are usually open at that time. They were all wearing Southeastern uniforms, indicating that they work for Southeastern rather than an independent revenue protection agency.

I witnessed a few commuters trying to get through the wall of inspectors, but they got stopped.

I've never seen an inspector on the Tube or a bus—not once. I've heard stories about them, but I've never encountered one myself.

 

[talldave]

I got inspected on SWR yesterday on only my 3rd day that I've been using the route. The guy appeared as we arrived at Feltham where I effectively switch from my forum purchased eticket to my 60+ Oyster. Although he only got to me as we left Feltham, I showed him both eticket and Oyster as I obviously hadn't just boarded at Feltham. Fortunately my phone worked OK, although I give up with fingerprint unlocking in the sweaty heat!!

 

[Intro298]

I had my Oyster validated around 2 years ago on an Overground train, where between stations, a large group of RPIs (some in uniform whilst others were plain clothed) came down the train checking tickets. I have also had my Oyster validated on TfL buses in a number of instances by RPIs in the past few years. On GTR however, I can't recall ever getting my ticket checked onboard a train in recent years, although I'm sure it would be different for longer distance services as most of my journeys consist of short hops around London.

 

[D6130]

They were all wearing Southeastern uniforms, indicating that they work for Southeastern rather than an independent revenue protection agency.

That's not necessarily true. Northern's Revenue Protection Assistants wear Northern uniforms....but they're employed by an outside agency.

 

[Uk125]

That's not necessarily true. Northern's Revenue Protection Assistants wear Northern uniforms....but they're employed by an outside agency.

They even had a SE backpack. They look exactly the same as the SE drivers. The only difference is that they had a body camera on them.

 

[DeverseSam]

I had my ticket inspected on the DLR last week. It was the same person who operated the doors etc and was working alone

 

[D1537]

It's very rare to make a journey on Northern or Trans Pennine Express services without at least one inspection,.in my experience.

In the last couple of weeks I've twice had a group of TTI types on TPE Trans-Pennine services - on one of them the conductor apologised to passengers for having to show their tickets again!

Just about every LNER train I catch and I travel a lot has a ticket inspection.

I also use LNER a lot, and they are pretty good with inspections; however, they always do seem to take place in the same places, so if you were familiar with that you could use it to your advantage. On one journey I make regularly I have very rarely had my ticket checked, and neither station has a gateline. Another one with LNER is that they regularly ask for "tickets from X and Y" and I've been getting my phone out to find that the conductor has already gone past me!

 

[frankmoh]

Does anyone have any experience with ticket inspectors on the other companies within London? SWR, c2c, Chiltern, Great Northern, so on. It seems clear that yet again in Britain's railways that London and everywhere else are different.

 

[modernrail]

I actually think they should put more random ticket inspections on. Whilst I vehemently disagree with the level of some fares and the recent behaviour of some TOCs, I also don’t like the fact I suspect plenty of the usual suspects are learning the trick of buying a short journey ticket to get a barcode to get them through barriers.

Seems a pretty obvious failing of gate lines. In some cases you could buy two short journeys to get in and out. In others, with only one gate, you could risk just buying one short journey.

I would much rather the railway then focussed 99% of its efforts on persistent offenders and almost none on possible mistakes. For instance, railcard expiry. If somebody has bought a railcard and it expired, hardly likely they are defrauding intentionally. Somebody persistently avoiding fares is costing the railway real money.

Even for persistent offenders there will be those for whom fares are genuinely prohibitive and they are just trying to get to a fairly low paid job and make ends meet and so it should all be done with grace and dignity rather than some of the very poor behaviour we see.

 

[frankmoh]

I actually think they should put more random ticket inspections on. Whilst I vehemently disagree with the level of some fares and the recent behaviour of some TOCs, I also don’t like the fact I suspect plenty of the usual suspects are learning the trick of buying a short journey ticket to get a barcode to get them through barriers.

Seems a pretty obvious failing of gate lines. In some cases you could buy two short journeys to get in and out. In others, with only one gate, you could risk just buying one short journey.

Or something way more likely, especially in London, no tickets and just bumping through the barriers. Mostly at Stratford.

 

[dmsh23]

I used to take Thameslink a lot in the past and never got my ticket checked however, after nearly a year of not riding with them, my first time back, I did get checked by an RP inspector 5 mins after leaving St Pancras (northbound). I did have a valid ticket, but still surprised that they existed.