Great Western Coffee Shop

In the last month......... and I have been counting

my ticket has been checked 0% of the time on the return journey

What is stopping me getting  reading to tilehurst return just to get through the barrier

Or on the outbound journey since they dont check before oxford - getting an oxford to reading season

I'd save a fortune

I wont

But..........

You should send that to Andrew Haines with details of your journey and how many times you've travelled.

An interesting comparison, Mookiemoo, but I too can't remember the last time my return ticket was checked on the crammed 1753 from BTM to Nailsea.

Fair enough, I'd (probably) need a ticket to get through the barriers into BTM - but I could always join the train at Bedminster, with no barriers and no ticket checks at all between there and Nailsea?

Alright, this involves much smaller potential revenue loss - but surely it's worth having ticket checks somewhere along the line, to prevent ever-increasing numbers of people taking advantage of this situation?

 ???

Which is why I am not a fan of barriers

It proves people have a ticket to join a train - whilst criminalising the honest commuter who is running late

BUT

All it proves is they have a ticket to join where they did

Not that they have ticket for their jounrney

Paddington to ealing broadway anyone?

I would urge you all to complain when you don't get ticket's checked as it's the lazy ones that make people like me have a hard time as I ALWAYS do my tickets, with the exception of trains that are rammed full!!

Yes and No

tonights TM didnt do a ticket check - but he's a regular and I know him.

As I got on the train I said to him - I need to buy a ticket from WOS today I'm going through to hereford. (truck had no fuel and local station had no diesel so didnt have fuel to get to WOS but did to get to ludlow - went via newport on the morning journey - thats another storey to follow)

Spent evesham - hereford talking to the buffet guy (who's a great guy) and I did point out coming into ledbury that I had offered to pay up some money but he didnt seem to want to take it off me.  He wasnt bothered.

And I rate him as a TM - he always seems to resolve issues pragmatically, passengers get on with him, he does clamp down on evaders)  At the end of the day - since I dont have to drive home, they probably got more off me in revenue propping up the bar nattering than they would have in the ticket!

Isnt there something on the barrier that checks its a valid ticket for a certain journey leg though? I remember once in Newport I accidentally put my return ticket into the barrier by mistake and it wouldnt accept it and let me through, so I dont think you can put any ticket in there and it will open.

I do agree ticket barriers are a good idea but a lot of the time especially in smaller stations they are open and anyone can go onto a platform or a train without a ticket.

No, AFAIK they will only let tickets through that they have been told to accept, that is why there is seperate in and out barriers. The out only accept tickets with the destination xxxx on today's date.
And the in barriers will only accept tickets with the origin xxxx on today's date.

Yes, but every night my return journey could have been done a with a tilehurst single costing a couple of quid at most.

It wold be valid to take me onto the platform at Reading - and after that o one would have known any different!

More stations should have barriers.

ALL suburban stations around London (and the other big cities) should be "barriered" (sorry for the new verb usage). This is because all stops are too close together for a guard to check tickets. Furthermore, is would allow Oyster Cards etc.

This would prevent the actions suggested above, and allow Driver Only Operation.

Unless they barriered all stations beyond pershore to hereford, it wouldnt

In fact the only way it would solve long distance commuters doing that if they can be reasonably certain all tickets were not going to be checked would be to have barriers at all stations

But then you couldnt have unmanned ones

Majority of stations in South Wales seem to have them now. Even before they had barriers at Cardiff Central they used to have someone check every single ticket and collect every ticket from passengers.

Obviously unmanned stations dont have barriers but these stations dont have ticket office anyway so you have to buy the ticket on the train.

As I said in my scenario

I get on at reading - buy a tile hurst one way - no one knows any different

At the moment I get on at WOS but I could, at the expense of 15 minutes in bed, get on a colwall, ledbury, pershore - depending on which direction I set out in - and no one checks anymore before oxford (used to be you were checked before evesham - before SDO).  And - the tickets checks are not done by the TM but by a revenue officer who gets on at oxford (or maybe charlbury - i'm normally asleep but its somewhere down that end and they never get to 1sr before oxford)

If I wasnt going to lose the good will of the TM's I'd try it - but here you go

For the next month I'll tell you where I was checked in each direction, and what tickets I could reliably have bought in advance knowing where I was checked......... and I bet you I would save money - and a LOT - over my season

They need to check tickets more often on long distance routes OUT of London

Maybe SDO saves a THEORETICAL H&S claim for a muppet who cant understand there is no platform outside the door - but how much is it ACTUALLY costing in lost revenue as the guard is too busy to check tickets.

Sounds like a good experiment Mookiemoo, I will await the results.

I wonder how much revenue is lost by failure to sell or check tickets.  I'm a fairly frequent park and ride flyer on ATW Valley Lines into Cardiff - there are barriers at Central and Queen Street. 

I got on at station X.  The part time ticket office was closed.  There were about 25 people on the two car train.  I was not offered a ticket since the TM sat on his wossname although he had seen me and two other people board.  I got off three stops later at a non-barriered station.  Loss of revenue ^2.10.  Friends and acquaintances tell me this is common.

A TM confirmed to me that they are under instructions not to attempt to collect fares on board if the gangways are obstructed by standing passengers.  This is on the grounds that they may not be able to return to the back of the train to operate the doors at the next station.

Or "station stop" as everyone seems to announce.  Why is that?  it's very irritating.

Because the next stop might not be at a station. i.e. at a red signal.

No - does not compute.  The announcement is usually "The next station stop is Cardiff Central".  Nothing to do with signals.  A station is a place where trains stop.   I think the stop is tautologous.

To be fair, I agree with welshman on this: when my morning train is just outside Bristol Temple Meads, the announcement made is that "the next station stop will be Bristol Temple Meads."  The fact that we may - or may not - be held briefly at the signal before our train actually arrives at platform 3 and stops there is surely immaterial?

 ;)

Possibly ..... but equally as confusing would be " the next station is charlbury" when in fact anyone of hanborough, finstock or combe could be in the way

The fact the train is not stopping there is irrelevent. 

Personally I think either " the next station is....." or " the next stop is ...." would be sufficient

Erm ..., thanks, Mookiemoo!

I think that was the point I was trying to make, actually?

"The next station (or stop) - as opposed to an empty space beyond the door! - will be Finstock", for example?

C.  ???

Yes, that's irritated me for a while too. I think we're all of one mind on this issue.

P.S. Look on the bright side. We could have BA running the franchise!

No no no no no noooo!

 >:(

So the nightmare scenario is: BA run the franchise and BAA run the infrastructure (ie Network Rail). Just imagine what it would be like; it takes 5 years to plan an upgrade of track, and when it happens it goes pear-shaped, and the first few days afterwards are a nightmare, and nobody tells the passengers anything. Hang on, come to think of it... this sounds strangely familiar. Rugby? Liverpool St? Portsmouth? etc. etc.... 

Portsmouth? First few days!  ;D ;D ;D :D :D :D :D - more like first few years!

In this case, I was only talking about suburban services. I meant for all ex- Network South East stations/stops/station stops to have them.

As far as InterCity is concerned, I think that all InterCity stations should have barriers (Worcester anyone??). But I agree- it would be easy to get a ticket to Pershore to get through the barriers.

The basic fact is- ticket checks need to be done, barriers or not. If SDO (combined with the longer length of HSTs) is preventing this, then extra staff are needed/ more "temporary" barriers at places like Pershore to scare people into getting a ticket each time.

------------------------

As for BA, how about "First British Airways" ? ??? Or "First Airlines."

Oh- someone better check that First do not own any of BA or BAA!!!!!!!

If you put barriers at say Pershore you would also need to have a ticket machine - which I think they should do.

As Mookiemoo points out tickets are no longer checked until after Oxford since SDO so anyone getting on at Pershore will potentially get a free ride to Evesham / Honeybourne / Moreton / Kingham / Charlbury / Hanborough as none are barriered and the TM will not have done any ticket check. The first station that has a barrier check is Oxford.

Don't joke, the way BA are going they will soon be ripe for take over though I doubt First could afford the asking price. It will probably go the way of most other British companies...bought by another foreign company! First were involved in air travel for a while though when they owned Bristol Airport.
I was quite looking forward to flying out of T5 next month, now im not so sure  ::)

To keep this on topic...T5 is linked to London Paddington by the Heathrow Express and they check your tickets on this service ;)

What an excellent way of getting this thread "back on track," Timmer.

Are there barriers at any of the Heathrow stations?