Great Western Coffee Shop

New TM joins train to take over from the one that takes train to Reading.

Assume has little idea who was or was not on the train before Reading.

Wanders aimlessly through FGH going - has your ticket been checked.  I tried it and said yes - knowing full well that 1. I had joined at Reading and 2. I had a ticket.  Wanders to the next person - has your ticket been checked. 

Is this assuming fare dodgers are somewhat honest and dobb themselves in?

How many fare dodgers join a 5pm train out of Reading in First Class!

Considering how busy this one is (and its busier than I've seen it for a while) - potentially a fair few standards trying to get a free upgrade

Thats the dodging I was thinking about rather than not having a ticket at all

although if that is the way its thought about - surely that gives you a better chance of getting away with it - be so brazen and sit in first without a ticket

And, just to be pedantic - it was 1750 from reading

Ahem. ::)

I've just dropped an e-mail to a FGW Guard Manager I happen to know, suggesting that he has a quiet word with his staff, to avoid this situation occurring again.  Hopefully, the full validity of all First Class tickets will be checked in future. ;)

So you lied to him.  Not a good idea i suggest.  People might think you had something to hide.

Yes I did - I have a season ticket valid until December 8th if anyone wants to check I'll give you my photo id number.....

Purely because I could not actually believe he meant to say "Have you had your ticket checked" and act on the answer given
Note : modified to replace "and ask on the answer given" to " and act on the answer given"

Many TMs ask to see any unchecked tickets.

Maybe - but how to you catch the person with an invalid ticket...... I'm serious here

you are relying on someone who knows they need to buy a ticket and/or need to upgrade telling you

Either you do a train from XYZ and check all tickets and then only check the deltas (with the TM/Guard ability to seemingly remember who was sitting where etc that I admire) or you check all tickets

I may have asked this before - I know I've often meant to ask it but may never have done so....

I can understand how a TM who has been on a train since A can go through saying tickets from B please.......they look at who gets on where whilst despatching and develop in their job a nack of recognizing where people get onto a train.

However - tonight

Got on train at manchester piccadilly - tickets check.  Get through crewe - TM changes - ticket check is "tickets from Crewe please".  How in the name of god does that TM know who got on at crewe WITH a ticket and who didnt.  Easy enough for a fare dodging scrote to note the change over and realise the TM would have no idea if the scrote was on before crewe, at crewe or an imaginary friend. 

Same thing happened at Shrewsbury

Surely if a new TM on a train part way through its journey is going to do a ticket check, then an "all tickets please" check is the only one that matters.  Otherwise why bother.  You don't know if people have got on without a ticket, overstayed their welcome or upgraded themselves on hearing a different voice

I know. I sometimes think that some guards don't want to sell any tickets! I despair...

 Totally agree. The TM should do a full ticket check when relieving the previous TM.
 I would not have a problem with that, it may even protect revenue and keep ticket prices to an acceptable level ( ;D).

 Also keep all them scouse scroats off the train and make more room for us fare paying passenger's.

Lets just stick to calling them scrotes shall we? Not relevent where they come from. Unless they're from Devon, can't stand Devon scrotes :D

Perhaps the old-TM said to new TM as he got off the train "all checked until Crewe".  New TM watched who got on at Crewe (he was afterall waiting on the same platform as them for a little while) and made sure he checked the tickets of new passengers.

No ticket checking regime is infallable.   A full check between every station would be massively inconvenient to staff and passengers alike.  I also suspect that when TMs are in "dealing with sroates mode" they spend a lot of time dealing with one or two passengers and may never make it down to the rest of the train.  So perhaps it is understandable that they are not in that mode all the time - legit passengers would not get their tickets checked/sold and TM would be permantly exhausted and fed up with humanity after hours of arguement and abuse.   I'd rather TM dealt with fare dodgers as an important part of their job but not to the point of obsession (at least not all the time - the occassional outbreak of odsession would be welcome) or to the exclusion of other parts of their work.   

It all depends on what he says !.........

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?p=367320#post367320

I have to admit, if i'm told all tickets done up to xyz, and l haved checked out the platform i'll just go looking for them when I board.

On more than one occasion, i've relieved a Guard, and done an 'All tickets' check, just to get endless "YOU'VE already seen my ticket", or spend half a journey waiting for customers to tap themselves down to find their tickets again, as they think once they've shown it, they'll never need it again.

Result:  Less tickets get sold to those that actually want to buy a ticket and I got a load of grief.

I have however gone through a train once when I was helping someone off and the dispatcher told me "2 got on", but as I didn't see them I had to rely on them being honest.  Needless to say, no-one offered me a ticket, so I did "All Tickets Please as the 2 that got on at xyz think they're having a free ride", found them both and the price for the Anytime Single in both cases was worth the effort  ;)

Hopefully if passengers heard an announcement like that some would be on your side.  Wouldn't it be great to just walk into a carriage and see all the honest pax pointing at the culprits... ;D

Paul

In the US (mainly on the intercity Amtrak trains) when your ticket is checked the conductor clips a little "seat check*" either in the luggage rack or to the seat in front: this is marked to indicate your destination.

*_{They don't exist here, but I reckon we'd call them seat cheques!}

Then when they come around next time, they know to ask those passengers who don't have a seat cheque for tickets.

Now it's not infallible - you need to remember to take the seat cheque with you if you move seats, and it creates more work for the conductors as they need to keep on top of things and collect all the old cheques once passengers have left the train.

A simpler system that's used on commuter systems like SEPTA is that all seats have little clips on them in which you're supposed to display your ticket, face-up. That way the conductor can tell immediately who has or doesn't have a ticket.

When a full ticket check is about to be done, an announcement should be made, so thumbling and bag searching occurs BEFORE the guard arrives.


Excellent, wish I'd been there! ;D

I have been on a train when someone just stayed in the loo. At a station the guard shouted "this train 'aint going nowhere until you come ou'!"

The yob came out, and was thrown off. (literally!) :P

This does sometimes happen, in fact it happened relatively recently on a hst. The train manager announced on a service after departing station the usual info they have to say followed by informing the passengers full revenue duties are about to be carried out along with the validity of advance tickets and that passengers will be charged if tickets are invalid.

Potential flaw in this plan though is if this is announced, then those travelling without tickets may bail at the earliest opportunity, hide or sacrifice one member of the group to stall the staff allowing the others to avoid paying as the others in the group avoid paying as a result of hte othermember being difficult. This can and has happened from what I have seen so announcements about checking tickets only work well when there is a distance between stations.

This is assuming that anyone is listening, in my experience an announcement saying a ticket check is going to take place is normally followed by looks of bewilderment when said pre-announced ticket check takes place.

On a separate note, and please endulge me as it's almost Christmas, what really gets my goat is when you're waiting for a bus, along with others at a pre arranged designated bus halting point known as a bus stop to many, why is it that the person in front of you will always start looking for their bus fare when they step on the bus?

Rant over and probably my last post before Christmas as all your XC baiting makes me sad :( Hope you all have a good Christmas whatever you're up to and remember to check those journey plans carefully!

Exactly.  I don't bother anymore as it just winds me up as I realise I have just wasted my breath... also when coming into Exeter from somewhere like Barnstaple, I will reel off the platforms for London, Midlands, North, Plymouth, Waterloo etc, only to walk out the back cab and be asked the same question over and over again as they depart...  Most people have something shoved in their ears, and the vast majority just do not listen.

Probably because there is so much noise pollution on FGW these days that you learn to switch it off.

Went on W&S to weeks ago - oh the bliss.  Just a welcome and enjoy your journey.  No braille safety leaflets, or even any leaflets, not contacting the police if you are suspicious, no pesky umbrellas and just.......well........quiet

Ever travelled on SWT? Think you would be pretty annoyed!

I don't disagree with you... I was just pointing out the reason why it is not as simple as "make a ticket check to follow announcement and everyone will have their ticket ready."