Not only do we have problems collecting fares down 'ere but also up north.
http://www.thebee.co.uk/news/local-news/1193992/preston-fare-dodging-hotspot/Northern has revealed that in Lancashire, the most common journey where people are caught travelling without a ticket was from Preston to Manchester.
Alex Hynes, Managing Director of Northern ....
... This will allow us to continue to give our customers easy and varied opportunities to pay for their journey. However, the highest number of journeys made without paying for them started at stations with open ticket offices and Ticket Vending Machines."
Alex, I have news for you - even at Preston, you don't provide adequate facilities.
Just yesterday, I arrived at Preston at 10:05 to find that the Ormskirk train had left at 09:59 and the Liverpool train at 10:04, and I had 59 minutes to wait. Quick change of plans - if I excessed my ticket to Liverpool to Crewe (extra fare from Warrington) I could catch to 10:18. Up to the ticket office. Both Northern counters closed.
TVM▸ no good for issue of an excess. One Virgin Trains window open with a l-o-n-g queue and no realistic hope of purchasing my ticket in the 7 or 8 minutes I had left by this time.
Sorry, but I sometimes wonder if people who say that they "continue to give our customers easy and varied opportunities to pay for their journey" actually try out the system for themselves. Does My Hynes purchase a ticket himself when he travels, does he have a staff pass, or do the staff simply know him by looks and not even check?
I am not condoning fare evasion in any way - just wishing that rail companies would truly give proper purchase opportunities at all times before getting onto the high moral ground.
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