Another unhappy FGW customer...

[whole diary]

[Mookiemoo]

And it applies on all TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s! NXEC^▸ (National Express East Coast) are the probably the most strict on this issue!

So NXEC should be, IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly) all stations served by NXEC are staffed, so anyone travelling without a Ticket is try to get away with a free ride.

i.e. Friday I left in plenty of time to catch the 0632 - a mysterious set of road works appeared which are not the councils website and which involve a diversion that added 15 minutes to my journey.  I was coming down the wrong side of the severn when the 0632 went over the bridge heading into foregate street.  I ran three red lights and made the station just as the 0632 was coming in.  I have a season ticket - however if I had left the house with 20 minutes to spare (I usually aim to be there 5 minutes in advance bearing in mind I have a season) to buy a ticket - I would have not had time to buy said ticket and catch train.  the next one is an hour later.

Had I not had a ticket I would have had no choice but to board said train without a ticket .  My intention would not, however, have been to fair dodge.

In life s**t happens - the attitude displayed above does not allow for this!

So because you were late (OK through no fault of your own) you went through 3 red lights, people die because car drivers run red lights.
Was it so important that you were prepared to kill to make a train, you need to leave earlier of learn to chill out more.

Firstly - worcester town centre at 615am is dead - whilst I dont condone running red lights - the three I ran you could see if anything was coming first.

i.e. I pulled up - noting coming - went through - I did not blindly go through them.

What was so important?  Rather important meeting in only my first full week at a new client which if I pull it off will open doors.  I left in plenty of time - maybe if the next train was not over an hour later I wouldnt have felt so inclined

[zebedee]

"That's alright officer, I know you've just caught me doing 140mph in my new Porsche but it's four in the morning and I thought as no-one was on the roads, it would be okay to see how fast it would go."

Sorry, your argument does not stand up in any shape or form.

Unless you happen to be a member of the emergency services, on an emergency call, you have broken the law and the police won't give a damn about what meeting you had to attend.  You might have deemed it safe, but your not the one making the laws in this country are you?

[Doctor Gideon Ceefax]

it cost's FGW^▸ (First Great Western) about ^10 to process a penalty fare so in some cases they loose money

So, why don't they outsource ticket inspection to another company that is paid on the basis of commission gained from penalty tickets ?  There's probably a few wheel clamping firms or traffic wardens who would do it!   It's a win-win....FGW doesn't lose money from collecting additional fares (and indeed publciitly ensures that more people actually buy a ticket), fare paying passengers get to watch fare dodgers being clamped :-)

Train companies have involved private security or similar with ticket inspections. It doesn't work. These firms generally employ largely unskilled people on low wages, who have less reason to use discretion or customer service. They also have little or no railway knowledge, and generally end up antagonising railway staff. Plenty of occasions involving them where staff themselves, let alone passengers have ended up being done, as they don't recognise the diagrams / passes. Plus it's a pain for the passenger to report issues with them, should they not follow correct procedure, as the train company would merely say, not our employees and pass you on.

A classic example of this was the use of Securicor employees on Manchester Piccadilly. Utter nightmare. I believe all ticketing is dealt with by employees of the train operating companies at this station now.

Plus like all contractors they are unlikely to have any real loyalty to the company or those who work in it, as they will receive no travel allowances or railway pensions. Cleaning standards improved greatly under SWT^▸ (South West Trains) when all cleaning was taken in house.

Contracting out to the lowest bidder might improve company profits, but passengers won't see that in the form of ticket prices lowering, and certainly won't see any sort of improvement in customer service. Most of the trains have guards anyway, if you take the ticket aspect away from them, they will still be needed for the trains to run, and instead of having knowledgable railway people being visible, they'll just be in the brake van dossing, whilst the security staff roam the trains, penalty faring everyone.

[Mookiemoo]

"That's alright officer, I know you've just caught me doing 140mph in my new Porsche but it's four in the morning and I thought as no-one was on the roads, it would be okay to see how fast it would go."

Sorry, your argument does not stand up in any shape or form.

Unless you happen to be a member of the emergency services, on an emergency call, you have broken the law and the police won't give a damn about what meeting you had to attend.  You might have deemed it safe, but your not the one making the laws in this country are you?

True - but at the end of the day I didnt get caught, no one got hurt, I caught my train and its not something I do regularly (in fact I believe that was the first time!)

[dog box]

Mookiemoo...Triple SPAD^▸ (Signal Passed At Danger) Driver eh..... i reckon you would be looking for a new job if you were a Train Driver.

[devon_metro]

"That's alright officer, I know you've just caught me doing 140mph in my new Porsche but it's four in the morning and I thought as no-one was on the roads, it would be okay to see how fast it would go."

Sorry, your argument does not stand up in any shape or form.

Unless you happen to be a member of the emergency services, on an emergency call, you have broken the law and the police won't give a damn about what meeting you had to attend.  You might have deemed it safe, but your not the one making the laws in this country are you?

True - but at the end of the day I didnt get caught, no one got hurt, I caught my train and its not something I do regularly (in fact I believe that was the first time!)

The rules are there whether or not you didn't hurt anybody!!

[vacman]

it cost's FGW^▸ (First Great Western) about ^10 to process a penalty fare so in some cases they loose money

So, why don't they outsource ticket inspection to another company that is paid on the basis of commission gained from penalty tickets ?  There's probably a few wheel clamping firms or traffic wardens who would do it!   It's a win-win....FGW doesn't lose money from collecting additional fares (and indeed publciitly ensures that more people actually buy a ticket), fare paying passengers get to watch fare dodgers being clamped :-)

The admin of Penalty fares is dealt with by an outside company, a collections agency to be precise, it would be illiegal to apply any sort of "incentive" to issue penalty fares, as the issuer has to remain impartial at all times,  same applies to traffic wardens issuing parking tickets etc. Contractors are a pain in the backside for non customer service jobs such as fitting light bulbs etc, let alone front line jobs like issuing penalty fares!!

[smokey]

Vacman I 100% agree Contractors are a pain in the backside for Non-customer service jobs.

From what I've seen they (contractors), well at least some of them are more dishonest than Harmless fare dodgers!!