Ticket checks

[whole diary]

[Mookiemoo]

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..........

[John R]

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

[Chris from Nailsea]

An interesting comparison, Mookiemoo, but I too can't remember the last time my return ticket was checked on the crammed 1753 from BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) 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?

 

[Mookiemoo]

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

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?

[vacman]

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!!

[Mookiemoo]

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^‡(resolve) 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^» (Worcester Shrub Hill - next trains) 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!

[Jez]

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.

[Conner]

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. 

No, AFAIK^▸ (as far as I know) 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.

[Mookiemoo]

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.

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!

[Btline]

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^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) Cards etc.

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

[Mookiemoo]

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^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) 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

[Jez]

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.

[Mookiemoo]

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^» (Worcester Shrub Hill - next trains) 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^▸ (Selective Door Opening)).  And - the tickets checks are not done by the TM^‡(resolve) 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^▸ (Health and Safety) 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.

[Conner]

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

[welshman]

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^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company))) 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^‡(resolve) 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.