How many checks?

[whole diary]

[thetrout]

I was always told that Customer Hosts cannot insist on seeing your tickets as they are not "authorised persons" i.e. not revenue trained.

That's interesting, I once took the direct Frome to London Paddington to Reading, Frome's ticket office closes around lunchtime and there is no TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) there. So when the train arrived I spoke with the TM^▸ (Train Manager, or possibly Ticket Machine, depending on context) before boarding and asked to buy a ticket. I said i'd be in First Class.

When the Customer Host came round with the trolley, she asked me for my ticket, so I explained that I had told the TM I needed to buy one when I got on at Frome, That Frome was unstaffed and I would be purchasing a First Class Ticket. She refused to serve me anything until I had a ticket. Now I don't have a problem with that, what I had a problem with is the fact that the TM didn't get to me before I alighted at Reading!! So I ended up queuing for 20 minutes at excess fares in Reading before walking rather brisky and taking an XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) service onto Banbury, where (no offence to any XC staff ) the train was full and standing, no First Class host and the trolley inaccessible due to the overcrowding! To say I was p*ssed (and bluddy thirsty) at this point, was an understatement!

[readytostart]

(no offence to any XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) staff )

Who could you mean?

[brompton rail]

Interestingly on a recent morning trip to York ( from Doncaster -32 miles in 20 minutes) my outward trip was on East Coast where I offered tea or coffee within a few minutes of departure, no First Class ticket requested by Hosts, and no subsequent ticket check by the guard either. Returning by XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) I WAS asked to show my ticket to the Host, but then served a drink and offered biscuits and a hot bacon roll.

Seems, like most personal services, to vary with the individual staff member.

[dog box]

If i took over a busy  HSTservice from Bristol and decided on doing a full ticket check towards Bath by the time i had a conversation with the gent who said my tickets just been checked and i explained i needed to check it again, waited for the student to find her railcard and explained that that is your seat reservation not the ticket to a lady i would be lucky to actually show my face in coach B by the time we were passing Bath Goods, just because your sat in coach E and getting off in Swindon dont assume no ticket checks are taking place

[SDS]

Dont forget the saga louts who can never find their tickets, yet when you dont want to see them they insist on showing you.

[dog box]

Dont forget the saga louts who can never find their tickets, yet when you dont want to see them they insist on showing you.

ah yes the very same who cannot quite seem to understand ticketing restrictions

[JayMac]

Bit unfair on the Saga louts there SDS and dog box. I like to think that I still have all my faculties with me, but even I, as a relatively sprightly 37 year old, occasionally get flummoxed by ticketing restrictions.

[Chris from Nailsea]

... as do FGW^▸ (First Great Western) staff themselves: see http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=6795.msg67525#msg67525 

[Commuting Bookworm]

Tickets not checked this morning on Reading to Basingstoke..........  What are the guidelines? Surely FGW^▸ (First Great Western) must be loosing money on the the people who get on and off at open stations (On at Reading West off at Bramley for instance) If this fare jumpers were caught and reduced, would this not help to keep my ticket price down?

[CE02]

Last night i travelled on the 17:27 Totnes to London Paddington and took up my reserved seat in the quiet coach the TM^▸ (Train Manager, or possibly Ticket Machine, depending on context) appeared to be doing ticket checks throughout the train but everytime he got to the quiet coach he just walked through not doing checks i guess not wanting to disturb the ambience but very strange. Has anybody else seen this before?

[SDS]

Or more likely you didn't look dodgy or the TM^▸ (Train Manager, or possibly Ticket Machine, depending on context) saw the door of the TGS and rushed to get through it as quickly as possible!!!!

[JayMac]

Ahh.... a TM^▸ (Train Manager, or possibly Ticket Machine, depending on context) that is like the the LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) drivers, BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) Officers, signallers, Swindon control and management that you have dealings with SDS Pad.

Is it really necessary to continually criticise those around you, even if it may sometimes be in jest?

Then there's the passengers. Heaven forfend if they are in their autumn years or a bicycle owner....

[Commuting Bookworm]

But sureley bignosemac, by highlighting whats going wrong, its a gental prod to those who can change things. I for one think that our tickets should be checked on every journey, that way, fare dodgers will be caught and thus, help keep the cost of our tickets down.

Also, I would imagine a hint on this forum is better than an employee being pulled up infront of their superior, for a let smacking? Perhaps people just get to lax in their duties?

As an aside, my ticket was not checked this morning, though guard did walk through for anyone who required a ticket, from Mortimer or Bramley.

[grahame]

On the more general note that we've moved to on posting tactics ... it's so easy to get in a mode where you talk about the bad / poor and never mention the good, or a mode where you critisise what you perceive as poor, without acknowledging that there might be a wider picture and a reason for something.  But if you slip into this mode (as I believe folks like the South Hampshire Rail Users Group have done), you end up having your valid criticisms devalued on the basis that "it's just him/her again", and you end up upsetting people who really could be very much your allies, but feels you don't appreciate their worth / position / values.

"Together, we can often work so well - even if our interests sometimes diverge.  But if we set ourselves up as an organisation which is doing nothing but sniping where we perceive problems, we are furthering the interests of third parties at the expense of our own"

Edit to add summary line

[ChrisB]

THe way to do this is to work with the company,. identifying the problems & suggesting ways to overcome them!