BenSpiers5852
Member
This post is more aimed at those who are involved in ticket checking, but I'd be interested to hear peoples opinions on this.
Any sort of fare evasion gets under my skin a little especially since COVID started as the railway has been in a little financial trouble in general- we need everyone to pay their fare to help upkeep services and reduce the fare increases and cost to the tax payer.
Having worked a gate line for 18 months, I think the consequences for avoiding paying your fare can be way too soft and just a minor inconvenience for someone. There are also not enough revenue protection inspections across the railway network and a tougher crackdown is needed especially on repeat offenders. I found that there was a minority that would actively avoid paying their fare- pushing through ticket barriers, climbing over fences etc, and a much larger majority of chancers- people who just wanted to save a few pounds without even considering the legal or moral implications of doing so- people paying one stop to get through the barriers, people over 15 using a child rate ticket etc. It was difficult for me personally working out who made a genuine mistake and who intended to get off without paying the correct fare... some people are just good actors I suppose. As a Gate Line assistant there was very little I could do at the time other than request that someone pay (most gate line staff are not penalty fares trained and are there for safety and customer assistance). I also found that although it is a criminal offence to avoid paying for a ticket, 9 out of 10 times BTP weren't too interested even if we reported a repeat offender.
Anyway, what are your experiences and what do you think about the system- should we be pushing harder for prosecutions, carry out more inspections, increase the penalty fare or do you think what we have works
Any sort of fare evasion gets under my skin a little especially since COVID started as the railway has been in a little financial trouble in general- we need everyone to pay their fare to help upkeep services and reduce the fare increases and cost to the tax payer.
Having worked a gate line for 18 months, I think the consequences for avoiding paying your fare can be way too soft and just a minor inconvenience for someone. There are also not enough revenue protection inspections across the railway network and a tougher crackdown is needed especially on repeat offenders. I found that there was a minority that would actively avoid paying their fare- pushing through ticket barriers, climbing over fences etc, and a much larger majority of chancers- people who just wanted to save a few pounds without even considering the legal or moral implications of doing so- people paying one stop to get through the barriers, people over 15 using a child rate ticket etc. It was difficult for me personally working out who made a genuine mistake and who intended to get off without paying the correct fare... some people are just good actors I suppose. As a Gate Line assistant there was very little I could do at the time other than request that someone pay (most gate line staff are not penalty fares trained and are there for safety and customer assistance). I also found that although it is a criminal offence to avoid paying for a ticket, 9 out of 10 times BTP weren't too interested even if we reported a repeat offender.
Anyway, what are your experiences and what do you think about the system- should we be pushing harder for prosecutions, carry out more inspections, increase the penalty fare or do you think what we have works