Not always easy to have your eyes everywhere. However, I recently worked 8 carriages between Canterbury West and Ramsgate. Next stop Sturry, short platform, only front 4 doors open. Upon departure from Sturry I meet a ticketless passenger in the 7th carriage stating he got on at Sturry. I point to the nearest door asking ‘was it this door?’ ‘Yes’ says he. ‘I think you got on at Canterbury West’ says I.
I had similar last week, chap asked for a ticket from Polsloe Bridge when we were fast, actually from Newcourt, Needless to say I took an avenue that didn't involve a ticket sale.
Haha love that. Not smart enough. If you’re gonna try and fare evade then at least make sure you’ve covered your bases. Better still, just buy the right ticket
Yes indeed, they never think to do that.
Ticket checks do happen at Preston, just mainly during the weekday peaks and it's usually Northern subcontracted Carlisle security bouncers with scanners.
Why Carlisle-based?? Seems ludicrous. I agree about the Piccadilly lot, I find them rude, arrogant and unpleasant. Not interested in any form of reasoning (I’ve heard ppl try!) and eat a few ppl for breakfast. Saw similar behaviour on northern trains from impromptu ticket inspectors
'Carlisle Security' are a security firm, same firm that Merseyrail use. They are not specifically based in Carlisle, just the company name.
Carlisle is an employment agency... they aren't talking about the staff actually coming from Carlisle!
My bad, I jumped on the name!
Yeah, as others have said, it's an employment agency. Some of the ticket inspectors on train are Carlisle Security, some of them directly employed I believe. Most of them are reasonable.
The Oxford shuttle and Didcot to Reading stoppers are particularly bad, never had a ticket checked on either.
Because they are DOO and I’m guessing GWR don’t roster Ticket Examiners on the Thames Valley as they do in the West!
I think the Oxford shuttle would also be impossible since it's nearly impossible to stand. I've definitely seen Train Managers on the Didcot to Reading trains, but they waited till after Reading to come down through the train.
Indeed and all of the major stations (Oxford/Didcot/Reading) that most people will be travelling to/from are barriered. Of course that doesn't completely stop people from 'donutting' but it makes it unlikely to be worthwhile.
It’s mostly just the stoppers that are DOO. Most IETs will indeed have TMs.
Though those have TMs who are pretty good!
No 100% of all Thameslink trains (and all Great Northern trains too) are fully DOO with nobody onboard other than the driver. The driver is the only staff member you will see on these trains. They have been DOO for decades. I believe it was one of the first services to go DOO. The only time a ticket check would take place is on the very rare occasion that a Revenue Protection Inspector (or "Passenger Host" as they renamed them to) boards the train.
Quite the opposite. I travel regularly on Southeastern metro and mainline services and tickets are checked about half the time on-board mainline. During COVID there were very few checks.
They especially like places like Sevenoaks and Greenhithe where potting passengers who try touching out their Oyster cards is a ready earner.
They work perfectly well if the ticket barrier has been programmed properly, which is a big "if".
Tonbridge/Tunbridge Wells have times during peak that the barriers are opened up to avoid safety issues with masses of grammar school kids coming through.
Miseryrail inspectors were still using paper ticket pads in the mid-10s.
As a regular DLR user I can assure you that the full train does not get checked on most or even very many trips. Most CSRs don't bother, and quite a lot of them still try to spend most of the journey in the "driving" position at the front.
I don't work for the railway so don't mind pointing fingers and saying Penzance depot is very much a law unto itself.
Which is pretty much what I said, although less than half in my experience.
Must be the exception then as I travel weekly with rare ticket checks!
Just sit at the local equivalent of Harmonstown for a week
Depends on TOC and area, generally in the West area of GWR we get a free reign to go where we please, but we do have to send a form in each day of what we've done! At Exeter our bread and butter is the Exmouth to Paignton route, we work on trains either alone or in pairs and a couple of times a week we try to organise blocks at some of the smaller stations, we generally go to Exeter Central quite a bit too.
There's always a guard on the Exmouth to Paignton who has always checked tickets on every time I've been on, so not sure what would be gained by deploying RPI resource there?
Must say GWR and SWR south west based guards are from my experience generally very professional, very efficient, do check tickets most journeys, are generally helpful in cases of disruption and are generally fairly sensible and pragmatic - never had an issue getting a rover on the train for example.
Because a guard can only sell a ticket.....