Watford Junction - Leighton Buzzard is not a very long journey so i not surprised the OP's ticket wasn't checked.
In my experience guards on London Midland often do a ticket check between Euston and Northampton/Rugby; it might have been completed before you got on at Watford Junction or it might have started after you alighted at Leighton Buzzard.
It's impractical to expect a ticket check on every journey.
Most of us will do a ticket check on the up after Leighton Buzzard, and on the down, depending on the stopping pattern, after Watford Junction.
Hadders - It's about 20 minutes!!
We're
expected to go through after
every stop, including the three minutes sprint WFJ-KGL and the 3 minute sprint WFJ-BSH.
Of course, these ideas have been dreamt up by "managers" that used to work for Cross Country, where you might have a minimum of 20 minutes between stops, and haven't a clue how a predominantly commuter railway works.
You also need to remember that there are a good few Guards that DO NOT and WILL NOT walk trains, ever. So there's a chance you've got one of their trains.
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There's more to it than just £10 an hour, there's the costs of attraction, retention, and making sure there is enough work at other times in order to offer enough hours to attract enough people.
We're on 15.22 an hour, flat money. Even though it's non-stop from Reading to Taunton, it's possible the booked Guard has blown in sick and a spare man was sent to work it at very short notice. IE at 1657 the phone goes and the panicking DTCM says "1700, platform 8, so-and-so" has blown in, I'll fax you the diagram....." It happens a lot!!
It's also possible that the Guard working it has a trainee with him who is busy learning the route, and therefore he hasn't got a machine and won't walk the train.
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London Midland made all their RPI's redundant 16 months ago. You rarely get checked by guards. The company relies on most of its customers going through gates aft Euston WFJ and MKC. They make no money checking tickets. Any extra revenue goes to DfT, but they keep any savings on operating the company. So in the run down of the franchise it makes sense to reduce your staff costs.
Andrew1395 - you haven't got a clue what you're talking about, I'm afraid!!!!