Different companies do things differently. My company is supposed to do them in random places, but recently tends to send us to the same five places where numbers of fare evaders stopped are far higher - leaving other places with few operations. All about the money now
To a certain extent, yes. But, much like fixed speed cameras, if people know where to expect the revenue staff to be, they'll modify their behaviour to avoid them. For example, get off one stop earlier and catch the bus the rest of the way.
It makes sense to have blocks at stations such as this, as being an unstaffed station makes it vulnerable to fare evasion. It's a bit of a nightmare for passengers wishing to board trains admittedly, as I guess this means the staff then have to sell tickets for onward travel? For those that have already travelled though, it's slightly different.
Comfy chairs for once? This is the railway, we can't have any of that.
Is it really a sting? In my understanding that involves setting a potential criminal up and nabbing him when he takes the bait.
A recent increase in joint ops with cops has resulted in a huge number of unexpected finds... many wanted on warrant, some with weapons, drugs and stolen property, breach of bail, immigration.... all discovered for not paying for a £3/4 ticket.
For the cops this are easy pickings, although the only problem we do find is as soon as they've got three or four arrests, we've lost them whilst the suspects are processed.
For the basics of revenue, they're invaluable for doing person checks for false details and for those with no intention of stopping, using violence to force past staff, they do get stopped. Rather abruptly too
We work for the same TOC so it would appear to be standard practise.
A flying visit just to get the word around that people might get checked there is probably worth the effort. The whole point is to keep people uncertain as to where they will be checked so that they don't try to dodge their fares in the first place.
