Just got back from two weeks staying in Carbis Bay. We used the train quite a bit while we were there and the lack of revenue protection on the line is quite eye opening.
We regularly travelled into St Ives in the evening and 20+ people doing the same thing would regularly join the train at Carbis Bay. There is a ticket machine in the car park but it is hidden away beyond the ramp to the platform, has no signage and cannot produce tickets for people with railcards so was of no use to us. We never saw anyone else use it. On all the the journeys we made the conductor did not appear once it just seems that people in Carbis Bay assume the train is free as no one ever attempts to sell them a ticket. I know the stations are close together but surely some attempt at revenue protection should be made? The ticket machine at St Ives was always out of order.
One evening we boarded at the door the conductor was operating but she just disappeared towards the back cab and was not seen again. Although the usage statistics for this line are impressive they must underestimate the actual numbers as there is a lot of ticketless travel.
Even during the day we had journeys without ticket checks and the one time we did see the conductor was on an early train heading for a day out in Plymouth and it seems we were sold an invalid ticket as we were sold an off peak return outside of its hours of validity. The CrossCountry train manager on the train from St Erth spotted the error but was understanding and did not surcharge us.
We regularly travelled into St Ives in the evening and 20+ people doing the same thing would regularly join the train at Carbis Bay. There is a ticket machine in the car park but it is hidden away beyond the ramp to the platform, has no signage and cannot produce tickets for people with railcards so was of no use to us. We never saw anyone else use it. On all the the journeys we made the conductor did not appear once it just seems that people in Carbis Bay assume the train is free as no one ever attempts to sell them a ticket. I know the stations are close together but surely some attempt at revenue protection should be made? The ticket machine at St Ives was always out of order.
One evening we boarded at the door the conductor was operating but she just disappeared towards the back cab and was not seen again. Although the usage statistics for this line are impressive they must underestimate the actual numbers as there is a lot of ticketless travel.
Even during the day we had journeys without ticket checks and the one time we did see the conductor was on an early train heading for a day out in Plymouth and it seems we were sold an invalid ticket as we were sold an off peak return outside of its hours of validity. The CrossCountry train manager on the train from St Erth spotted the error but was understanding and did not surcharge us.