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Have your tickets been checked on your journey?

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Kite159

Kite159

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ValleyLines142 said:
Still no checks on Transport for Wales services. Quite why, I do not know.
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Isn't that more down to the Welsh law being more stricter when it comes to social distancing within the work place?

But agreed, like Scotland, people will have worked out the only time you need to buy a ticket is when you are traveling to a station with barriers, and even then they can get away with buying a mobile ticket from the closest station to bypass the barriers.
 
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Steddenm

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Having travelled recently for work on ScotRail and LNER I've noticed that there has been no ticket checks on board at all although staff have had a wander through the train.

What I'd like to know is what is the current policy for TOCs on ticket checks on board? I know in the first lockdown there was no ticket checks at all, and wondering now that train services are being reduced again, what is happening at the moment.

Thanks all.
 
323235

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I've heard that Northern guards have been checking tickets and that barrier checks have been taking place every couple/few days at Macclesfield.

There seems to be a bit of an unjustified enforcement mentality at Northern currently - they've hired 55 x extra Carlisle Travel Safe Officers (and announced it on LinkedIn the day after the latest lockdown) at a time when there doesn't seem to be any justification for it because they are carting round fresh air
 
221129

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323235 said:
there doesn't seem to be any justification for it because they are carting round fresh air
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I'd say there is plenty of justification as a lot of people got wise to the fact there were no on-board checks and fare evasion has shot up. Also a larger proportion of people travelling have been the undesirables running drugs across the country.
 
ValleyLines142

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At present, I believe it's only ScotRail and Transport for Wales that aren't conducting ticket checks.
 
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Parallel

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It seems that GWR guards aren’t checking tickets, although GWR ticket examiners and RPIs are still on the trains and are checking tickets. This is my experience anyway.
 
Monty

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Haven't touched a machine in months, and it will stay that way until I'm vaccinated. I'll do a security patrol when the train is quiet enough however.
 
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scrapy

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323235 said:
I've heard that Northern guards have been checking tickets and that barrier checks have been taking place every couple/few days at Macclesfield.

There seems to be a bit of an unjustified enforcement mentality at Northern currently - they've hired 55 x extra Carlisle Travel Safe Officers (and announced it on LinkedIn the day after the latest lockdown) at a time when there doesn't seem to be any justification for it because they are carting round fresh air
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The travel safe officers don't deal with revenue matters, they also rarely enforce anything as they have limited powers. They have actually recently hired 11 in addition to the 55 they already had so the LinkedIn announcement is wrong. With the shift patterns earlys/lates over a 7 day rota only about a third will be on shift at any time and they are usually in pairs, so 11 pairs on shift across the entire Northern area which is quite thinly spread. They also started work from mid December (and recruited earlier than this)so before new Covid variant known about and when passenger numbers were rising and expected to rise further. The extras will predominately provide security functions at Manchester Victoria and Oxford Road stations.

Separately from the travel safe officers though, Northern have recruited around 30 in house RPIs (again commited before December) for the North West (there may be more in Yorkshire and the North East). They will predominantly be boarding trains although will work at stations and in conjunction with other TOCs too. and will by the sounds of things have proper training. This is expected to reduce the number of Carlisle contractors. It should be noted that Northern didn't really have in house RPIs and previously under Arriva and Serco Abellio relied on contractors so they are starting from much lower than other TOCs.
 
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Jimini

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Parallel said:
It seems that GWR guards aren’t checking tickets, although GWR ticket examiners and RPIs are still on the trains and are checking tickets. This is my experience anyway.
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Plenty of GWR ticket checks happening in my experience (normally three return journeys Paddington <> Reading per week), even when leaving PAD from a gated platform.
 
323235

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221129 said:
I'd say there is plenty of justification as a lot of people got wise to the fact there were no on-board checks and fare evasion has shot up. Also a larger proportion of people travelling have been the undesirables running drugs across the country.
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Most of the drug dealers I've seen during lockdown have been on bikes and cars, so you aren't going to catch them by doing a revenue blockade.

Do we have any statistics to back up this justification that revenue blocks are catching a large amount of drug dealers during lockdown?

In my view it is a waste of money as the wages cannot justify the amount of revenue collected at the present time and it is also encouraging unneccessary close contact of staff with passengers at a time when we are trying to bring case numbers down, not to mention the volatility factor of people being in lockdown and being extremely stressed - It is potentially causing unnecessary stress and tension plus the most compelling reason of all- aren't we trying to prevent the spread of COVID or are rail staff immune to catching and transmitting it a symptomatically?

Going back to the earlier point there is no financial basis for putting staff in close contact with every passenger that passes through - it just isn't necessary during a lockdown for the sake of beating a few fare dodgers. Of course rail staff will be like - Why should people get a free ride during a lockdown? Perhaps on the flipside - why should staff risk giving people COVID for the sake of a few quid. Also the other factor will be - We are entitled to carry out a revenue block , collect revenue and people are not justified to get stressed and volatile during a lockdown - I think that is completely the wrong attitude to have during such a serious national event.

Before it peaked many staff were getting unnecessarily close to passengers and look what happened - the case rates went up and it is likely that some transmission did occur on trains.

If there is a need to catch drug dealers let the BTP and local police go out and stop people, given they are the ones trained to catch and detain criminals and there is now a decent percentage of the 20,000 pledged extra officers out on the beat.
 
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jon0844

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323235 said:
Most of the drug dealers I've seen during lockdown have been on bikes and cars, so you aren't going to catch them by doing a revenue blockade.
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I think BTP (and regular police) not so long ago published a report on taking a sizeable number of county line drug runners off the streets in the latter half of 2020, and an awful lot of them were using the rail/public transport network.

They aren't being caught by revenue officers though, but intelligence from staff and members of the public. Nor are they necessarily being caught on the trains themselves.

I guess they somewhat stand out when nobody else is on the train though! It would seem smarter to use a car, but a lot of these people are very young and won't have access to a car.
 
323235

323235

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jon0844 said:
I think BTP (and regular police) not so long ago published a report on taking a sizeable number of county line drug runners off the streets in the latter half of 2020, and an awful lot of them were using the rail/public transport network.
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Indeed in normal times it is very obvious that public transport is used significantly for such crime , I had one ask me how to get the train to Cheshire, such was the state of his geographical knowledge then started chatting up some women on the platform, we see school kids acting as mules going over county lines here, I remember watching one guy get caught by the police whilst doing a crime awareness roadshow at Macclesfield Station. That is in normal times though, I think the chances of catching drug dealers on public transport must be signifantly reduced to normal (I don't say they are none existent) because they know they'll stand out, especially if they operate to a pattern and are noticed doing the same journey regularly. The ones round here tend to change their meeting points everyday but it just so happens I change my exercise route too and at times have have had a habit of seeing them.
 
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I am sure they adjust their movements, but if they're as young as 10-12 then they're not going anywhere by car.

Going by the smell of weed from flats and houses when I go out for walks, I assume people are still getting their supplies very easily during the lockdown.
 
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I had one ticket check on GTR (before Christmas iirc) but their gatelines seem to be well manned. At Stevenage the gateline is manned well into the evening.
 
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Chriso

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Just had a ticket check by guard on 14:02 London Paddington to Reading and we left off gated plat 2. All Paddington gatelines fully working along with Reading
 
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Chriso

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A breath of fresh air after two weeks on South Eastern for work where they have even given up on the gates outside of Zone 1. Even after arrival at St Pancras on Monday at 21:21 4 youngsters just barged the wide gate anyway (Something I am seeing more & more often these days) and as per usual no BTP to be seen. I did see some REO’s on patrol Dover to Ramsgate but they never checked tickets but have to say they were professional and patrolled the whole train and moved some kids off from the waiting room @ Sandwich
 
ValleyLines142

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Just done Gloucester to Bristol and back for a work meeting, no ticket checks either way but barriers in full operation at both Bristol Parkway and Temple Meads.
 
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CHESHIRECAT

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Wilmslow regularly has Northern support staff; outnumbering number of passengers !

Northern train yesterday after the handwashing/nose blowing sermon over the P.A. system announced a 'Covid friendly' ticket check soon to take place!!!

Which it did to be fair (fare ?!)
 
Jamesrob637

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Very short journey today - Knutsford to Mobberley as part of my exercise

Three RPIs on the front unit of a 4-car service - friendly but not socially distanced.

Should such folk currently be working or are they best furloughed out of pax' way?
 
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jon0844 said:
I am sure they adjust their movements, but if they're as young as 10-12 then they're not going anywhere by car.

Going by the smell of weed from flats and houses when I go out for walks, I assume people are still getting their supplies very easily during the lockdown.
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Considering (one of) the local dealers operates during the middle of the day on a bench in plain view of passers by (and in the direct line of sight of the reception desk of an open legitimate business ) and makes absolutely no effort to hide what he is doing and has been doing so since March I rather suspect certain police forces have decided dealing with dealers is too much like work.
 
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