How efficient is revenue protection?

[Shrop]

A few days ago I travelled from Oxford to Southampton. At Winchester, two RP officers entered our carriage and began inspecting tickets, one from each end. We were only going slowly to S. Airport Parkway, but by Eastleigh they had only checked about six rows in total, of our half full carriage. This made me wonder just how many people are actually travelling with incorrect tickets? If such a sample is representative, then there must be an absolute fortune lost through fare dodging ... or is it that the ticketing system is too complex for many to understand? It just seemed that something is wrong somewhere ...

 

[Alex27]

It will vary massively from train to train. Sometimes I'll get through a train very quickly with no issues at all (the commuters are generally all fairly well behaved on my line), sometimes I'll check about 3 people and will have to speak to all of them. That being said I can often end up spending a long time with a customer who can't find their railcard on their phone etc, but will then get through very quickly after that, every train is different.

 

[viscountviktor]

Manned Ticket barriers first to last train would make more money in my opinion!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Oct 2024 ==

And I never see revenue protection on Sundays/evenings

 

[Hadders]

Manned Ticket barriers first to last train would make more money in my opinion!

Staffed ticket barriers are part of a good revenue protection policy but they can never be the only answer.

The cost of staffing every station with barrier staff from first to last train would isn't realistic at smaller and lesser used stations.
Ticket barriers can check that passengers have a ticket but not that the ticket covers the full journey.

 

[Lewisham2221]

A few days ago I travelled from Oxford to Southampton. At Winchester, two RP officers entered our carriage and began inspecting tickets, one from each end. We were only going slowly to S. Airport Parkway, but by Eastleigh they had only checked about six rows in total, of our half full carriage. This made me wonder just how many people are actually travelling with incorrect tickets? If such a sample is representative, then there must be an absolute fortune lost through fare dodging ... or is it that the ticketing system is too complex for many to understand? It just seemed that something is wrong somewhere ...

Unfortunately, the concept of proving that you are actually entitled to be travelling on any particular train is somewhat alien to some people. A not uncommon example roughly follows:

• Be completely oblivious to the ticket check taking place, despite the 15 people in your immediate vicinity clearly presenting their tickets for inspection.
• Act both surprised and disgusted by the idea that you also need to show your ticket. Throw in any combination of eye roll, sigh, or tut.
• Commence a somewhat protracted search for the Trainline app.
• Wait what seems like forever for the app to load.
• Spend ages scrolling through your journeys.
• Select a journey, then scroll up and down several times before finally tapping "view ticket"
• Inevitably, the ticket you have shown will be the wrong leg of your split, or for the return journey, or for a journey you made 3 weeks ago. Repeat the previous two steps.
• You've now shown the correct ticket, with a railcard discount.
• You now throw in another combination of eye roll, sigh, or tut, when asked for your Railcard.
• Ignore the "show Railcard" button at the top of ticket and, instead, close the app.
• Scroll through all the apps on your phone.
• Re-open the Trainline app.
• Wait for it to load again.
• Spend forever figuring out where the Railcard actually lives within the app.
• Present Railcard, accompanied by another eye roll.

And that's all for somebody who actually has a perfectly valid ticket.

 

[Shrop]

Unfortunately, the concept of proving that you are actually entitled to be travelling on any particular train is somewhat alien to some people. A not uncommon example roughly follows:

• Be completely oblivious to the ticket check taking place, despite the 15 people in your immediate vicinity clearly presenting their tickets for inspection.
• Act both surprised and disgusted by the idea that you also need to show your ticket. Throw in any combination of eye roll, sigh, or tut.
• Commence a somewhat protracted search for the Trainline app.
• Wait what seems like forever for the app to load.
• Spend ages scrolling through your journeys.
• Select a journey, then scroll up and down several times before finally tapping "view ticket"
• Inevitably, the ticket you have shown will be the wrong leg of your split, or for the return journey, or for a journey you made 3 weeks ago. Repeat the previous two steps.
• You've now shown the correct ticket, with a railcard discount.
• You now throw in another combination of eye roll, sigh, or tut, when asked for your Railcard.
• Ignore the "show Railcard" button at the top of ticket and, instead, close the app.
• Scroll through all the apps on your phone.
• Re-open the Trainline app.
• Wait for it to load again.
• Spend forever figuring out where the Railcard actually lives within the app.
• Present Railcard, accompanied by another eye roll.

And that's all for somebody who actually has a perfectly valid ticket.

One way of looking at this is to see it as funny, but on the other it really isn't when it's all about making a business both harder and more costly to run. I have genuinely seen many of these behaviours, and that's just as another passenger, it must be very testing on the patience of a RP officer.
But what about the scenario when a passenger claims that they can't get reception on their phone? Or what if they claim they have a perfectly valid ticket but their phone has run out of charge? Do either of those constitute a defence, or does ANY inability to display a ticket constitute an offence?

 

[KCJones]

Pre paid RTN on the phone tickets from Harold Wood to Rayleigh Saturday evening for 2 cost £27.20, barriers opened at Harold Wood and no barriers or staff at Rayleigh, phone never left my pocket. Would have been happy to see ticket checking.

 

[Coolzac]

I think this will become increasingly a problem. Also, not just battery, but also problems with the app, problems with scanning, etc. etc.

One way of looking at this is to see it as funny, but on the other it really isn't when it's all about making a business both harder and more costly to run. I have genuinely seen many of these behaviours, and that's just as another passenger, it must be very testing on the patience of a RP officer.
But what about the scenario when a passenger claims that they can't get reception on their phone? Or what if they claim they have a perfectly valid ticket but their phone has run out of charge? Do either of those constitute a defence, or does ANY inability to display a ticket constitute an offence?

 

[RPI]

It varies so much, last week I worked a train to Plymouth (a Cardiff to Plymouth service) which was absolutely dead, yet I still had reason to "interact" with quite a few passengers. Yet on the same day I worked an evening peak Exmouth service from Exeter Central, a 3 car turbo which was very well loaded, and despite checking the whole train between myself and a colleague I think I sold a handful of tickets from St James and Polsloe Bridge and that was it! Yet the Exmouth line can be one of the busiest lines for "interactions".

Likewise I can work a fast Penzance service from Paddington on a Friday, where it is rammed, it can take from Paddington to Taunton for two of us to get a full check done and we can have absolutely zero interactions, yet on another day, the same train can be very different.

One thing that I've noticed in my time is that these days the vast majority of interactions are usually involving some sort of ticket being held, whereas in the past it was mostly people with no tickets.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Manned Ticket barriers first to last train would make more money in my opinion!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Oct 2024 ==

And I never see revenue protection on Sundays/evenings

It's done wonders for passenger numbers at Chester-le Street and Manors at Newcastle. Just one item in a list of measures that need to be taken.