London Midland stepping up ticket checks

[trainophile]

I noticed quite a blitz on the Hereford-Birmingham trains over the last couple of days. Whereas you used to see a guard maybe once on that route, or not at all, on Tuesday tickets were checked after every station, by a very diligent guard or revenue guy.

Same route early afternoon today BHM-HFD, and a female guard checked right through the (albeit short) train a few times. She challenged a lad near me who obviously had a Child ticket that he didn't look under 16 (he didn't!), and as he had no proof of age she made him pay the difference to an Adult ticket, which he did with a debit card! I don't think many under-16s would even have a debit card, although I believe it is possible with parental authorisation/liability.

It's a start, but maybe she should have Penalty Fare'd the lad if he was clearly flouting the Child ticket conditions. Good to see they are showing an interest at last though, they must have lost a lot of revenue over the years by not bothering.

 

[Bungle965]

I can`t remember the last time I had a ticket check on the Walsall line...
Sam

 

[50010 Monarch]

I can`t remember the last time I had a ticket check on the Walsall line...
Sam

I would say that this applies to most LM routes. They just don't seem bothered about protecting revenue.

 

[AndrewE]

Those of us with tickets shouldn't grumble.

I wish on-train checks could be more thorough - and / or more frequent everywhere (by "TTIs" or equivalent) but I want the guard to still be in charge of the train, not wasting their (and our) time delaying the train while finishing a transaction before opening the doors!

To be fair, most of the revenue-collecting guards are quite good at not getting tied up approaching a station, maybe this is why a guard can't get stuck into collecting penalty fares.

What really annoys me is the random use of station barriers, sometimes open and not staffed but at other times staffed by people more interested in chatting than letting through people whose tickets won't open the barriers!

 

[Blindtraveler]

Good to here. My LM journeys are usually on their own advances and I think I could have had a free ride on many occasions had I chosen to.

 

[6Gman]

What really annoys me is the random use of station barriers, sometimes open and not staffed but at other times staffed by people more interested in chatting than letting through people whose tickets won't open the barriers!

Ah, so you use Crewe ... New Street ... Moor Street ... Snow Hill ... as well.

 

[6Gman]

I would say that this applies to most LM routes. They just don't seem bothered about protecting revenue.

They're usually pretty good on the Birmingham - Liverpool trains.

 

[Qwerty133]

I noticed quite a blitz on the Hereford-Birmingham trains over the last couple of days. Whereas you used to see a guard maybe once on that route, or not at all, on Tuesday tickets were checked after every station, by a very diligent guard or revenue guy.

Same route early afternoon today BHM-HFD, and a female guard checked right through the (albeit short) train a few times. She challenged a lad near me who obviously had a Child ticket that he didn't look under 16 (he didn't!), and as he had no proof of age she made him pay the difference to an Adult ticket, which he did with a debit card! I don't think many under-16s would even have a debit card, although I believe it is possible with parental authorisation/liability.

It's a start, but maybe she should have Penalty Fare'd the lad if he was clearly flouting the Child ticket conditions. Good to see they are showing an interest at last though, they must have lost a lot of revenue over the years by not bothering.

The majority of 13-15 year olds will have debit cards, not ones that would take an offline transaction however.

 

[Mugby]

Isn't this action a bit late in the day for LM now the franchise is drawing to an end?

 

[GW43125]

I don't think many under-16s would even have a debit card, although I believe it is possible with parental authorisation/liability.

I had one at that age, it is permissible with parental permission-I think there's one bank that will give you one from 12.

 

[bb21]

It's a start, but maybe she should have Penalty Fare'd the lad if he was clearly flouting the Child ticket conditions. Good to see they are showing an interest at last though, they must have lost a lot of revenue over the years by not bothering.

Not much point if the kid was under 18.

Much better to take the excess fare and leave it at that.

 

[Navajo8686]

Re Walsall line. Revenue Protection have worked the line three days this week and have blocked Walsall twice. More planned in coming week. We gave also worked Snow Hill lines multiple times and also blocked Kidderminster plus others this week

We are - contrary to what may be said - very proactive. We cannot be everywhere all the time though.

 

[sk688]

Personally , havent seen evidence of this on the South WCML services ( Tring , MKC, Northampton etc ) , maybe they will go there next

 

[Gareth Marston]

Hoards get a free ride into Shrewsbury from Wellington, Telford etc on LM services but they then get nabbed by the ATW barrier staff. There's often a queue up the staircase onto the platforms after LM terminators arrive.

The guys cant get a signal for the new machines down in the tunnel and it takes ages to clear the queue.

 

[Matt Taylor]

On SWT the general philosophy for guards is that getting a child fare out of someone is better than getting no money at all, RPIs have a very different outlook however.

 

[tony_mac]

I had one at that age, it is permissible with parental permission-I think there's one bank that will give you one from 12.

Santander, for example, will give you a bank account at age 11, with a contactless debit card (so obviously allows offline transactions).
No parental permission is required either.

 

[TH172341]

Noticed on the Snow Hill line a bit of a step up in ticket checks - perhaps management has decided to put some focus on it. A positive really as quite a few manage to hitch a free ride between those stations on the southern and northern parts (i.e not going to/from Birmingham).

 

[LowLevel]

If LM hadn't pushed their assistant ticket examiners, who were perfectly happy with their lot in life, into effective redundancy and redeployment, there would be fewer of their non corridor trains (170+153 etc) running around with no revenue protection in the front train. When I used to use the Shrewsbury trains it was perfectly common to pay every time - the Telford and Shrewsbury based ATEs and some RPIs from New Street covered the trains well with the guard. Now they've all been displaced and removed the front set is a free ride or a long wait at New Street excess fares desk. The staff were well regarded by the public and had a good rapport with them.

 

[eMeS]

Personally , havent seen evidence of this on the South WCML services ( Tring , MKC, Northampton etc ) , maybe they will go there next

We had our tickets checked on a late morning LM Bletchley to Euston last January.

 

[syorksdeano]

I can`t remember the last time I had a ticket check on the Walsall line...
Sam

Was one about 3 weeks ago

 

[50010 Monarch]

Re Walsall line. Revenue Protection have worked the line three days this week and have blocked Walsall twice. More planned in coming week. We gave also worked Snow Hill lines multiple times and also blocked Kidderminster plus others this week

We are - contrary to what may be said - very proactive. We cannot be everywhere all the time though.

I travelled from Snow Hill to Stourbridge tonight. Surprise surprise no ticket check......again. Folks know they can get away without paying so they do it all the time.