DH1Commuter
Member
- Joined
- 28 Jun 2018
- Messages
- 57
In the last two weeks I have travelled through Newcastle Central from an ungated station (Durham) twice daily, 5 days a week. I've also made a return journey to London.
In this period, I've had my ticket checked twice, and once only, on the two mornings the gates at NCL have been in action, the other mornings walking through open gates at NCL, whilst red-coated LNER staff look on; this at times when TPE, LNER and XC all disgorge large numbers of passengers in rapid succession in the morning, then again at evening commuter hours. The London journeys? Other than the trolley service, no staff seen. This seems odd as, until recently, NCL tended to have a closed gate-line at peak hours, and on Friday/Saturday evenings for the boozers it extended this.
Does anyone know if this is deliberate and LNER have calculated that the lost revenue is less than the cost of staff working the gate-line, or have any other suggestions? Certainly at present, I'd suggest that there is an economic logic to travelling ticketless and buying at NCL on the rare occasions the gate-line is working (I have an annual ticket, so speak as an observer rather than as a fare-evader), and that this is likely to the detriment of the TOCs.
In this period, I've had my ticket checked twice, and once only, on the two mornings the gates at NCL have been in action, the other mornings walking through open gates at NCL, whilst red-coated LNER staff look on; this at times when TPE, LNER and XC all disgorge large numbers of passengers in rapid succession in the morning, then again at evening commuter hours. The London journeys? Other than the trolley service, no staff seen. This seems odd as, until recently, NCL tended to have a closed gate-line at peak hours, and on Friday/Saturday evenings for the boozers it extended this.
Does anyone know if this is deliberate and LNER have calculated that the lost revenue is less than the cost of staff working the gate-line, or have any other suggestions? Certainly at present, I'd suggest that there is an economic logic to travelling ticketless and buying at NCL on the rare occasions the gate-line is working (I have an annual ticket, so speak as an observer rather than as a fare-evader), and that this is likely to the detriment of the TOCs.