Generally I apply a 3 question approach to someone without a ticket , ask them to buy one , if not ask them for details for an unpaid fares notice , if not ask them to leave the train .
If they decline an answer to all 3 questions then Its rare that I will challenge them any-more and if I do it will usually by using my wits rather than threatening something like calling the police which in all honesty is unlikely , unfortunately its fairly often the case now that the minute you start challenging someone robustly either that passenger or a fellow passenger pulls a mobile phone out and starts recording then sending in footage claiming that the passenger "didndonuffink" and that the "conductor was just rude" , we also know that there are a group of people out there that love to bait in these situations turning the camera on when it suits them , whilst I am able to remain calm even in the face of such adversity and would have no issue with being released from train working and having a rep released from train working to point this out to management , ending up in that situation repeatedly is not going to look great either . On a more serious note as well there is a worrying increase in assaults against staff , and to be honest I would rather like to go home everyday without being assaulted . Its worth remembering that you should pick your battles , you wont endear yourself to other passengers , drivers , control ,your managers or station staff if you detain your train at a station for ages every-time you encounter someone that wont pay .
In the event that they decline an answer to all 3 questions I will report the encounter , and hopefully if all guards did the same then the revenue protection department could respond by deploying RPI's , if necessary with btp backup to apprehend someone regularly failing to pay their fare .
In the event of it being a one off encounter , the only way to stop these is by spending an inordinate amount of money on suitable revenue staff and btp for every station . Simply not going to happen , and would not be cost effective anyway . Ultimately in discussions such as these it is worth remembering that a certain level of fare evasion is tolerable in economic terms because the cost of reducing fare evasion to zero fare outweighs the fares that would be collected .
Barriering more stations (and perhaps a change in the rules to allow barriers to be closed without direct supervision - instead having a help button to a call centre perhaps, plus a fire alarm automatic release and a manual emergency button, but with the latter having a CCTV camera pointing directly at the person who might press it?)
People whose tickets whilst valid dont work in barriers wont be happy about waiting for a help button answer , especially when we know in the privatised railway world there will be 1 person covering 100 stations help buttons .
Besides , if yobs notice a pattern for when the station is shut they will just jump the barriers or use any emergency release . Static CCTV wont stop them , a group of yobs damn near kicked a man to death on the Manchester metrolink despite knowing there was CCTV watching .
The battery excuse is the latest scam of the scoundrel. Guards will hear it all the time - tough luck buy another ticket. If they refuse they should kick them off the train at the next stop via a police escort if necessary.
They seem to have the power to do this, as there's one guard on my line who has threatened fare dodgers with this and they've always either paid up or voluntarily got off at the next stop (a stopper train). He makes sure everyone on his train has a valid ticket or he'll have the police at the next station waiting for them (a bluff or not it always works).
The thing with the police escort idea is that on many lines , even in urban areas the wait for a btp officer especially for something like a ticketing dispute is going to be fairly long . I dont think passengers on the whole would really enjoy it that much if guards routinely started holding their trains in stations for the btp every time there was a ticket dispute . I have personally only ever called the BTP to disturbances on the train which are violent .