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SouthEastern & BTP crackdown on fare evasion.

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Metal_gee_man

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So we all know that some stations are fare evasion hotspots, and some people wouldn't believe it was that bad, well this story from Kent Online tells the truth:

[More than 8,600 train passengers have been caught fare dodging in 28 days.

The figures emerged following a crackdown on criminal behaviour across parts of Kent by British Transport Police and Southeastern.

The crackdown aimed to increase safety on trains
The crackdown aimed to increase safety on trains
Operation Medway Towns led to almost 2,000 criminal prosecution and more than 6,600 penalty fares being issued at stations in Chatham, Gillingham, Rochester, Strood, Sittingbourne, Rainham, and Gravesend.

There was also the bonus of a missing teenager being found.

The highest number of offenders were caught at Gillingham train station, with 1,640 penalty fares issued and 538 criminal prosecutions, followed by Chatham with 1,581 penalty fares issued, and 452 criminal prosecutions.

Next worst was Rochester station with 1,167 penalty fares and 258 criminal prosecutions, followed by Strood with 1,020 penalty fares and 358 passengers prosecuted.

Another 846 penalty fares were issued at Gravesend station and 262 passengers prosecuted for evading fares.

Seventy-nine people were also prosecuted at Sittingbourne station and 384 penalty fares issued, while there were 10 prosecutions at Rainham station and 24 penalty fares issued.

Many of the prosecutions were aided by officers with Body Worn Video (BWV) cameras.

In some incidents, staff were also subject to violence, and the use of BWV technology helped bring the perpetrators to justice.


Supt Will Jordan, of the British Transport Police, said: "We absolutely will not tolerate violence of any sort on the railway, and we are committed to ensuring rail staff can do their jobs without fear of assault or abuse.

"We are there to protect them as well as the travelling public.

"Crucially, the public are our eyes and ears, so I'd ask anyone who witnesses any form of criminal behaviour on the railway to text us discreetly on 61016."

"There is no excuse whatsoever for criminal behaviour – which includes not paying for a ticket for your journey" - Siobhan Bradshaw
Siobhan Bradshaw, Southeastern general manager for revenue, crime and enforcement, said: "Nobody wants to witness violence or intimidatory behaviour when travelling by train, and no-one deserves to be treated that way at work.

"We're pulling out all the stops to make sure that no-one gets away with hurting our colleagues, who are there to look after and assist our passengers – and ensure that everyone pays their fare.


"There is no excuse whatsoever for criminal behaviour – which includes not paying for a ticket for your journey."

Ms Bradshaw added: "This was an important operation that also resulted in some really good news stories thanks to the eagle eyes of our teams."

She explained a missing 15 year-old was spotted at Gillingham and taken into police care at Chatham and a vulnerable dementia sufferer was also seen without his carer, and accompanied to his destination to ensure his safety/QUOTE]

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/news/8-619-fare-dodgers-caught-in-28-days-218086/
 
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KingJ

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Southeastern's press release is here, which also includes a per-station breakdown of the number of penalty fares issued and prosecutions.
 

baz962

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That's quite a few, especially for a handful of stations.
 

Peter Mugridge

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That's worse than I thought it would be. I wonder if anyone was caught more than once in the 28 days, regular fare dodgers mistakenly thinking that the checks were random and that they were just unlucky the first time maybe?
 

superkopite

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I wonder how many of those caught will be on the Disputes and Prosecutions page asking for help...
 

PeterC

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Doesn't say what the prosecutions were for. Was this just revenue issues and public order arrests when the suspects kicked off or were they searching for drugs / knives as well?
 

Arrpi87

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The ticket barriers at Sittingbourne are seemingly open more than closed from my experience, and if you take into account its the terminus of the Sheerness line which has a few stations with no barriers... a dodgers haven.
 

TFN

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There is another sting this evening in a southeastern station I won't mention yet. They asked us to walk through an "knife arch" or something and quite a few people were being stopped and searched.

There were a few RPIs around but far outnumbered by police.

Finally something is being done in southeastern land as it has gone way too far.
 

Jamiescott1

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Chiltern have had a big crackdown for the past couple of months. RPI's are always at the gate lines now (even when I travelled at 8pm on a weekend).
Would be interesting to know how many they have caught.
 

brad465

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Good, fare evasion and other bad activity is rife and if anything this sort of crackdown needs scaling up, it's clearly got results so far.
 

Kite159

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There is another sting this evening in a southeastern station I won't mention yet. They asked us to walk through an "knife arch" or something and quite a few people were being stopped and searched.

There were a few RPIs around but far outnumbered by police.

Finally something is being done in southeastern land as it has gone way too far.

I've had those arches at Liverpool Street & Euston before.

Having phone apps which allows eticket (or mobile tickets) purchases could have increased the number of pay when challenged. Especially the sort who will buy a ticket if they see a member of staff checking, or if the end station has barriers buying from the last stop. For example Levenshulme.
 

setdown

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The e ticket indicates when it was purchased does it not? If a ticket was bought just before a barrier then I guess that would look suspicious.
 

Antman

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The ticket barriers at Sittingbourne are seemingly open more than closed from my experience, and if you take into account its the terminus of the Sheerness line which has a few stations with no barriers... a dodgers haven.
Seems to be the same at most Southeastern stations, ticket barriers left open.
 

Trackman

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There is another sting this evening in a southeastern station I won't mention yet. They asked us to walk through an "knife arch" or something and quite a few people were being stopped and searched.

There were a few RPIs around but far outnumbered by police.

Finally something is being done in southeastern land as it has gone way too far.

Yes, something is finally being done!
I've been through a 'knife arch' or whatever, they are watching for those who don't want go through- then it's a section 60 (or whatever it is) stop and search.
 

hwl

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Over 8,500 at 7 stations in month, it might start to prove the disbelievers on the levels of evasion.
 

SPADTrap

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Are TOCs finally realising they are literally giving their services away, thus taking action? About time.
 

Nick66

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Regularly see RPIs and police at Dartford when I come home in the evening. More often than not someone has “forgotten” to buy a ticket and the number of police, sometimes with dogs, suggests that’s not all they’re looking for.
 

ScotGG

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SE services are not seeing carriages needed as so much ticketless travel is going on.

Even with this crackdown I'm still yet to see any staff on trains. Barriers wide open pretty much everywhere except terminals. Though as soon as out of London such as Dartford they often appear. Odd.
 

43066

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SE services are not seeing carriages needed as so much ticketless travel is going on.

Even with this crackdown I'm still yet to see any staff on trains. Barriers wide open pretty much everywhere except terminals. Though as soon as out of London such as Dartford they often appear. Odd.

Probably just targeting resources efficiently.

The majority of ticketless travel won’t be in and out of London terminals, which as you say are all barriered, it will be off peak between un-barriered local stations.
 

infobleep

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The other month there was a group of staff at Guildford, at the bottom of the stairs to platform 1 and 2. Whilst I imagine they were there for passengers arriving, they were checking passenger going down the stairs too.

However they were not checking the stairs that lead to platform 2 and nor were they checking platform 3, which also has metro arrivals too. I've never seen that platform checked yet

Guildford has barriers but not all the surbuban stations do.

Unbarriered stations do get staff from time to time but once I was at Hinchley Wood and the staff were only covering the stairs to the footbridge and not the footpath exit to the playing field.

I don't know if their interest that day was more for people arriving to catch a train than those leaving a train.

Many years ago Guildford had a police presence to check for knives etc. Used a metal detector and closed the ba k of Guildford Station.

The next day some teenager dropped a bottle that smashed, on the way out of the back entrance. They said to the person with them, something along the lines of, I can do this here becuae the police don't come to this side.
 

Mojo

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About time that a much stricter approach was adopted towards these thieves.
Of course the irony is that in many cases if they had stolen something from a shop they would receive a lesser punishment!
 

Antman

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Of course the irony is that in many cases if they had stolen something from a shop they would receive a lesser punishment!
SE services are not seeing carriages needed as so much ticketless travel is going on.

Even with this crackdown I'm still yet to see any staff on trains. Barriers wide open pretty much everywhere except terminals. Though as soon as out of London such as Dartford they often appear. Odd.
Indeed, I travel on Southeastern quite regularly and very rarely see any ticket checks. I have heard that they have given up on the London area as the widespread use of oyster and contactless makes it impractical, how true that is I don't know?
 

Antman

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Of course the irony is that in many cases if they had stolen something from a shop they would receive a lesser punishment!
They probably wouldn't even be prosecuted, seems anything under £100 and the police aren't interested.
 

Hadders

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They probably wouldn't even be prosecuted, seems anything under £100 and the police aren't interested.

The police aren't interested in retail crime at all, regardless of value.
 

Antman

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There is another sting this evening in a southeastern station I won't mention yet. They asked us to walk through an "knife arch" or something and quite a few people were being stopped and searched.

There were a few RPIs around but far outnumbered by police.

Finally something is being done in southeastern land as it has gone way too far.
Are you going to tell us where this was now?
 

jon0844

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Assuming the gateline person checks it.

They should check the time the ticket was purchased. If bought just then on the platform, just say 'nice try' and proceed as normal.

I don't know how it works when you have a gate that takes barcodes. If they become active immediately and would let someone out then there's definitely a huge problem.
 
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