Fare Dodging on Public Transport

No I didn't M0nica as I explained in my post. What I did expect was not to be treated in the high handed contemptuous way. It just made it all the more galling when he, quite wisely, didn't take on the group of men. Bully boy culture at its finest.

Nice young man carried my case up some steps at Kings Cross, then leapt over the barrier!

So you expected one train inspector to take to task and deal with a large group of, no doubt unruly, young men on his own, without back-up. Did you want to be complicit in this man possibly being seriously injured or possibly even killed?

What should have happened, is that he should have been able to radio ahead so that at the next station the carriage with those young men shuld have been met by a posse of Railway police, who could check their tickets and handout enhanced penalties for not paying (assuming that hey hadn't plus an enhanced penalty for non-cooperation with the train inspector.

The problem is the railway companies for not having proper procedures to support their staff. The problem is not an inspector, unwilling to put his personal safety above the costof a few rail tickets.

I don't know where the Transport Police fit into all this. I honestly wondered if they had been disbanded but apparently they haven't. Probably just downgraded and not enough of them to go round.

On the TV this morning was a case of someone with a Young Person’s Railcard who was told the discount was not valid for her particular ticket costing under £10 so she was fined £400. Disproportionate! I think she has appealed on the grounds of lack of transparency of the T & C when she bought that ticket.
Genuine mistakes should not be punished as crimes.

Mt61

Absolutely unfair to the people who pay, extortionate rail fares.
I thought RJ was superb, high lighting what’s goes on with these rail fare dodges, thought he was rather brave tackling them. Yes, unfortunately, usually the older person who has forgotten to up -date their rail card 🙄

I hadn't forgotten to update my rail card, although I think the inspector tried to give the impression to the rest of the carriage that I had and that he was "letting me off with a caution this time". Anyway even if I had forgotten there was no reason for this two tier approach where only soft targets are penalised.

The reason the inspector did not tackle the group of young men was that he had no back up. I think it is a false economy not to employ adequate staff at stations and on trains when 400 million pounds a year is lost in unpaid fares. The fares go up and up and those of us who do pay our fares subsidise the dodgers.

On our local branch line last week seemingly everyone had a ticket apart from an aggressive, young and fit man, who squared up to the ticket inspector and kept arguing. The exchange was still going on when I got off the train, but he was refusing to give his name, refusing to pay, and presumably ran off at some point.

Absolutely unfair to the people who pay, extortionate rail fares.
I thought RJ was superb, high lighting what’s goes on with these rail fare dodges, thought he was rather brave tackling them. Yes, unfortunately, usually the older person who has forgotten to up -date their rail card 🙄

I did try and report him and I was brick walled. They told me it was an innocent mistake.

If you are able, it would be a good idea to report that inspector. He shouldn’t be doing that job when he is such a waste of space. Think of the money the railway loses by unpaid fares. You don’t need his name, just the train time and destination. People like those ‘jobsworths’ get away with too much because people won’t report them. Please don’t be one of them.