Why the HELL is it wrong to pay ON the Train???

LimeLight

1) having a ticket means you've got a right to compensation should anything untoward happen like the train derailing and hurtling off onto the M1.

2) lack of ticket inspecting doesn't just happen in the UK. My cousin came to Dusseldorf to meet me off a flight on Friday and out of 4 train journeys, the ticket was checked on the last leg.

JethroUK

stamina9008 wrote: »

So, my cars gone and im using the train to see folks over the New Year.
It is a long distance trip and its coming out at £66 for an open return.
Now my thing is this..
Last time i paid that price for this journey i was not stopped ONCE, not once!!!!
Now, i have to change twice, why should i not carry money in my pocket and pay when im approached? Even if i fib about where i got on?
IT'S THEIR JOB TO CHECK PEOPLE FOR TICKETS!!
Im not responsible for them not checking the carriages whilst they joke and eat scones!
I feel cheated and robbed when im not checked on a train after paying £60 in fares, so much so, that when im checked i feel relieved and quite content.
Why is ths even an issue??

CHECK ME AND I'LL BUY ONE OFF OF YOU BECAUSE YOURE DOING YOUR JOB

DONT CHECK ME AND (FROM NOW ON) I WILL POTENTIALLY GET A FREE RIDE.

PS - Dont whine to me about fines - - - - not interested.

Maybe you should just push your trolley straight out of Tesco and only pay for groceries if they stop you - DO THEIR JOB!

Troll!

But for anyone thinking of scamming the railways:

You might be interested that I saw a close-circuit video of a guy taking a daily compute from Midlands to London (it was broadcast on TV couple years back)

Rail company suspected him for a while and needed to build evidence

It showed him getting on a train in the Midlands - travelling to London

He gets off one stop before his destination - buys a ticket on the platform for just the last leg of the journey

gets back on the train and completes his journey

He was obviously charged for the deception which they proved satisfactorily had been going on for a year or more - and if I recall he actually did jail time

MrsBartolozzi

All of the rail journies I've done recently required me to put my ticket into the barrier at the end in order to leave the station. One time I had discarded the wrong part and had to return to the train (and rummage in the bin bag, sigh) until I found it. They were not letting me leave without it!
This sevres just as well as being checked on the train I suppose.

Cornucopia

I have some sympathy for the OP. I gave up commuting to work a long time ago (because I hated it). However, like the OP I suspected that it would be possible to evade my quite expensive ticket, quite easily. So I practiced virtual evasion for a couple of weeks to see how profitable/risky it would be. "Virtual evasion" is carrying a valid ticket but taking simple and legal measures to avoid producing it. The upshot was that I found that evasion would have been very easy indeed - mostly because one of my regular trains was so crowded that the inspector could not have practically moved around and checked the tickets.

On a more philosophical note: this question reflects one of the benefits of rules and their enforcement in a complex society. If my commitment to keeping to the rules is marginal, then I will be dismayed to see the rules not being enforced. That's because I will see or suspect that other people are getting away without keeping to the rules. In other words, rules and their enforcement are sometimes a key part of operating a fairer society.

duchy

stamina9008 wrote: »

I'd thought of that prior to my comment Einstein, however, it's their problem not mine.
They are going to have to devise an alternative solution to checking everybody or else.

"They" don't have to do anything.
It's like saying shops shouldn't include a shrinkage allowance in their prices. In a world of honest people with no shoplifting there would be no need for higher pricing to allow for this -but whilst there are dishonest people like you there will be a need for higher charges be they for store detectives, ticket collecters etc and the honest consumers are paying for your disinclination to behave honestly.

No matter how you dress it up what you are planning to do is theft-plain and simple.

winelight

The OP makes a perfectly valid couple of points (as do various others in the thread) which I think we all know and understand when we're being reasonable.

Anyway, what used to amuse me when I travelled more often on the train was spotting the evaders and figuring out how they did it. They are usually easy to spot (demeanour, body language, and just their attitude).

One I eventually figured out - she was doing the "ticket from the stop before my destination" trick already described above (or rather, a variation on it to do with London travelcard zones). Another was very funny, actually - one mobile phone in each hand, shouting loudly, gesturing with both hands, one of which had a ticket in it - and then approaching the manual barrier to be let through. The suit-wearing businessman "front" guaranteed his swift admittance without anyone having the temerity to interrupt his phone calls to look at the ticket properly. I can smell "scammer" a mile off - why can't the inspectors?

Horseunderwater

They are called revenue protection officers on buses at the company I used to work for. And on buses they do not just check passenger tickets etc, but the drivers record too. A much harder job on a moving bus. So be thankful that the Guard does not have to stop the train to get into drivers cab in order to check he or she has issued the correct amount of tickets!
And you might be able to save some money by doing the split ticketing thing that Martin mentioned on this site in one of his wednesday email letters a while back. You said that the journey involved changing trains twice - did you check that?

Stigy

stamina9008 wrote: »

So, my cars gone and im using the train to see folks over the New Year.
It is a long distance trip and its coming out at £66 for an open return.
Now my thing is this..
Last time i paid that price for this journey i was not stopped ONCE, not once!!!!
Now, i have to change twice, why should i not carry money in my pocket and pay when im approached? Even if i fib about where i got on?
IT'S THEIR JOB TO CHECK PEOPLE FOR TICKETS!!
Im not responsible for them not checking the carriages whilst they joke and eat scones!
I feel cheated and robbed when im not checked on a train after paying £60 in fares, so much so, that when im checked i feel relieved and quite content.
Why is ths even an issue??

CHECK ME AND I'LL BUY ONE OFF OF YOU BECAUSE YOURE DOING YOUR JOB

DONT CHECK ME AND (FROM NOW ON) I WILL POTENTIALLY GET A FREE RIDE.

PS - Dont whine to me about fines - - - - not interested.

Out of curiosity, how long is your criminal record at present? It's quite simple why you're not allowed to pay on board in most cases....To make it less easy for chancers of your ilk to fare evade....

I wont whine about fines, assuming you mean Penalty Fares, because they're not issued to fare evaders...The only fine you'll be getting is at court.

Happy New Year.

p00hsticks

stamina9008 wrote: »

They should check EVERY SINGLE CARCASS that steps aboard a train, end of story.
And if they cant, then they should allow people to pay onboard it.
Why can you not see that as reasonable?

As i said, i carry the money in my pocket.

Old fogies like me can remember a time when you simply weren't allowed onto a railway platform - let alone onto a train - without a valid ticket, as ticket inspectors were present at the platform entrances.

As I see it, the problem now is that so many stations these days are unmanned and without ticket machines, meaning that on many local stopping services they have to allow for people boarding at such stations to pay on the train, and then other passengers who did have the opportunity to purchase a ticket beforehand then jump on the bandwagon - either because they can't be bothered to queue at a ticket office or because they see a potential opportunity to evade the fare.

rdwarr

This is how it works:

1) You buy a ticket
2) You make your journey

Why does it matter if you get checked or not? You have got what you paid for.