Jonathan Morris wrote:

4sub wrote:
Superior class riding checks are a lucrative source of income, always have
been, and also good PR for First Class ticket holders.

Well done to the staff concerned.

Agreed - but I do recall an incident a couple of weeks ago on FCC (GN)
when I was legitimately travelling First with a Gold Card supplement; a
gripper appeared at Hitchin (the first time I'd seen one for a few
weeks!) and he could hardly hide the "I've-got-you" look from his face
- until he saw my ticket! We had a bit of friendly banter about it
afterwards.


I know Elaine Holt has said FCC will be very strict on fare evaders,
and that would also include those who feel it's okay to upgrade their
ticket for free. I only use First Class when it's declassified (or on
Thursday when my 3 hour train journey was 'off the record' declassified
by the driver) and would be very annoyed if someone was in there with a
standard ticket, or no ticket.

I've had short formed services declassified by the driver before, which
seems a fair way of dealing with overcrowding. In those circumstances,
I doubt a first class ticket holder would be upset if they knew that at
all other times things would be enforced strictly.

FCC are looking for more RPIs at the moment and I hope this means they
can continue gripping on trains, because recently (on the GN side)
they've all but disappeared because many stations are 'protected'
instead. In reality, many stations aren't really protected because
evaders simply run past, refuse to stop (and not all grippers will give
chase - but when they do, it's nice to watch the face of the evader,
even though they'll probably give false details), walk past giving the
finger (probably the worst because they're doing it for a laugh) or
jump walls to avoid gates/staff completely. And, gate staff can't
enforce first class compartments.

Not that many stations appear to be "protected"; AFAIAA (and based on
what I've seen) there are regular checks at KX suburban, Hatfield, WGC,
Stevenage (which is now gated) and Hitchin (I don't know about the
Hertford Loop) but that leaves a lot of stations open. In any case,
there's often no-one around late at night, when loutish behaviour is at
its worst; the gates at Stevenage seem to be left open after about
2130.


There's a lot of money to be made by being strict (as long as they
don't ONLY go after the easy pickings) and if FCC recently managed to
make a four figure sum by staying at a station until the last train
left, it does make me wonder why they aren't doing it more often.
Perhaps they will - and other TOCs will follow.

Jonathan

I recall a scene at Letchworth late one Saturday night. I had travelled
from KX on the 2315 Cambridge (first stop Letchworth) and the RPIs were
in force on arrival; the chorus of "oh s**t" from about 3/4 of those
alighting when they saw that they were going to be nicked was music to
my ears! I gathered from a colleague that about 40 PFIs (all for 2x
single from KX, ie about £25) were issued that night, ie about £1000.
I only wish they'd do it more often...

It's also occasional practice at Cambridge for the RPIs to form a
cordon to prevent access to late-evening departures for either KX or LS
(if the units are in the south bays) to anyone without a ticket,
especially on Friday and Saturday nights.