Toby wrote:
Every Silverlink train on this route has a guard (or whatever else
they're called). Their sole job appears to be to open/close the
doors at each station. Do they not have any revenue/ticketing
duties? A few stations on this route have no ticket machine, and in
my limited experience of travel on this line the guard never appears
to check tickets (probably due to stops every 3-4 mins). I bet
Silverlink Metro must lose a fortune in revenue on this route. It
will be interesting to see how the new operator this year tackles the
revenue side of things.

Someone asked this same question about a month ago and there were several
responses suggesting that for most of the day ticket checks are made at some
point along the route. IME, usually doing the line from end-to-end in the
afternoon, I don't recall ever making a journey where my ticket was not
checked en route, which supports the opinion of the other posters. However,
I suspect that, during peak hours, there is more likelihood of the guard
getting waylaid issuing penalty fares, which probably prevents him getting
far along the train - given that he needs to be back in the back cab to give
the right-away from every station and the distances between them are not
that far (at the western end, at least).