Then
again, major stations on the City Flier route such as St Albans, Luton
Aiport, Luton and Bedford all have ticket barriers so I guess
fraudsters can be 'caught out'

Of course barriers don't stop the determined fare evader. I've seen two
scale the fence at St Albans with a group of ticket inspectors standing
nearby.

but I found it unusual nonetheless that
I saw no revenue protection staff on board any of my journeys, as I
noticed a few Standard passenger sat in First Class and on board staff
would act as a deterrent.


Travelling daily between Harpenden (no barriers) and the City I guess we
have ticket inspections on less than 1 in 40 journeys. Not always very
effective either. Sometimes see them minutely checking the tickets of seated
passengers, waiting patiently for the inspection, whilst ignoring the
"yuffs" who suddenly decide they would rather be in another carriage, and
leg it at the next station. Once saw a well dressed woman who was seemingly
in such a deep sleep that loud requests for her ticket couldn't wake her.
Once the inspectors had gone she woke up soon enough at her stop. I suppose
the inspectors didn't give her a gentle shake for fear of being accused of
assault. Are they under instructions not to touch passengers, or detain
people who don't want to hang around to answer question?

Jon McD