"Steve Naïve" wrote in message
...
"Jon McD" wrote in
:

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

I hope so - AFAIAA any touching would possibly be an assault. Possibly
(probably?) only Transport (or other) Police would be allowed to do this.

or detain people
who don't want to hang around to answer question?

Same again, I think. Although this may be covered under railway bye-laws
(although I'm not au fait with these).

I wouldn't be surprised if ticket inspectors are not allowed touch or detain
passengers they suspect of not having tickets. Perhaps they can radio ahead
to request the police to be at the next station, but unless the next stop is
some time away the chances of police getting there in time must be quite
slim. It may be that tactics such as moving down the train to avoid
inspections, pretending to be asleep, pretending not to speak English or
just not replying to questions and then leaving the train at the next stop
are foolproof ways of avoiding fares and fines.

Jon McD