David Cantrell wrote:

There have recently been a *lot* more ticket inspectors in the mornings
on the number 38 bus. Are they just blitzing this route, or is this
happening across all the free^Wbendy routes? And I think there have
been more empty seats too.

I've not noticed much difference but I've managed to avoid needing the 25
for much of the past few weeks (and managed to get an 86 several times).

I'm wondering if it's a Boris-ism, designed to make bendies less popular
by kicking off all the freeloaders who, obviously, think they're the
best thing since sliced bread. Employing lots more ticket inspectors
could also be a cunning ruse to push the cost of bendies up so he can
show that the Borismaster isn't so expensive either.

Yes down with all those people who aren't paying! It's called fare evasion
and the bendy design does nothing to deter it. Why should people be able to
get away with it?

(One problem which doesn't get much attention is that the middle and rear
readers sometimes aren't easy to physically get to when the bendies are ram
packed. The result is that some travellers genuinely can't touch in their
Oyster despite their intentions. Would tram style touch-pads at the stop
work better?)

And we don't have clear statistics yet - it could be that checking tickets
pushes up fare revenue, making the inspectors more than pay for themselves.
For that matter two of the main disliked features of the bus are the way
they get ram packed, which a lot of people attribute to the "free bus"
reputation, and the intimidatory effect of some passengers, again which gets
blamed on the free bus. So regular inspections could actually make the
bendies more attractive at some levels (although not at others).