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Give us on-board ticket checks, not pay-as-you-leave farce
IT HAS long been the case that conductors on certain routes simply do not collect fares due to a total lack of discipline. For example on April 27, my wife and I took the 09.29 North Berwick to Edinburgh service and the conductor only got out of his seat at the rear of the train to close the doors at each station stop. It was the same on the 11.42 return from Waverley.
On arrival at Waverley we were met by three revenue protection officers, complete with ticket machines and they were joined by the conductor who then took some fares.
This created a delay of 10-15mins before passengers were cleared but on busier trains (with six-car Class 385 units) delays can be up to 30 minutes resulting in missed connections.
This pay-as-you-leave system destroys any perceived time advantage of travelling by train, especially on short journeys when in normal times express buses cover the same route. On travelling back there was no revenue protection at the platform at all and free travel was had by all who had not bought a ticket, which is now the norm as passengers know what to expect.