Fare dodgers beware - new ticket gates at Southend East (From Southend Standard)

Some sanity at last.

"meaning that fare-paying passengers won’t have to carry the cost for these free-riders." Good - so when will the fares be decreasing?

Ticket gates used to be called people

The gates have to be staffed, if no staff are available then the gates have to stay open. If you think the gates stop ticket less travel then dream on. The gates only hinder passengers who already have a ticket. Those that think buying a ticket is an option will continue as before. I have seen them go under the gates over them and though two at a time and also get their friend to pass their ticket back for them to use again. No staff are going to get involved in a confrontation for the money c2c pay, so don't expect any change soon. It doesn't matter what National Express do they will not keep the franchise as no government will forgive them for handing back the keys of the East Coast Main Line when the going got tough.

Oh really C2C, on Tuesday we got off a train in Tilbury just as some little oik jumped over a fence to get on the train, but as he landed he dropped a bag of drugs on the plantform so i shouted to everyone on the carriage that not only was he fare dodging but he was a drug dealer too. That idiot had to sit with everyone staring at him all the way to the next station! Anyway my brother in law told the ticket inspector at the gate what happened hoping they would get him at the next station and he did absolutely nothing! If thats the case im not paying for trains anymore, why should i when chav scum do it and nothing is done about it?

These "gates" are just another excuse so that the company does not have to employ "real" people and are merely another obsticle for fare-dodgers to jump over.

reptile wrote:
The gates have to be staffed, if no staff are available then the gates have to stay open. If you think the gates stop ticket less travel then dream on. The gates only hinder passengers who already have a ticket. Those that think buying a ticket is an option will continue as before. I have seen them go under the gates over them and though two at a time and also get their friend to pass their ticket back for them to use again. No staff are going to get involved in a confrontation for the money c2c pay, so don't expect any change soon. It doesn't matter what National Express do they will not keep the franchise as no government will forgive them for handing back the keys of the East Coast Main Line when the going got tough.

Exactly, I have seen people climb up the outside of the barriers at laindon, jump over the railings at Basildon, & at westcliff where I travel from, I regularly see them jump over the fence, vault over turnstiles or even just walk up to the staff, inform them they have no ticket (& have not paid their fare) & the staff merely open the gate & allow them on their way. Yes, I have brought all this to the attention of C2C, but nothing is done. I've also witnessed people on the train approaching Southend, making calls to friends at all the stations checking if there were staff manning the barriers, before deciding where to get off.......

The only people that make any money out of a gold rush are the people that sell the shovels, but in this case the automatic ticket gates.

Both Basildon and Laindon have had ticket barriers for years, and everytime I travel past Laindon in the evening I see people climbing over the fences on the stairs to avoid the barriers.

And at Basildon, I often see people continue to climb up (and down) the sides of the embankments and onto the platform unchallenged - the CCTV camera's are even pointing in the wrong direction.

If the staff can't deal with these people directly, maybe there should be a panic button to summon local police or even fare inspectors. It should not be hard to catch these people at the next stop.

What's needed is for the train companies to put some real efforts into catching fair dodgers.

Rather than have 8 inspectors at the barriers, put some uniforms at the ends of the Basildon platforms where people are climbing over the railings and down the embankment. This would force fare dodgers to go though the ticket barriers to the waiting inspectors.

Also they would be able to catch people climbing onto the platform read-handed and if they run they could radio down to the ticket office to go outside and nab them.

you can all lay claim to never have cheated at the fares? Never got on the train without one and telling the guy the other end some story about how you lost your ticket?

I find that hard to believe. I have done it. May be quite a few years back but I used to frequently not have the money for the fare back then and still have to get home.

On the other hand it might just prove that the number of people dodging the fare is very small, in which case spending 500K is a waste of time and money, you've already given enough examples of how to still get around it.

And yes, I constantly see people losing bags of drugs all over the place. LOL. What a stupid comment.

UK Fan wrote:
you can all lay claim to never have cheated at the fares? Never got on the train without one and telling the guy the other end some story about how you lost your ticket? I find that hard to believe. I have done it. May be quite a few years back but I used to frequently not have the money for the fare back then and still have to get home. On the other hand it might just prove that the number of people dodging the fare is very small, in which case spending 500K is a waste of time and money, you've already given enough examples of how to still get around it. And yes, I constantly see people losing bags of drugs all over the place. LOL. What a stupid comment.

I have never seen this happen before and was quite shocked, its not a stupid comment. I was simply telling you all about my journey and that the ticket inspector didnt do anything or is that a crime?! How rude! And no, i for one have never fare dodger

How rude? How dare I? Simple, just read your original comment. Scum, drug dealer, you are either very familiar with drugs yourself or your comment might be considered just that. Rude and insulting.

There are a lot of people out there that have little or no money to pay for anything, let alone the train fare.

It would suit people rather better to be just a little less judgemental.

Remember the article about the gunshots at Benfleet? One of the immediate reactions was to blame Eastern European drug dealers and who did they turn out the be? Born and bred Englishmen.

I will though of course apologise to you for my slip of the tongue and I sincerely regret you feeling insulted in any way, that was by no means my intention, we all have bad hair moments you might say and I hope this resolves the issue.

If he can afford drugs then he can pay train fare. I do feel insulted by your comments as i was simply joining in with the comments on the article. I have never judged on here anything unless the facts have been published you will never see me make assumptions about colour etc. The facts with my story are he hdidnt pay for his ticket, he dropped a bag of green used for smoking (or it could have just been a bag of grass but i doubt it) so therefore im not making assumptiins or judging, im telling you what i saw. I dont upset people on here if they say they saw something then they obviously did

Thecountrysgonetopot
! wrote:
Oh really C2C, on Tuesday we got off a train in Tilbury just as some little oik jumped over a fence to get on the train, but as he landed he dropped a bag of drugs on the plantform so i shouted to everyone on the carriage that not only was he fare dodging but he was a drug dealer too. That idiot had to sit with everyone staring at him all the way to the next station! Anyway my brother in law told the ticket inspector at the gate what happened hoping they would get him at the next station and he did absolutely nothing! If thats the case im not paying for trains anymore, why should i when chav scum do it and nothing is done about it?

Yeah? Keep us up dated wont you?

Thecountrysgonetopot
! wrote:
Oh really C2C, on Tuesday we got off a train in Tilbury just as some little oik jumped over a fence to get on the train, but as he landed he dropped a bag of drugs on the plantform so i shouted to everyone on the carriage that not only was he fare dodging but he was a drug dealer too. That idiot had to sit with everyone staring at him all the way to the next station! Anyway my brother in law told the ticket inspector at the gate what happened hoping they would get him at the next station and he did absolutely nothing! If thats the case im not paying for trains anymore, why should i when chav scum do it and nothing is done about it?

Good luck with keeping your job if you get caught as you will have a criminal record........

Bosniavet wrote:

Thecountrysgonetopot

! wrote:
Oh really C2C, on Tuesday we got off a train in Tilbury just as some little oik jumped over a fence to get on the train, but as he landed he dropped a bag of drugs on the plantform so i shouted to everyone on the carriage that not only was he fare dodging but he was a drug dealer too. That idiot had to sit with everyone staring at him all the way to the next station! Anyway my brother in law told the ticket inspector at the gate what happened hoping they would get him at the next station and he did absolutely nothing! If thats the case im not paying for trains anymore, why should i when chav scum do it and nothing is done about it?

Good luck with keeping your job if you get caught as you will have a criminal record........

c2c ignore my emails every time - well I do get a response (cut and paste) every time I try and alert them of something - like the corner gates at shoebury - an old man could hop over them. See it all the time.

They talk about being a great train operator but this certainly isn't judged on customer service of fairness. I personally think their customer service, both at the ticket booths and their central teams, is the worst - and I'm comparing to BT, Vodafone and Elephant!

sav25 wrote:

Bosniavet wrote:

Thecountrysgonetopot


! wrote:
Oh really C2C, on Tuesday we got off a train in Tilbury just as some little oik jumped over a fence to get on the train, but as he landed he dropped a bag of drugs on the plantform so i shouted to everyone on the carriage that not only was he fare dodging but he was a drug dealer too. That idiot had to sit with everyone staring at him all the way to the next station! Anyway my brother in law told the ticket inspector at the gate what happened hoping they would get him at the next station and he did absolutely nothing! If thats the case im not paying for trains anymore, why should i when chav scum do it and nothing is done about it?

Good luck with keeping your job if you get caught as you will have a criminal record........

c2c ignore my emails every time - well I do get a response (cut and paste) every time I try and alert them of something - like the corner gates at shoebury - an old man could hop over them. See it all the time.

They talk about being a great train operator but this certainly isn't judged on customer service of fairness. I personally think their customer service, both at the ticket booths and their central teams, is the worst - and I'm comparing to BT, Vodafone and Elephant!

Why don't you arrange a type of 'Home Guard' and patrol the corner gates, If you set it up you can be Captain in much the same way Captain Mainwaring was.

Ha ha!!! Tony Cox makes me laugh!!! "Improve the image of the borough"?? Coming from a man directly responsible for the implementation of the "Spy Car". That really improved the borough's image didn't it Tony!! Two faced ain't the word for it!

Instead of all the criticism, TRY doing the Inspectors job, as it is FAR from easy, as I know from Experience, having Been one for a few years.

I agree that these barriers will NOT prevent the dodgers, no matter what is tried. As one poster has already said, it is just another way to save on employing staff and Preventing it.