Coming home from a night out I got to the ticket barriers and noticed the young station assistant chatting with his friends outside the station foyer. Another man in his 20's casually jumped over the ticket barrier and said hello to the young station assistant. The station assistant said hello back and carried on chatting with his mates.

Am I missing something here?

Why am I bothering to pay for my ticket when this oik has a free pass from the lazy station assistant?

Not only this I am getting so fed up of watching young men bumping behind fee paying passengers and station assistants showing no interest in stopping them. This I notice is very common at Shoreditch station. I had one young lad do this to me and when I showed resistance he intimidated me until I gave in. When I lodged a complaint TFL seemed largely indifferent and referred me to the Transport Police.

The whole argument around the TFL staff striking the last few years has been based around customer safety. Quite frankly I think they are useless and the sooner Boris Johnson makes them redundant the better.

(and breathe) rant over.