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Jumping the ticket barriers
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Pico
No longer registered

Posts: 136
Joined: Nov 2010
Post: #1
05-11-2011 10:23 PM

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.

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rbmartin


Posts: 1,147
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #2
05-11-2011 11:56 PM

Remember that Honor Oak Park while a TfL branded station (owned by Network Rail), is managed by a private company LOROL who hire the staff who wear London Overground uniforms under a franchise agreement, so are not hired directly by Transport for London unlike employees of London Underground.

Did you complain to London Overground directly regarding this incident?

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brian


Posts: 2,002
Joined: Apr 2005
Post: #3
06-11-2011 03:23 PM

Staff should be ascked.

Only twice had someone try to squeeze past me and once pushed back and said You First as you seem in a hurry.

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jollyrog


Posts: 83
Joined: Jul 2008
Post: #4
06-11-2011 05:28 PM

The fare dodger has jumped the gate and is now on the public (street) side of the barrier. No longer in the compulsory ticket area.

What do you propose that the Station Assistant, who from your description appears to be alone, do?

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rbmartin


Posts: 1,147
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #5
06-11-2011 05:47 PM

Whenever I've seen passengers who can't open the gate due to lack of funds on their Oyster card, I very rarely see the gateline person ask them to go to the Fares excess window at FH and they let them through.

Does HOP have a Fares excess window? Although this may be very unlikely considering the layout of the ticker office.

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Pico
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Posts: 136
Joined: Nov 2010
Post: #6
06-11-2011 06:53 PM

@ rbmartin - nah I didn't complain. There is no point.

@ jollyrog - if the station assistant was actually doing his job and not chatting with his friends he would have caught the man behind the barrier. I could not be simpler. Paying him a wage is the same as burning £10 notes on the bonfire.

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rbmartin


Posts: 1,147
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #7
06-11-2011 07:03 PM

Question is are the gateline supervisions revenue protection officers? I doubt it.

I've only been checked once for tickets/valid Oyster on the ELL by enforcement officers on a Sunday afternoon trip to Surrey Quays. I've never seen them checking at the stations, although Southern would regularly do enforcement checks at the stations in conjunction with the BTP when they managed the line.

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Pico
No longer registered

Posts: 136
Joined: Nov 2010
Post: #8
06-11-2011 10:34 PM

So... Based on your premise that station assistants are not revenue protection we could all jump the barrier without fear? They have duty to resist?

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Pico
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Posts: 136
Joined: Nov 2010
Post: #9
06-11-2011 10:35 PM

They have no duty... Typing on my mobile

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Jane_D


Posts: 189
Joined: Jan 2010
Post: #10
06-11-2011 10:39 PM

I would have thought it was reasonable to expect the station assistants to ask barrier jumpters for their ticket, or at least show that they've noticed them doing it, rather than just calling hello as they rush past. Chatting to friends outside the station instead of watching the barrier does seem to be erring on the relaxed side.

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brian


Posts: 2,002
Joined: Apr 2005
Post: #11
07-11-2011 04:35 PM

I am horrified how lightly some people take evading one's fare and stealing from all other travellers who will have to pay more in the end.

They should be stopped by all means.

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rbmartin


Posts: 1,147
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #12
07-11-2011 04:51 PM

I'm not taking the incident lightly, however there is a reasonable question to if the LOROL station assistants are revenue protection officers?

Checking tickets and Oyster balances should be part of their job description, yet I suspect most of them don't have the power to stop someone or issue a penalty fare.

If you remember when Southern brought in the chaps with the Hi-Viz jackets to check tickets in 2009 after the barriers at FH were installed, they looked more like enforcement officers than the current staff.

The station assistant in question may have also been on his break for all we know.

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michael


Posts: 3,262
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #13
07-11-2011 05:13 PM

My ticket is 'checked' most mornings at Waterloo East station. I have only been stopped twice in the last three months despite my ticket being completely unreadable due to the text being worn out. I would get a replacement ticket but I'm on my third this year and feel that:
a) tickets shouldn't wear out within six weeks
b) ticket inspectors should be stopping me on a daily basis rather than less often than the ticket takes to become illegible

What was additionally helpful was that when I was stopped in September the ticket inspector helpful wrote on the back of my ticket 31/12/11 E9749, so that other inspectors will know the expiry date on my ticket without putting it through their machine. It worked very well when I was stopped last week. I'm not sure what would stop somebody else writing the same on the back of a used ticket.

Station staff, even the revenue protection officers, do a pathetic job in preventing fare evasion. And when they do bother stopping you (for not showing a photocard that I have kept hidden for the last 25 years) they are rather rude.

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Hoppington


Posts: 7
Joined: May 2011
Post: #14
07-11-2011 07:02 PM

I've also noticed that when exiting at HOP the machines are slow to react and can stop you going through unless you wait to click your oyster after the barrier has closed after the person in front of you. In other stations you can click your oyster while the barrier is still open from the person in front of you and the barriers will stay open for you. In HOP it tends to close and beep red and then not let you through unless you wait to click. Very annoying!

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Medley


Posts: 87
Joined: Nov 2011
Post: #15
08-11-2011 01:21 PM

There is a point in complaining. It should mean someone looks into it. Even putting my cynical hat on the worst outcome is that nothing happens and you've wasted at most five minutes. I think it's more likely someone will at least give the station assistant a ticking off and perhaps more. So worth doing. After all, if you never complain, how are they supposed to know and things to improve?

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brian


Posts: 2,002
Joined: Apr 2005
Post: #16
08-11-2011 02:36 PM

Quite correct.

What is the point of manning the station if they are not going to ensure tickets in order.

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Sherwood


Posts: 1,419
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #17
08-11-2011 03:26 PM

Obviously the barriers should be higher to prevent fare-dodgers jumping over.

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Baboonery


Posts: 581
Joined: Sep 2007
Post: #18
09-11-2011 05:17 PM

I had someone shove past me and tailgate the person in front through the s-l-o-w wide barrier on the Perry Vale side of FH station the other week. The member of staff carried on reading his paper. I asked him if he was just going to let the bloke steal. 'Not my job to confront him, I'm customer services, that would have to be done by revenue protection.' I then got an earful from the miscreant. Great.

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rbmartin


Posts: 1,147
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #19
10-11-2011 12:06 PM

The last post proves that the station assistants are 'customer service' rather than revenue protection.

The HOP barrier problem should be reported to LO.

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Pico
No longer registered

Posts: 136
Joined: Nov 2010
Post: #20
10-11-2011 01:13 PM

I have decided to make a complaint here

http://www.lorol.co.uk/contact-us.html

The same station assistant did the same thing last night. He deliberately stood outside with his mates instead of watching the barriers and another young man jumped the barriers.

I have also directed the company to this forum to see other customer experiences and views.

Their official line seemed to be if an assistant feels he/she is threatened he/she won't intervene. I think if they are actually standing there people would be less likely to 'try it on'.

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