How come rail fare dodging is so rampant in Britain?

I was following the thread with regard to that Scottish chav who who thrown off the train for not having a ticket, was watching the Youtube clip with a friend of mine who works for the national rail company of Switzerland... so I got on to ask him how many people does he think are fare dodgers in Switzerland....... his answer was none or if there were they must be foreigners (standard Swiss answer) Then he went to tell me that in Austria when he was working there some years back, if you bought a daily pass for their rail system, all you are given is a ticket and it starts from the time you validate it at a date-stamp machine. He said at random some inspector will inspect those tickets to see if it had been validated.... he said it was an extremely rare case to catch anyone, and if an inspector wanted to show his bosses that he was doing his job, all he had to do was listen out in the train who wasn't speaking in German.

Question : Train fares in Switzerland isn't cheap (nothing is cheap here really) neither is it in Germany or Austria.... but how come there doesn't appear to be much cases of fare dodgers, while in Britain it seems like a daily occurrence that there are a case of somekind of someone either dodging the fare or purposely not having a ticket at all.

what gives?

Reply 1

username133326

16

Original post by Herr

I was following the thread with regard to that Scottish chav who who thrown off the train for not having a ticket, was watching the Youtube clip with a friend of mine who works for the national rail company of Switzerland... so I got on to ask him how many people does he think are fare dodgers in Switzerland....... his answer was none or if there were they must be foreigners (standard Swiss answer) Then he went to tell me that in Austria when he was working there some years back, if you bought a daily pass for their rail system, all you are given is a ticket and it starts from the time you validate it at a date-stamp machine. He said at random some inspector will inspect those tickets to see if it had been validated.... he said it was an extremely rare case to catch anyone, and if an inspector wanted to show his bosses that he was doing his job, all he had to do was listen out in the train who wasn't speaking in German.

Question : Train fares in Switzerland isn't cheap (nothing is cheap here really) neither is it in Germany or Austria.... but how come there doesn't appear to be much cases of fare dodgers, while in Britain it seems like a daily occurrence that there are a case of somekind of someone either dodging the fare or purposely not having a ticket at all.

what gives?

that explains why my mate and i got caught on the berlin u-bahn then... we genuinely didnt know we were supposed to have validated our tickets though... got fined 40 euros each!

Free > Not free

Original post by Herr

I was following the thread with regard to that Scottish chav who who thrown off the train for not having a ticket, was watching the Youtube clip with a friend of mine who works for the national rail company of Switzerland... so I got on to ask him how many people does he think are fare dodgers in Switzerland....... his answer was none or if there were they must be foreigners (standard Swiss answer) Then he went to tell me that in Austria when he was working there some years back, if you bought a daily pass for their rail system, all you are given is a ticket and it starts from the time you validate it at a date-stamp machine. He said at random some inspector will inspect those tickets to see if it had been validated.... he said it was an extremely rare case to catch anyone, and if an inspector wanted to show his bosses that he was doing his job, all he had to do was listen out in the train who wasn't speaking in German.

Question : Train fares in Switzerland isn't cheap (nothing is cheap here really) neither is it in Germany or Austria.... but how come there doesn't appear to be much cases of fare dodgers, while in Britain it seems like a daily occurrence that there are a case of somekind of someone either dodging the fare or purposely not having a ticket at all.

what gives?

Well I'm not really an expert on trains or fare-dodging, but I'd guess it comes down to enforcement and social norms. Switzerland is a substantially richer country, per head, than Britain, and it wouldn't surprise me if they come down rather harder on those who cheat the system. Also, though it's a stereotype, I believe the notion that the Germans and Swiss are fond of laying down rules and sticking to them is not wholly without foundation. Perhaps social attitudes are more conformist there?

Reply 4

-aimz

17

I've never done it (too worried about getting caught!) but I swear half the time they don't even check your ticket, especially on short journeys when there are no barriers at the station. A couple of weeks ago I got from Birmingham New St to Cardiff Central and no ticket inspector at all checked my tickets on the train the whole way.

Reply 5

indiemusicftw

Because train tickets are so bloody expensive....13 quid for a one way ticket to central london (from south london) ...I have been so tempted.

Reply 6

xoxAngel_Kxox

21

Nobody ever checks, and it's far too tempting. I get the train to uni and have only had my pass checked (which I bought for £170 in September) twice. So would have been fined a total of £40. Much cheaper than paying.

But, like someone said above, I'm just too scared of the prospect of getting caught to get on the train without a ticket.

Reply 7

Hanvyj

17

Its often cheaper for me to hire a car than get the train home... wtf?

Reply 8

L'Amour Toujours

13

Original post by xoxAngel_Kxox

Nobody ever checks, and it's far too tempting. I get the train to uni and have only had my pass checked (which I bought for £170 in September) twice. So would have been fined a total of £40. Much cheaper than paying.

But, like someone said above, I'm just too scared of the prospect of getting caught to get on the train without a ticket.

Can relate; only, I bought my pass for rail, bus and tram and it cost closer to £300. :sigh:

I think, for the three months I had that pass, I had it checked once on any tram or train (seeing as you obviously present your passes when you get onto a bus). But, because they seemed to check passes religiously at Birmingham New St., there was no way I could do without it. It ended up being cheaper to pay for petrol in the end...

Reply 9

EssexDan86

17

Trains in most of Europe are considerably cheaper than the UK - particularly in Spain I found. Pretty sure Germany was as well.

It's in the interests of the UK government to provide more subsidies for public transport, in order to boost the economy and promote use of public transport. However, instead the government decides to allow companies to raise their fares at considerably above the rate of inflation - it's plain wrong!

Reply 10

yothi5

14

Original post by xoxAngel_Kxox

Nobody ever checks, and it's far too tempting. I get the train to uni and have only had my pass checked (which I bought for £170 in September) twice. So would have been fined a total of £40. Much cheaper than paying.

But, like someone said above, I'm just too scared of the prospect of getting caught to get on the train without a ticket.

Yes but you would be made to pay the ticket on top of the fine.

Reply 11

Rascacielos

19

Because it's so easy to do - you can hide in the toilet or simply move around the coach so you avoid the inspector, etc. If you travel on some routes regularly, you get used to when inspectors are on duty and when they're not (and some routes I travel on never have inspectors). I've always bought a ticket even though I am 99% sure there won't be an inspector but I know if I didn't, I'd probably get away with it.

Reply 12

Vickyy

2

Original post by Barden

that explains why my mate and i got caught on the berlin u-bahn then... we genuinely didnt know we were supposed to have validated our tickets though... got fined 40 euros each!

This is why it doesn't happen as much in other countries - the fines are much higher, and they actually fine people every time instead of giving out warnings. There's no real motive not to at least try to fare dodge in Britain. On almost every train journey I make, there's someone who 'forgot' to buy a ticket and is then allowed to buy one on the train. If they get caught they can just buy a ticket on the train, and if not, they get it free.

Reply 13

L18

1

I have no problem paying for a service, if the service I recieve is what I paid for.

Virgin can get ****ed if they think i'm paying £50 to stand up on a train to Liverpool from Euston for 2 and a half hours.

Reply 14

Forum User

19

Back in the day when there were less ticket barriers I used to have a somewhat cunning method of avoiding buying tickets.

I used to travel between towns A and B every day, so I would buy a return ticket from A to B. Then when I was returning from B to A, I would buy a return ticket from B to A. Because the return portions of the ticket are valid for one month from the date of issue, I would then have two return portions covering both directions of my journey. If no tickets were checked and stamped I could use these for the full month safe in the knowledge that I did *have* a valid ticket if needed, so there was no chance of ever getting a fine. Of course if the tickets were checked 100% of the time, I still didn't lose anything as I'd paid for two return journeys and received two return journeys. Probably saved about £500 a month doing this since the return was £20 and they were almost never checked!

Reply 15

xoxAngel_Kxox

21

Original post by yothi5

Yes but you would be made to pay the ticket on top of the fine.

Okay then so it would have cost me £50 altogether. Still only just over a quarter of what I've paid this term.

Reply 16

stefl14

15

To the people who say they are scared of being checked and caught on the train, just pretend to be asleep. Works every time. It's a little sneaky but prices are extortionate these days!

Reply 17

eLECTROLOSIS

1

I pay every time...

but I resent the fact that they don't even bother to check for tickets more than half the time.

Reply 18

PapaShmurff

12

I used to do it because I could, frequently saved me £30 a journey, if an inspector ever came on he would just let me buy a ticket on the train.

Remember once when we had to get off the train for a replacement bus, was worried I was gonna be stranded but they let anyone get on the bus, free 40 minute coach trip for the win :lol: