Arriva Train Service
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Posts
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Maybe i’m missing something, but I find this story shocking!
People should pay like everyone else, I hate fare dodgers. However if at the station you get on a train their is no option to buy a ticket, and no conductor roaming the train to purchase a ticked from then why should someone go looking for a conductor, especially if you have shopping or children with you.
Personally I hardly ever use the train, but I can imagine Arriva (and others) winging when profits turn to losses as more and more people stop using the train with attitudes like this.
Personally I would not give my details or sign anything, I would ask them to call the police and I would provide my details to them. If they then tried to physically restrain me I would dial 999 and report that I was being assaulted.
This is not a new thing, it was almost a given for the 5 years I was at Bryn Alyn ( 2005 – 2010) that almost 99% of the time, no one would come round checking for tickets, and there isn’t a ticket machine there anyhow.
The same thing happens (admittedly with less frequency) if you are travelling to ruabon.
It’s not a case of fare dodging, I’d personally attribute it to staff becoming complacent on the trains.I live in Gwersyllt and used to travel into Wrexham to work on the 8.30 train. There were usually around 25-30 people on the platform each morning, but we rarely saw a guard, so all would have had free rides. Multiply this by 5 days per week, and the company were loosing £125 or so just on this train. On later trains you were slightly more likely to have your fare taken – but again, usually didn’t. Makes me wonder how much the company were loosing each year in total! Wrexham Central, unlike Gwersyllt station, has a ticket machine on the station, but as £1 coins frequently got stuck, I was reluctant to use it!
I would be quite happy to pay the £1 (or £1.10 return). It’s excellent value compared to the extortionate bus fare – it’s twice the train return fare for a one way bus ticket – but don’t see how passengers can be blamed if the guards can’t be bothered to collect the money.
A friend of mine once asked a guard why we hardly ever saw a guard, and was told that they have to get off the train so quickly at Wxm General, so have to have ‘cashed up’ by the time they get to Gwersyllt.The company needs to get it’s own act sorted out before they start blaming customers!
Arriva is owned by DB, the German state owned rail operator, and yes they run most bus routes too.
All they’d need is to ensure machines are put in at every station that take coins, cash and card.
Then there’s no excuse for anyone to get on the train without paying.
Thanks
it’s of concern that they have the monopoly for the public transport of that area. How has this been allowed to happened? have prices gone up much in the last few years?
re: the train incident… if you were being cynical you could say that the ticket collector may have stayed in his cabin on purpose… makes more cash for arriva trains after all.
This is a prime example of why the Oyster Card, ( used throughout London ) should be implemented country wide, for those who do not know, you have a plastic card with a coil of wire and chip in it that stores your unique information in, you top up how ever much you want on it and you simply swipe in at the station you start at and swipe out as you exit when you arrive at your location.
I have used this for years and love it, you do not have to pay the conductors and revenue protection officers that very rarely show their faces check your card from where you joined the service, if the conductor is bored he will check your card but very very rare.
We need this system throughout the country and the same will happen here as it does in London, journeys are quicker and fewer fare dodgers.
I believe, there is a Welsh Oyster card in the works actually. Buses first, trains a few years later.
Will make it easier for certain.
Railway company employees do have powers to detain people.
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