Ticket Inspectors

[robbo82]

Is it me, or are train ticket inspectors really dumb? Today, entirely innocently, I showed one a ticket for the wrong day and the wrong station (I had the actual ticket in my other pocket), and she still stamped it. Do they ever actually bother checking?

[lia*]

was she wearing her glasses lol

seriously though, when you are honest you expect honesty from everyone. there are still some honest people out there

[kick3m0n]

I've travelled the very short (15 min) journey by train into Edinburgh with my son a few times in recent months. We always get our ticket from the machine before boarding. About 8 out of 10 times when the ticket inspector comes round, I reach to take it out of my purse and they just say, "oh Ok, as long as you've got one"...and don't even see it! Honest little lady that I am, I still buy a ticket every time we make the journey tho.

[Dom Tuk]

Its not just the case of looking at the ticket. Put yourself in the shoes of the checker. They check 100s of tickets every day. 365 days a year. You cannot put your fullest attention to every ticket. Your job is to catch the dodgers. After a few months in the job a checker can see a dodger as soon as they enter the carriage. Its experience, 6th sense call it what you will. So when the checker checks your ticket you have been eliminated as a dodger even before the checker reaches you. They go through the motions with you so that when the checker reaches the dodger he cannot say he is being picked upon. this is the way this works. the job is mundane but there is much more that the checker is doing mentally than just looking at your tickets. the idea is to trap the culprits and not give the good uns a hard time. So dont be too harsh. I dont check tickets, i check something else, at a higher volume and this is the way me and my colleagues work. the stakes are much much higher though.

[gary baldy]

What are the signs you look out for Dom so i can make sure not to show them next time i dodge!