Tickets Please

Nostalgia is a terrible disease that runs right through the railways.  "Oooh, it was better in the old days!" is a curse.  There is always someone to point at steam trains, or third class tickets, or British Rail, or train doors you have to hang out the window to open, and say "that's so much better than what we have now".  You can sit on an air-conditioned, electric train, almost silent as it glides along, with power sockets and tables, and there will still be a railway fan who will say "I used to like it when you could open the window to hear the screech of the rails and choke on the diesel fumes.  Bring that back!"

This post is going to come with a tinge of nostalgia, and I apologise in advance.  But I'm using that nostalgia as a way of asking a question about Merseyrail's future.  My question is: what happened to all the ticket collectors?

When I first moved to the north - bloody hell - thirty odd years ago, I lived in Ormskirk.  Every time a train pulled onto the platform there, a man would appear at the exit and politely collect your ticket.  

When I first started visiting the BF via Birkenhead Park - bloody hell - twenty-nine years ago, a man would appear at the top of the ramp and collect your ticket as you passed.  

It was a simple and effective way of enforcing ticket sales.  I remember distinctly seeing scallies turn round and get on the next train out of Birkenhead Park because they couldn't produce a little orange card.  

Last Bank Holiday Monday, I went to New Brighton, and at the exit there were some ticket enforcement officers who stopped everyone as we went through.  And they were managing to collect a fair few dodgers in the process.  So it is still possible to do it.  There seems to be no appetite, however.

You can, basically, ride Merseyrail for free.  You're gambling on there not being inspectors on the train but I very rarely get my ticket checked.  I'd guess about once every ten journeys.  If you're not going to Liverpool, Birkenhead (Conway Park and Hamilton Square) or Southport - where there are barriers - you can get away with not paying.  How is this still a thing?  Why aren't there barriers everywhere?

I get that they're expensive, of course, and some stations would need a major reconfigure to be able to accommodate them.  There's also the issue of having a member of staff there to assist.  Other railway companies across the world have managed it.  San Francisco's Bart has recently finished installing them, and they've discovered that not only has revenue been protected, but also vandalism and anti-social behaviour at the stations and on the trains has gone down.  The network has become a sealed unit only for people with a ticket.  

And if you're not going to put barriers in, well, how about bringing back the bloke at the exit? It was actually a good idea.  It actually worked.  It might also stop me and other law-abiding citizens feeling like a mug when we pay for our ticket and never get checked. 

(Yes the bloke at Birkenhead Park was a bit fit and it was always a pleasure to see him but that's not what this is about ok?  Besides he'll be pushing sixty by now).