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Post by nickf on Apr 17, 2010 16:36:14 GMT
This is probably the dumbest question to be asked for a while, but here goes. I was up in London from Sussex yesterday (Friday 16th April) and although disappointed at not finding the streets paved with gold I did find that when I joined the DLR at Canary Wharf and disembarked at Cutty Sark there was no barrier or means of checking whether whether I had a ticket. I had a Travelcard anyway so it was all paid for, but this lack of checking makes me ask....is travel on the DLR free?
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Post by norbitonflyer on Apr 17, 2010 16:57:38 GMT
PAYG users are supposed to swipe your Oyster card on the readers on the platform on arrival and departure from the system. Tickets are checked, and penalty fares issued, by the train captains, but on a 3car set you only have a one in three chance of them finding you.
Similarly with bendy bus (all door entry) - you swipe the card or risk being caught by an insepctor.
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Post by nickf on Apr 17, 2010 18:39:52 GMT
Aha! All is clear. Thanks.
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Post by suncloud on Apr 21, 2010 7:07:08 GMT
Tickets are checked, and penalty fares issued, by the train captains, but on a 3car set you only have a one in three chance of them finding you. You have a 1 in 3 chance of being on the same unit as the captain, and they will tend to be in the leading unit slightly more i'd imagine. I don't think I've had my ticket checked on that regular basis. I think I have seen inspectors conducting 'exit-blockades' more often on the dlr than LU... |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2010 23:26:37 GMT
The other weekend I travelled from Limehouse to Canary Wharf and had my Oyster card checked by the train captain. Dont travel that often on the DLR, but have never experienced this in the past so assume these days they are checking tickets more often as people are less likely to avoid paying on the DLR due to lack of staff and gates  |
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Post by davidp on Apr 22, 2010 8:20:42 GMT
The other weekend I travelled from Limehouse to Canary Wharf and had my Oyster card checked by the train captain. Dont travel that often on the DLR, but have never experienced this in the past so assume these days they are checking tickets more often as people are less likely to avoid paying on the DLR due to lack of staff and gates I presume you mean " more likely to avoid paying .." ? There did seem to be a time during the worst of the disruption caused by the upgrade work when you'd never see a Train Captain (or Passenger Service Agent as they are being called this week) because they'd be stuck at the front with the train being in 'LDP' mode (which I presume means Lead Driving Position?). But since February, I've had my ticket checked more than 50% of the times that I've travelled on the DLR. A few weeks ago, I witnessed a team of revenue inspectors checking tickets on board and catching a good few people without valid tickets. It was also noticeable how many people got on the train, saw the inspectors and then suddenly got straight back off again. |
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Post by jswallow on Apr 22, 2010 10:08:52 GMT
Why the sarcastic remark? They've been called Passenger Service Agents for several years now.
It makes sense to have roving teams of inspectors though nowadays, just because there's such a small chance to be checked by a PSA nowadays.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2010 10:37:13 GMT
Having known the DLR for some time I can say :
Single unit days (long ago), 90% likelihood of check.
Twin unit times (recent years), about 20% likelihood.
Triple unit (most recently, also asked the people in the office who use them), never yet checked on one.
Nowadays you are also far more likely to be checked on the eastern lines than on Bank to Canary Wharf.
The train crews I have discussed it with are also very critical of the approach of the revenue squads, they say that the crew have good understanding of whether the passengers are proper fare dodgers, who get done, or those less regular travellers who don't understand the system, and who they put off at the next station to get a ticket; this applies particularly to overseas visitors who have just arrived at City Airport. The revenue squads are described by the crews as "wanting to do every passenger on the system if they could".
The original approach was not so much revenue protection as to give passengers on a system with no staff at the stations a feel that there were staff around, making contact with everyone and keeping an eye on things. Somewhere along the way this seems to have been lost.
I wish it was this consistent and I could instruct our visitors straightforwardly where the Oyster readers are. Some (like on the Beckton extension) are right at the foot of the stairways, there is nothing up at platform level. Others, like Tower Gateway, are right up at the platform entrance. A number of the visitors to our house either hunt around for one at the foot of the stairway at Tower Gateway, because that is where I showed them it is when they were departing from our local station, or fail to touch out because they do not see it on exit and get fined the £4 (which the history of our visitors Oyster is littered with). I do not understand why the DLR Oyster readers are mounted sideways, and to one side of the passenger flow, where the tube ones are mounted head-on to you when entering the gateline. Without a doubt the most hidden ones are at City Airport, just where there is a maximum of unfamiliar passengers.
Those ones down at ground level are particularly aggravating because you can touch in and then get up to the platform and find the service suspended, and there is nothing you can then do to overcome the £4 loss.
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