Forum Topic

Shortfaring at Brentford and Chiswick

Was very interested to read about the crack down by South Western Railways on the practice of 'shortfaring'. The really amazing number was that they believed 95% of bar code tickets from Vauxhall to Waterloo were using this dodge. You don't have to use the station you are buying the ticket from as your departure point.It is annoying to know that about 1 in 20 of the people on a crowded train will not be paying the full fare but I have to admit I couldn't really think of an effective way for SWR to deal with this other than by putting on more inspectors.

Jeremy Parkinson ● 1d3 Comments

Checking people's tickets where they actually start their journey would seem an obvious thing to do/reinstate. If the train companies want to save money by not doing the basic checks, they can hardly complain when they discover how much they're losing.

Peter Evans ● 16h

I think you can purchase a ticket on your phone, then use the phone to pass through the ticket barrier at arrival.So in theory you can buy a ticket from Vauxhall to Waterloo from your home in say, Portsmouth, then use the phone to pass through Waterloo.  Ticket inspectors on the train may help, but on ultra crowded commuter trains ticket inspectors have small chance of catching fraudsters.Before the BR police come knocking,  I don't use BR anymore, and have a freedome pass if I need to go to London

James Roy ● 17h

Change ticket machines so that you can only purchase a ticket for departure from that station?

Felicity Caborn ● 1d