When we boarded yesterday mornings 07:20, in addition to the usual crew. we found if staffed by a large number of 'Railway Enforcement Officers' dressed in florecent yellow jackets. Personally I'd never heard of or seen 'Railway Enforcement Officers' before so I was quite interested to find out what they were doing there.
I watched as they went from passenger to passenger checking tickets. But this wasn't an ordinary ticket check. Oh no. Whenever they came across a passenger with a season ticket (which at that time of day was most of them) they asked the person to remove the ticket and photo ID card from whatever wallet or container it was held in. They then proceeded to check both the ticket and ID card to see if it was a fake.
I've absolutely no problem with what they were doing. In fact I applaud it. What I thought was slightly out of order was the non existant explanation to us customers. All of us were perplexed as to what was going on and why. A few asked but none received and answer that I heard. I watched as one bloke was asked if he had any other forms of ID with him. His ID card was very old and not what I would call in a good state of repair. Luckily he had proof of ID and because his season ticket was valid and it matched his suspect ID card, they let him off. But let him off what exactly? Having a vaild ticket and matching but knackered ID card?
I've since learned that 1 enterprising individual from Peterborough has been caught during peak times traveling with a fake season ticket and ID card. As a direct result, NXEC opted for what now seems a slightly heavy handed response to a problem NXEC believed could have been rife. Well now they know it isn't. As far as I know they havent caught anyone else with a fake ticket or id. They did manage to find one fella on the 07:20 who was trying to avoid paying by hiding in the toilets. That said, had it been a usual morning I'm sure the guards would have caught him. The bloke did pay up but they still had BTP greet him at KX because they couldn't understand why he was trying to avoid paying when he had shed loads of cash on him.
