The other side to the job

Outside of the railway some people see the job of conductor as desirable. If your into trains or the railway in general then I can see how it might suck you in.

However let me tell you about one of the bad bits. The passengers!! (Not all of you)!!
I should probably word it better, what I mean is the fare dodgers. (Who technically are stow-aways not passengers!!)

Now fare dodgers fall into two categories.
1. The type who just goto the front or hide hoping by chance the wont get caught but who will happily pay up if caught.
2. Arrogant rude folk (stronger words available on request) who think the railway is a free service and have no intention of paying.

There are also several sub categories of these passengers but that is the main descriptions sorted.

Anyways onto the story and we find ourselves on a 7pm(ish) trip towards Wilmslow via Stockport. The unit is a 323 and we're doing all stops. The train is lightly loaded so I'm through to the front coach as we arrive at Levenshulme.

I use the centre coach door controls to open and close the doors, a few get off and no one gets on. We continue and I storm down the front coach (noting that the toilet has been occupied since Picc) and am finished with the check well in advance of Heaton Chapel.

At Heaton Chapel quite a few get off and two gents get on at the front. Again I'm doing the doors at the middle and as we draw out of the station I hear the toilet door open and note a large gent scuttle off to the seats at the front.
I find the two gents who got on at 'the chapel' both have evening returns purchased from the TVM. I then find our large friend at the front. He's clearly intoxicated (you can smell it) and he asks me for an Evening return. I humour him and ask him his origin and destination. He tells me he boarded at Heaton Chapel and is going to Stockport. I ask him again where he got on and suggest that he might have got on at Piccadilly. He reluctantly agrees and I reveal the fare for a 'Anytime single' to Stockport. At this point he argues he wants an evening return and I remind him he needs to buy one of those before he gets on the train. He hands over the £3.40 I issue the ticket and we part company.

At Stockport we load 6 passengers. 4 in the middle and two young lads I recognise as having passes in the front. I quickly check the 4 middle tickets (2 passes, 1 already had one and a sell a single to Handforth.)

Through to the front and the two lads who got on used to be prolific fare dodgers on one of our other lines but got caught and fined and now have weekly passes! I quickly realise that they are travelling in the wrong direction though and tell them to get off at Cheadle Hume and return to Picc on the stopper. I then notice our large friend still sat at the front, he laughs at me I ask him where he is going and he says Wilmslow. I tell him the price for a anytime single to Wilmslow from Stockport and he argues he still wants an evening return. I politely offer him the choice of being reported for fare evasion or the fare and he reluctantly hands over just short of £4 again! This time though he stands up and squares up to me. He tells me he's 'watching me' and he'll 'get me' I tell him to sit down and warn him not to be aggressive or I will ask him to leave the train. As I walk away from him he shouts down the train 'I going to f**king hit you when I get off you fat t**t'.
This is the final straw because I'm currently listening to this stood next to a young family with children around the 5-7 year old mark.
I walk back to him and very calmly tell him that I am now refusing him further travel and that he should leave the train at Cheadle Hulme. He comes back at me with a tirade of abuse so I tell him the train is going no further than Cheadle and the police will be called. I then walk away leaving him to mutter to himself.

At Cheadle Hulme I open up from the middle, the young two lads jump off and run for the foot bridge but our fare dodging friend does not appear. I look up the BTP emergency number in my phone and have it ready dialled in just incase. I approach the front doors and ask him to get off. He starts shouting abuse again but starts to get off. On the platform I walk backwards towards my door controls as the man throws his bag to the floor in a threatening manner. I'm not intimidated by him at all but it's not nice for the other pax (especially the kids) to see so I make haste and quickly close the doors. As we leave he starts shouting about how clever I am and he'll just wait for the next train!

I promptly set the train off thinking 'enjoy your hours wait chief!' then ring control to send out a email to all the other conductors to tell them not to let him board! That'll teach him! (It probably won't but at least he's waiting at least an hour for the next one or inconvenienced by having to find alternate travel arrangements and he's already paid his full fare!)

I should probably add that conductors getting this sort of abuse are rare. Most are easily calmed and agree to pay the fare or sometimes if a genuine reason is given I will use my discretion and let them travel a couple of stops for free (any further and they get the choice of an unpaid fare notice or get off.) In the last 12 months its only happened twice to me and the last one got a nice 2 hour wait at Ashley on a Sunday!

That's it for now hope that didn't rant on to long but thought I'd try and blog a bit more now I seem to have established a small following!

Thanks for your support

The guard!