1978 Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 1. The mature conductor asked to see the ticket. 2. The young lad produced a ticket for a journey in the opposite direction. 3. A heated discussion took place. 4. An unknown passenger pulls out their phone and starts filming. 5. Another burly passenger took it upon himself to assist the elderly conductor to eject the lad. 6. Lad tried to get back on and was firmly rebuffed. There are many facts we don't know that will need to be considered by the court/s, and by Scotrail who ran the service. It has been suggested the train was held at Linlithgow for 10 minutes before the lad was ejected. It might have been 7 or 8 minutes, or even 12. The video suggests other passengers were getting fed up. We have been told the train was travelling from Edinburgh to Perth, and that the lad boarded at Polmont, was going to Edinburgh Park (a journey of 17 minutes), and was thrown off at Linlithgow. The timetable gives 12 minutes to Linlithgow and a further 5 to Polmont. He had an outbound ticket and said he'd been sold two tickets for the outward journey, rather than an outward and return. That doesn't sound very likely, but with the ticket he did have it should be fairly easy to track back at Polmont to find what he was sold at the same time. I suspect he made a genuine mistake, and threw away the wrong ticket after travelling in the morning. He compounded his probable error by getting abusive and then not being given an adequate escape route by the conductor. That is the bit we haven't seen and can only be the subject of our opinions. I've not been accused of travelling without a valid ticket for very many years, and I was wrong, and paid up. I have heard conductors accuse others and they can sometimes appear quite rude, arrogant, and lacking in sympathy. In many cases I would have sided with the passenger if that were the issue, and other passengers would have too. Which is where we don't know the full story here. We may have missed over 5 minutes of the tale. The other passengers didn't. Big Man got a round of applause from passengers who would have been familiar with the line and the ticketing arrangements. It has been suggested that British Transport police should have been alerted to pick up the miscreant at the next station. Many smaller stations have no staff of any sort in the evenings. British Transport police would probably have had to travel from Edinburgh, about 40 minutes away on a good day if there was anyone free, when the lad would have been getting off in 5 minutes! Not really practical. This is, of course, not a Sheffield topic. However, many travellers in and around Sheffield frequently travel without payment. Passengers from Sheffield to Meadowhall should buy a ticket before travel. I'm sure quite a few don't, and frequently tickets aren't checked. There are 3 trains from Dore to Sheffield between 8 and 8.30 each morning. There's no ticket machine currently at Dore (about to be installed any day) and there's less than a 50% chance that the conductor will issue a ticket before arrival in Sheffield on any of these trains - there isn't time. Many of the people who use unstaffed stations don't pay because there's no ticket machine to use. Sadly, a few take advantage and don't pay anyway, hoping they'll get away with it. (Which is why we have the Sheffield station bridge dispute ongoing!) All in all, the lesson to be learned is that we can all make mistakes, students, conductors - and Big Man, who must be wishing he'd taken the earlier train! Lawyers will now have a field day, and the media will be licking their lips of more excitement. Video phone man keeps well out of all this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandad.Malky Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 1978 – You are far too sensible for this merry-go-round ………. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnvqsos Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 1978 – You are far too sensible for this merry-go-round ………. Good luck. Has that bloody train arrived yet-this is getting tedious! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spooky3 Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 and Big Man, who must be wishing he'd taken the earlier train! What a stomach turner! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxman Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Video phone man keeps well out of all this. He was on breakfast news a couple of mornings ago. He implied that the passenger had been badmouthing and abusing the conductor for a number of minutes which was why he started filming. His agenda, if he had one, was that scrotes shouldn't badmouth authority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandad.Malky Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 Has that bloody train arrived yet-this is getting tedious! Too right ......... especially for those that have contributed to the thread rather than jumping in right at the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resident Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 There are 3 trains from Dore to Sheffield between 8 and 8.30 each morning. There's no ticket machine currently at Dore (about to be installed any day) and there's less than a 50% chance that the conductor will issue a ticket before arrival in Sheffield on any of these trains - there isn't time. Sheffield <-> Meadowhall is another popular one for people getting on and not paying even though there are ticket offices at both. I used to travel on the Sheffield-Leeds regularly and often saw people ready with wallets & purses only to arrive at Meadowhall before the conductor arrived at their seats so they get off with paying. There are 2 ways that I can see to combat it but unfortunately it's a matter of cost to the company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandad.Malky Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 There are 2 ways that I can see to combat it but unfortunately it's a matter of cost to the company. All they need to do is put ticket barriers at Sheffield but that’s another story, what is your second idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mossdog Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 No case to answer really!.............as soon as the abusive language starts spewing out to someone doing their job, the boot should go in in,(straight between the legs preferably) good old fashioned medicine that invariably always worked. I think the scroat got off lightly...........after all we all know he was trying to cheat the system which we all end up paying more for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeX Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 Very witty you and headingnorth will be putting Cyclone out of a job but I think you will find that on the train the conductor is responsible for administering the rules of the private organisation that you mentioned he is also responsible for the safety of the passengers and if he thinks that someone should get off that’s how it is ………. You can call that what you want. right so you have conceded that the conductor is not the law in a round about kind of way. Now we just need to ascertain how this youth was endangering the safety of other passengers with is language alone. Can you tell us all how bad languages is a safety hazard to other passengers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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