Any evidence of ticket checking??

[whole diary]

[EBrown]

Sorry if my comment started a new thread.  Back to this one, what do frequent travellers on this route feel could /should be done.  Clearly the problems of non-paying travellers can only be handled by travelling ticket inspectors (TTI).  Clearly the TTI should have authority to deal with troublesome passengers in the same way that a guard (train manager, oh why did we abandon 'guard'?).  Someone above has posed that query - I must admit that I thought that, apart from telling the driver what to do, in the case of the guard, all railway employees had the same powers in this respect -anyone know?

All Guard's, Train Managers, Employees and Agents of Train Operating Companies have the God given right to forcibly eject people from trains, stations or anywhere else on the Railway network.

In an ideal world, Guards/TMs^▸ (Train Manager, or Ticket Machine, or Temple Meads (Bristol), depending on context) would get the offenders address and forward it to the relevant prosecuting department.
If they are a danger to other passengers on the train then they should be removed or isolated.

[JayMac]

... have the God given right to forcibly eject people from trains, stations or anywhere else on the Railway network.

Not sure it's a right granted by a monotheistic deity. It's a right granted under Section 219 of the Transport Act 2000 by the Strategic Rail Authority and confirmed under Schedule 20 of the Transport Act 2000 by the Secretary of State for Transport on 22 June 2005.

So that would be the distinctly non God-like figure of Alistair Darling, granted by Royal Assent in the name of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Some may argue she's God's representative on earth, but I think, as a constitutional monarchy, we've moved on from that idea just a bit.