Greedy train bosses secretly issue ticket inspectors ‘targets’ to fine passengers
Great Western Railway insists 28 customers are caught without a ticket every four weeks
GREEDY train bosses have secretly set ticket inspectors “targets” to fine passengers, The Sun can reveal today.
Great Western Railway insists 28 customers are caught without a ticket every four weeks.
Staff failing to reach the “expectation” have been put on three-month reviews.
Abellio Greater Anglia demands staff issue three fines a day and prosecute a passenger every two days.
Almost a fifth of both firms’ trains were more than five minutes late in November and December, figures show.
It follows protests at 100 railway stations over a 2.3 per cent hike in fares, the biggest since 2014.
One Great Western inspector said: “We’re fleecing passengers.
“Often people can’t get tickets because the machine isn’t working or they are running late.
“Now we are being forced to look for excuses to fine them.”
The Campaign for Better Transport said setting quotas penalised those making errors when buying tickets.
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Will Quince MP - of the Commons Transport Committee - was so furious when contacted he immediately wrote to Transport Secretary Chris Grayling asking for a meeting.
Mr Quince told The Sun: "This simply isn't good enough.
"There's no question this is a slap in the face for passengers and it's totally unacceptable.
"Discretion should be used on a line where people pay huge amounts of money - in some cases thousands of pounds - just to get to and from work."
Great Western said it did not “incentivise staff to issue customers with fines or prosecution notices”.
A Greater Anglia spokesperson said: "We do set company targets for reducing the percentage of fare dodgers and we do manage and monitor the performance of ticket inspectors.
"However, we aim to strike a sensible balance that both gives inspectors discretion and minimises fare evasion."