|
As a TTI (albeit on a preserved line) I feel well enough informed to answer your comments. First of all the primary reason for having TTIs (or conductors, if you prefer to use that term) is to protect the revenue of the railway. Therefore, a TTI is perfectly justified to ask for those who haven't bought a ticket to identify themselves if he or she feels that by doing so they will be able to better serve the interests of the railway. To elaborate, if there is limited time, surely it is wiser to recieve the fares of honest passengers, who other wise may disembark before being able to purchase a ticket, than it would be to thoroughly check the tickets of many passenger on the off chance that you would find a fare evader who was dishonest enough to not mention it. As with regards to the dates, you'd be amazed at how soon you can pick up ways of checking thinks very quickly. On the East Lancs the dates are printed on the reverse of the tickets, but the ticket types are colour coded. For instance, an adult full line return is yellow, whilst a family ticket is white. As for the correct way to progress through the train, I was trained to always do it from front to back as this is the most methodical.
Adam
|