ScotRail in major shake-up amid huge drive to nail fare dodgers

SCOTRAIL is hiring 42 new staff to nail fare dodgers on the railways.

The train operator is creating 42 new ‘Revenue Protection Officer’ roles to reduce ticket fraud, estimated to cost them around £2million every year.

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A pilot scheme has already been created to locate those who have failed to pay the proper price for a ticket.

The ticket scanners, called T-Val, are white boxes manned by an officer which scan barcodes and mobile tickets to help reduce the time passengers have to wait for manual checks.

The devices have been in place at some stations and identify those who have paid the correct fare.

Those with valid tickets will be able to pass through gates as normal.

Any tickets flagged as being invalid will be signposted to the Revenue Protection Officers.

They will ask passengers for additional information, for example to see their rail card, and check the tickets are okay and then passengers are free to go.

But, those found travelling on an invalid ticket will have their details taken and will be charged the correct fare.

And they could potentially face a further investigation and could even be referred to British Transport Police.

Tickets deemed to be invalid could be because:

• The ticket isn’t valid for a particular journey
• A passenger has bought it with a rail card and may need to show it
• An adult customer is travelling on a child’s ticket
• The customer is claiming to be on a ‘short-hop’ journey when they are on a longer one i.e buying a ticket from a station closer to the final destination when a passenger got on at an earlier stop
• The customer is travelling from a station that is staffed where they could have bought a ticket but chose not to and have since bought them minutes before arriving at their final destination .

The scheme has been piloted in Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Central, Glasgow Queen Street, Croy, High Stree, Rutherglen and Paisley Canal stations.

And ScotRail are urging people to buy before they board via the app, website, a ticket machine or through a ticket office.

Phil Campbell, ScotRail Head of Customer Operations, said:  “Tackling ticket fraud has always been a priority for ScotRail. 

“It’s a small minority of passengers who deliberately try to avoid paying the proper fare but it’s honest, fare-paying passengers who bear the burden of lost investment in Scotland’s Railway. 

“The 42 new Revenue Protection Officers will be deployed around the rail network working from first trains to last. 

“Those roles will really help support front line colleagues with ticket irregularity, fraud, and any difficult situations.  

“We are determined to drive down ticketless travel, making the rail network a safer and more secure environment for customers and colleagues alike.” 

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