Pretty dangerous to assume everyone will buy a ticket, just ‘cos they should! You need barriers or ticket inspectors + punishments at some point.

GWR have barriers at all the access points on most stations AFAIK, the occasions I’ve used the train recently I’ve bought my ticket via Trainline, which puts a QR Code onto my phone, which is scanned at the barrier, and cardboard tickets go into the slot. The barriers are all manned as well. That’s not to say all stations have that, the three I’ve used do, that’s Westbury on the single line down to Weymouth, and Chippenham and Bath on the main London-Bristol line. I’ve no reason to think that all the other stations are any different.

The trains do have a guard who checks tickets as well, digital and analog, but I can’t imagine many people manage to bypass the system.

Does anyone know if there are strikes planned in late Jan and early Feb?

I need to go to London for a few days for work

but I can’t imagine many people manage to bypass the system.

Just for balance, Sheffield doesn’t have barriers and it is rare that the tickets are checked on the train. I could buy a cheap ticket just to get through the barriers at the other end and it would probably stack up to cheaper than the occasional fine when they do spot checks in the station. I don’t though.

I think most Northern stations do not have barriers. A lot of the discussion is done though the perspective of people in the SE where they have a very different train infrastructure. Go to West Wales, rural Shropshire etc and it’s a very different set-up

Leeds does, Huddersfield does, Harrogate does but none of the smaller stations in between do. Checking on the train is sporadic at best, rare at rush hours.

Occasionally there were some ticket checkers at the small stations, but I don’t recall seeing any since covid kicked off.

most if not all of the stations on the main line Glasgow / Edinburgh do not have barriers.  Many of them no ticket offices either. tickets are usually checked on the train but on a busy service the guard does not always get to the end of the train.

With tickets/fares, the bigger issue is complexity, rather than fare-dodging. There must be over a hundred different combinations, even staff don’t know which is which.
it could be made much simpler, without greatly affecting revenue.

National Teacher strikes in Feb and March

Do they drive trains?

😜

New strikes on Feb 1st and 3rd

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64303591