Andrea wrote:
I have travelled several times on the Silverlink Gospel Oak to Barking
service in the past fortnight. What has shocked me is the apparent
large-scale fare evasion on this route.

There is always a guard present on the train but he/she never
materialises to check tickets. I have heard dozens of people say that
they never buy tickets as there is no deterrent factor (many stations
are open and unstaffed, e.g. Leytonstone High Road). Access from the
overground to the underground at Blackhorse Road os open, so anybody
can access the underground without a ticket.

It really annoys me when Silverlink seems to be doing nothing about
this. Talking to several fare-paying regulars on this line,
ticketless travel is rife. Northbound trains in the morning also tend
to be cancelled, leaving many customers unable to board at
imtermediate stations, such as Leytonstone, due to the 2 carriage
train being full.

I hope tFL will take a hard line on the revenut side of things when
they take over this line later this year.

By shear coincidence I traveled on the line today, on the 1338 from
Barking. Not only did the guard check the tickets i overheard explain
that PAYG was not valid and a fare was required. He later asked someone
without any ticket to pay. When the person said he was unable to, the
guard watched him leave the train at the next station and made sure that
he didn't jump back on before the doors closed

Mike Roberts