| BIG TICKET: One of the
fare-dodger posters and, right, Northern Rail chief Alex Hynes
I JUST witnessed a train
fare-dodger getting away without paying on a train from New Street to Birmingham International on Saturday afternoon.
A CAR fanatic who never uses the train was cleared of being a
fare-dodger described as 5ft 4in - after magistrates saw he is 6ft.
AN Asian taxi driver suffered a fractured cheekbone in a racist attack by a
fare-dodger.
FARE-dodger busting staff who have reduced levels of ticketless travel in the West Midlands to their lowest ever have received official recognition for their efforts.
Police are hunting the
fare-dodger, who was about 17.
Turning away a youngster because of a damp ticket suggests an over-zealous approach to spotting
fare-dodgers. Cardiff Bus is entitled to clamp down on those who abuse its service.
A Central Trains crackdown on
fare-dodgers, which includes random checks and pounds 10 penalties, has slashed the problem by two thirds.
The embarrassing U-turn comes only three months after the Sunday Mercury revealed the company was abandoning its policy of hitting
fare-dodgers with pounds 10 fines.
FARE-DODGERS are being warned of extra patrols on the Metro during next week's Hoppings.
Just 3% of passengers now try to travel without a ticket after uniformed and plainclothes inspectors targeted specific routes, stations and times of day when
fare-dodgers were known to use trains.
Bosses from Nexus, which manages Metro, say the rate of
fare-dodgers has fallen from 10% to 4% since then and are welcoming the proposals.