So just what is happening at Snow Hill?

Readers of Rail 725 will have seen a sidebar by Christian Wolmar entitled 'A token effort to crack down on fare dodging'. In it he lambasts ATOC for the press release on fare dodging noting that the 'implication that operators are doing everything in their power to clamp down on fare dodging is hardly borne out by my experience'.

Now Christian is a Londoner so his experience tends to be very southern focussed. Alas, however, those of us who live in the West Midlands know his experience only too well.... Virgin Trains and +London Midland seem to have given up on revenue protection between Birmingham New Street and Coventry - Birmingham International and Coventry are truly 'open' stations and New Street often is - and now +London Midland seem to have given up on Birmingham Snow Hill routes.

Last Wednesday I tweeted a photo (below) of the open gates at Snow Hill at 10am in the morning. In response (not from @londonMidland 's official twitter account), it was suggested that the gate staff were on a 30 minute break... On Friday, at 10am, not only were the gates open but the booking office was closed... Again came the (unofficial) response about breaks...

Now once is just about believable but twice? So come on, +London Midland , at least make some effort to show that buying a ticket during the day is a worthwhile exercise (I won't start on the complete lack of revenue protection in the evenings or at weekends). As Christian says, it would be great if TOCs saw staff as being an essential pat of running the railway rather than as a cost which eats into their profits.