Quote:
Originally Posted by grainne whale
It is obviously some time since you have travelled by train in UK or Europe, where from what I can see nobody evades train fare as there are checkers on board. IR (management and some staff) are very confrontational as regards passengers, they do need to change their attitude, it's very much a them and us situation, they are lagging behind the rest of Europe by 15 years. I have yet to see thugs (Stasi) at any station in UK or Europe when disembanking from a train.
PS I mentioned that I was an annual ticket holder, just to put you at ease that I was not a fare evader.
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I'm pretty certain that France (for example) has a much higher rate of fare evasion than Ireland. This is especially true on commuter services such as the metro and the RER where I would put fare evasion at anything between 33% and 50%. (In certain stations I got funny looks when I was buying a ticket). On SNCF trains it's not as high but it's still a big problem. On TGV's, you're 99.9% likely to be checked (I have traveled a few times on TGV without being checked). On regional trains, it's hit and miss. There is usually a controller on board, but they don't always check tickets. Again, I traveled quite a few times on regional trains without being checked.
You get the same "them and us" attitude over there as well. I did encounter some incredibly rude SNCF staff while in France, equally as rude as the IR equivalent. And while they might not have STS over there, they do have the amry patrolling alot of the major stations in France these days and I would find them more intimidating than STS.