Transport User Voice May 2025 – Revenue protection experiences

30 April 2025

Out and about with Northern

One of the areas of rail travel that always drives a level of debate is revenue protection and fare evasion. Back in January, we published a set of recommendations to help passengers travel with confidence.   

As part of Transport Focus’ engagement with Northern Trains, we were recently out on the network to observe Revenue Officers. We shadowed two teams, on a journey from Doncaster to Sheffield, and then a trip from Sheffield to Leeds.   

During our conversations and observations on the day the Revenue Officers stressed the need to apply ‘common sense’, and that each passenger is treated on an individual basis fairly and consistently. This ability to use professional judgement aligns with our recommended ‘fairer approach’ to revenue protection that we called for back in January.  

One instance of professional judgement being used related to station infrastructure. While ticket machines were present, these were on rare occasions located on a distant platform. We observed a passenger being afforded the opportunity to buy a ticket on the train rather than facing a Penalty Fare, since the ticket machine was deemed to be too inaccessible for that passenger. This was a great example of meeting passenger’s individual needs and treating passengers fairly.  

While we are glad to see Revenue Officers applying professional judgement and common sense, this raises the potential problem of inconsistency and perceived unfairness.  Northern has recently rolled out training to try to address this consistency challenge, but this is inevitably a balancing act, due to the differing needs of every passenger.  

We will continue to engage with operators to further our knowledge of the passenger experience and the challenges facing the frontline teams that work hard to support them. 

Back to newsletter