TRAVEL for FREE!
Don't buy a ticket

The transport companies' adverts try to feed us the idea that bunking your fares is morally wrong. The idea that other passengers will have to pay increased fares to subsidise you has been pushed for years with limited success. Of course, this doesn't make sense - the privatised train companies are told every year by their watchdog how much they are allowed to increase their prices, based on the quality of service they have shown to provide.

The tube, though f**ked financially, isn't able to increase prices as a response to faredodging, either. Predictably, it depends on market forces. It charges as much as it reasonably can without provoking an insurrection among the commuters who it really does depend on for funding. So when train companies claim that other passengers have to subsidise faredodgers, they're lying.

As for morals, most can see that it's wrong for large corporations to buy up OUR public transport and then sell it back to US at an increased price. Bunking public transport is often more practical (and a lot cheaper) than paying for it and is OUR way of fighting back (and saving money). Maybe it won't halt the privatisation in its tracks, but we certainly have no moral duty to pay these robber barons for what we've done.

TRAINS		HOW TO BUNK

Trains are one of the easiest methods of transport to travel on for free, guards often don't check for tickets and when they do they aren't really that thorough.

HIDING On large trains (8 or more carriages) you can often get away with sitting in the front of the train, as the guard gets on the back at the train's terminus. If you don't think this will work you can hide in the toilet but guards have been known to call the police to remove you. You can sometimes get away with waiting till you see the guard coming to check for tickets and then hiding in the toilet and not locking the door (so the guard assumes the toilet is empty).

SEASON TICKETS If you have a season ticket you can usually get away with flashing it at the guards. As guards don't punch season tickets all they usually do is look at it briefly, this means you can travel huge distances on a small local ticket. Sometimes just saying "I have a season ticket" and reaching into your pockets to try and find it is enough.

REFUSING TO PAY You need to decide which side of the law to place yourself on, before the inspector's questions lead you into a trap. The difference is: If you INTENDED to avoid paying for your ticket, you've commited a criminal offence and the company can ask the police to investigate and the CPS to prosecute you. What is more likely is that the company will bring it's own private prosecution against you (suing you for damages). 

If you meant to buy a ticket, or lost your ticket, or intended to pay, but the ticket office wouldn't accept your cheque, you can still be charged the penalty fare, but getting the money from you is a civil matter and is rarely persued. The only cases where you cannot be charged a penalty fare when caught without a ticket, are certain lines, or if there was no way to pay at the station, ie, the ticket office was closed AND the machine wouldn't accept your money AND there was no Permit to Travel machine. To avoid a Penalty fare, you'll still need to get a ticket when you get caught.

Refusing to pay requires care if you don't want to fall on the wrong side of the law. I have succeded in the past, on a line where Sunday trains were cancelled in a majority of cases, in refusing to pay UNTIL I successfully reached my destination - after all - if the journey was wasted, why should I have to pay for it?

Generally, refusing to pay involves claiming to have no money, in which case, some inspectors will write you out a penalty fare and some will just take your name and address and leave the company to decide whther to prosecute.

Often, inspectors will try to keep you hanging around top answer their banal questions. They will read you a caution, in an attempt to make you think they have the powers of police officers. THEY DON'T.

If you did not INTEND to travel without a ticket, but if you do not have one when caught, the BR Byelaws of 1889 state that you must give your name and address.

You don't have to do anything else - you don't have to explain yourself, you don't have to give your date of birth, you don't have to sign anything, and you don't have to hang around until they say you can go. Keeping you there after this point is False Imprisonment.

Step 1: Make it clear no criminal offence has taken place, by explaining that you did not mean to evade your fare.
Step 2: Tell them your name and address and that they may bill you for the fare.
Step 3: Explain that you have fulfilled what the law says you have to, that you want to leave, that keeping you there is false imprisonment.

BLOCKS At busy train or tube stations, or at busy tube interchanges, inspector's will quite happily cause huge queues as they check in detail everyone's tickets. Blocks are the biggest problem, as when there are a gang of inspectors, they have less qualms about breaking the law. Be especially careful of tube inspectors, as it appears LUL trains them to report false assaults against and to escape charges of assault themselves. If you witness tube inspectors at a block, and have a camera, it is always worth filimng or snapping them for evidence. Police officers are often present at blocks. They can be helpful as, if you already know the law and make a show of cooperating and only refusing the unreasonable; they can get the situation resolved quickly. The problem with police officers is that, if they have any grounds for searching you, they could find your illegal stuff, the money that you claimed not to have, or your genuine IDs.

London Underground have recently used the excuse that muggers often faredodge to get the police to help them block the four Soho tube stations, ingnoring the fact that if a mugger was successful, he will have the money and the inclination to buy a ticket to escape quickly, whereas if he's on his way to a mugging, how would the police know? 

BARRIERS In their quest to empty your pockets as much as they can the train companies have now installed barriers at some major stations. The easiest way to get round them is to scout out the station and see if there is an alternative exit (most of these large stations have lots of exits). If you find that there aren't any and you have to go through the barriers you can try showing an old ticket (or a season ticket) at the gates that usually accompany the barriers. If this isn't going to work then you should buy a "Young Persons" ticket to the nearest station from the machine, if you use a child ticket then the barriers will beep as you go through but "Young Persons" tickets don't. If you aren't prepared to pay at all and are feeling confident then you can use the "follow through" method. This is where you follow somebody with a ticket through the barriers:

It's good to have a ticket in your hand and make it look like you've fed it to the machine. (Don't actually put it in, though. The gates will close when the machine gets an invalid ticket).

The barriers have one pair of light beam sensors on the entrance half and one on the exit half. The barriers open. The 'customer' walks through and breaks the light beam. You need to keep this light beam broken, so the machine thinks that you are both one person. It's similar with the second light beam, which the 'customer' breaks on the way out of the barrier. Once broken, as soon as nothing is obstrucing this beam, the gates will close. The beeping you hear is when the actual gates are obstructed in closing, but, of course, your aim is to keep the gates open, rather than obstruct them anyway.

As far as the machine is concerned:

Both light beams clear (there's no-one in the barrier already) Someone inserts a valid ticket, so open the gate. The first light beam is broken. Once cleared, if this beam is broken again, close the gate. The second light beam is broken. Once cleared, close the gate.


WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET CAUGHT

BUYING A TICKET The best thing to do if you get caught is just buy the cheapest ticket you can (a child single from the last station) REMEMBER bunking the train can be a criminal offence so if you know there are cops on the train or a transport police station nearby it isn't really a good idea to kick up a fuss about buying a ticket (unless you know what you're doing). If you don't have any money there is a chance you'll have to pay a £10 fine NEVER GIVE YOUR REAL ADDRESS to a ticket inspector!

If you are arrested give your name and address (date of birth if you are under 21) and then say "no comment" to any other questions until you get a solicitor (don't use the duty one).

ADDRESS VERIFICATION Most ticket inspector have a phone link to a centre with access to all the UK's electoral register (voter's roll) records. If you don't have any ID or anything with your name and address on it (why should you? This is Britain, noone says you have to), this is what they'll use to check your asddress for penalty fares or court summonses.

Until recently, every household would tell the council where they lived in the middle of October. This would then appear on a draft register, and on the full register in mid-February. The train companies then bought access to each of the February registers. Regardless of your current address, the only address they would be able to verify is the one that you lived at in October of last year.

Some enterprising liars could get round the system, as whatever time of year it is, if you have only lived at your address for four months, you won't show up on the register. Others just visited the library and picked an alias from the register. (Remeber this is more illegal than plain faredodging!)

However, a legal ruling in late 2001 questioned the legality of selling electoral register details to private companies, so it looks like access to the Feb 2002 has been restricted to the public. Whether they will have to use the 2001 register, or whether the new excuse is "I've told the council not to sell on my details, so they wouldn't show up", we don't know.

LONDON BUSES		HOW TO BUNK

You can often get away with showing an old travelcard. The main thing is don't look as if you're covering up the date or trying not to show them the card. They see so many Travelcards a day, it's hard to check them all, but if looks like you think they don't know how to check tickets, they might taking personal offence. It's much better to be honest and take your chances.

This leaflet was written and produced by the Anarchist Youth Network and friends:

Anarchist Youth Network
Address: c/o 84b, Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7QX 
Telephone: 07814 629780
Website: http://www.anarchistyouth.net
Email: info@anarchistyouth.net
Discussion list: younganarchos-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

(*_*) anti-copyright 2002