[NSW] Fare evasion (sort of)

["Dave Proctor" <daproc@spambait.ozemail.com.au>]

Wednesday night, the 0120 train from Katoomba (well, it was from Mt. Vic,
but it was out of Katoomba at 0120) was declared a failure at Springwood. 42
passengers rocked up to the Station Master (oops, Station Manager), who
asked where everyone was going. 20 to Central, 21 to places between
Kingswood and Redfern, 3 to Penrith and 1 to Emu Plains.

He then asked for tickets - only four (including me) had them - so we caught
a cab to Penrith (just what I needed after sitting in a cab for 12 hours!) -
the rest had to wait for the next train.

If this is the level of fare evasion being undertaken (and none of them were
tourists and able to plead ignorance) would it have been worthwhile putting
some Revenue Protection staff out there? 4 out of 45 with tickets is a
pretty pathetic ratio.

Dave