Forget the fines - they should pay us to travel

THIS MORNING at Camden Town tube station in north London, all three ticket machines were out of commission and only one window was open.

Never had I seen such a queue at this station - more than 30 people standing patiently (nobody was foaming or stamping or screaming). I wondered what London Transport would make of this situation come 4 April 1994 - when spot fines for travelling without a ticket come into effect? Will three inoperative ticket machines and a half-hour wait be grounds enough to justify travelling without a valid ticket, or is it just tough luck? Should one expect to queue for half an hour in order to travel for 10 minutes? I would hope that if I dared travel sans ticket, I would not be spot-fined, but wager I would be.

A multi-thousand-pound publicity campaign has been reminding us for months that as of 4 April 'customers' (ie, passengers) travelling without a ticket will have to pay a pounds 10 spot fine if they are caught by ticket inspectors. The ads infer that cheaters are abusing the system and making legitimate passengers subsidise their thievery. ('Do you want people riding for free while you pay? We thought not]' bellow the posters.)

Fare dodgers allegedly cost the London public transport system pounds 30m a year. But it is remarkable to assume that cheats will have their tenners a-ready for the inspectors, or provide accurate addresses and identities. Is the campaign aimed at fare dodgers, or really at the hurried masses: the forgetful who might let their Travelcard lapse unwittingly, or the usually law-abiding citizen who, frustrated by the shoddy service, may stretch the rules just a wee bit.

The fare system in this country is complex to say the least. Paris and New York have fixed fares, no matter how far you travel. How much easier to control and how much more difficult to cheat.

True, travelling one stop hardly seems worth as much as travelling clear across town, but that's what public transport is all about: transporting the masses at affordable costs. The discrepancy in fares can certainly be compensated by the saving in fare printouts, calculations, rules and regulations.

London Transport is open to suggestions. In preparation for its statement of strategy for the next year, it has recently published a pamphlet entitled Help Plan London's Public Transport, in which it invites contributions on topics such as 'How can trains and stations be improved? Where is this needed most?'

In early January I lodged a complaint with London Transport concerning a refund request I had made. I have not yet received a reply. When I rang in February to inquire about progress on my complaint, inspired by the new, improved notices on the new, improved refunds for the new, improved Citizen's Charter, my call was answered immediately and a cheerful young lady informed me I shouldn't expect a response for several months. Customer Services, she said, was still processing complaints from November, which it hoped to clear by the end of the month.

So here is a suggestion for London Transport: that it institutes, as a gesture of understanding for the 'customers' who have been subjected year after year to diminished services, ever-increasing fares and journey terminations, Customer Charter Guaranteed Spot Refunds.

It seems only fair that if fare dodgers have to pay up immediately, then journey delayers, meeting missers and rendezvous wreckers should do likewise.

Journey delayed by more than 15 minutes: march straight up to the excess fares window and demand money back. Train stops inexplicably at distant, out-of-the-way station and guard simply roars 'All change] All change]' without the courtesy of an explanation: insist on cab fare. Trains come and go at busy junction without any information as to which train is leaving first or going where: order complimentary Travelcard. Ticket machines broken, 30 people in a queue: travel for free. Citizen's Charter beware: it's the LT Delayed 'Customer' Charter revolution. Thieves and cheats? Who's who in the underground and who's on the penalty spot?